Alumna Blends Professional and Personal Passions

Linda Gadsby ’88 was five when she moved with her family from Barbados to the Bronx.

A studious girl who devoured books, the future 2025 Alpern Award recipient’s imagination was ignited by spending a lot of time in the library, setting her on a lifelong journey of diving into numerous and varied activities. To wit, her roles at NBME, the National Board of Medical Examiners, are senior vice president, general counsel and chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer.

Gadsby excelled in debate and oratory competitions in middle school and in mock trials at Stuyvesant, New York City’s premier science and math high school. She also ran track and was co-captain of the cheerleading squad. She played basketball through middle school, but when she wanted to play in high school, her friends encouraged her to find another way to fulfill her love of the game – “My friends found my plan hilarious because I’m five feet tall.” So, she became the manager of the boys’ basketball team.

Based on her academic achievements, the expectation was that she would become an engineer or a doctor.

“I didn’t like the sight of blood,” Gadsby chuckled, so she chose engineering, which she saw as an excellent foundation for a future as a patent lawyer.

As documented in her fourth-grade diary, Gadsby was in grade school when she identified her dream job – lawyer. “I’m not sure where that came from because I had never met a lawyer, but my grandmother and I used to watch Perry Mason together all the time – it was one of her favorite shows. I thought Mr. Mason was smooth and commanding, so my best guess is that show made me think, ‘Okay, I want to do that.’”

When she started at the Cornell College of Engineering, she wasn’t loving the coursework. "I knew I liked my courses that were more qualitative than quantitative, like psychology and my writing seminar, much more than chemistry and calculus.”

She didn’t want to leave Cornell, and ILR courses sounded interesting, especially after slipping into a lecture.

“Ah, this is perfect,” she recalls thinking after starting at ILR her sophomore year.

“It was the perfect school for me. I loved the coursework, the method of learning, and the whole ‘I Love Reading’ part. It was a small school in a big university – the best of both worlds.”

“And it was great prep for law school.”

“I remember my collective bargaining class and found the mock negotiation fascinating. It was probably the back and forth, which reminded me of debate, and the necessity of being persuasive. I ended up practicing labor law for many years, and that course was my entrée.”

“I also loved organizational behavior – I thought it was really interesting to think about organizations as actually having cultures and personalities that were unique and different. And I think it dawned on me then that it wasn’t just about looking at an organization and thinking, ‘I’m going to get a job there,’ but that it was important to think about the culture and personality of an organization and how that aligned or not with who you were.”

“ILR fostered my leadership skills, for sure,” said Gadsby, who was active in the Minority ILR Student Organization, president of Cornell’s Minority Undergraduate Law Society, a judicial adviser evaluating student code of conduct violations, and a leader in her sorority, Delta Sigma Theta.

ILR introduced Gadsby to both the labor and employment law fields. “I explored other areas of the law while in law school, but I came right back to labor and employment law. It was where I felt I could make a difference in people’s lives while earning a good enough living to pay back the significant student loans I had incurred. I found a sweet spot for what would be fulfilling to me.”

“I felt I could do good by being in the labor and employment law space although I represented management. You need people inside organizations who have a balanced approach and value the importance of employees to an organization’s success – management is not always right and when they aren’t, it’s important to have attorneys advocating for the organization to do the right thing by their employees. I doubt I would have ended up in this space absent my ILR experience.”

After graduating from the New York University School of Law, she worked at Kaye Scholer LLP and then Allied Signal Inc. before joining Scholastic Inc., her dream job. There, she worked as a labor and employment lawyer, and later added employee benefits, immigration, general corporate and education to her responsibilities.

“I’ve always been very open to new opportunities and trying different things, even if I’ve never done them before. For me, it’s always been exciting to try something different.”

She joined NBME in February 2020. Three weeks later, the pandemic hit. “I had to show what I could do really quickly because we were in the midst of a crisis.”

Just over a year later, in addition to leading legal services, Gadsby assumed responsibility for disability services, governance and volunteer services and for two newly created units: diversity, equity and inclusion and philanthropy, now called community collaborations and contributions. She was promoted to senior vice president, general counsel and chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer.

“I think because I had demonstrated strong leadership and good instincts during a time of crisis, our president and CEO knew that he could trust me to handle expanded responsibility, and it made sense for me to take on building new capabilities in the areas of diversity, equity and inclusion, and philanthropy.”

“I find it exciting to read a legal contract the first part of the day, think about how to have maximum impact through collaborating with and funding community organizations seeking to eradicate health disparities in the afternoon, and later in the day, focus on what’s happening externally with DE&I, and think strategically about how to position our organization to continue to do the important work of advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in assessment and medical education, while mitigating risks."

“Doing those different things in a day is exciting. It keeps me invigorated. I thrive on challenging myself to impact multiple areas,” said Gadsby, for whom delegating is key. “It’s really important to have really smart, talented people around you, which I do.”

“Outside of practicing law, my passion areas are young people and education. When you look at the different things I do, you will find those areas interwoven through my service and professional life."

Cornell changed the trajectory of her life, Gadsby said. “That is why I’ve been engaged in giving back through my alumni service.”

“My parents always talked about the value of education as a door of opportunity. If you focus there, you could change your life. I have found that to be true, so I want to give back to Cornell, which remains a place whose doors are open to students from a variety of backgrounds. I want to help ensure access for a broad diversity of students.”

That is why, Gadsby said, she uses her time and treasure to support Cornell. She regularly donates to numerous Cornell student organizations and activities. Along with her sorority sisters, Gadsby is a founding donor of an endowed scholarship for students with financial need. As co-chair of the President’s Council of Cornell Women, she and her “partner in crime,” Jill Goldy, M.S. ’78, launched a current use fund, which enabled the group to expand its giving and respond to the immediate needs of the campus community.

A member of the Cornell Board of Trustees for seven years, Gadsby is chair of its Student Life Committee and a member of the finance and executive committees. She is also a longtime member of the ILR Dean’s Advisory Council and Cornell Mosaic, an umbrella diversity organization. She’s an emerita member of the President’s Council of Cornell Women and a lifetime member and former president of the Cornell Black Alumni Association.

“I encourage alums to reflect on the things they enjoyed about their ILR and Cornell experiences and think about their engagement through that lens and how they can give back to enhance the experience for students who are there now. Maybe donate to the student organization you were active with or pick an initiative like mental health and target your support that way. For me, the most fulfilling parts of my post-graduate experience have been meeting alums across the years and remaining connected to students on campus and finding ways of supporting them that meet a need and connect with what’s important to me.”

Gadsby is involved in many organizations beyond Cornell and often shares her story with students facing economic or other access obstacles. “I make sure I get in front of students and encourage them to dream big, to believe that they can do anything they put their mind to, and to let them know that I and many others come from backgrounds similar to theirs, and if we can make it, they can, too.” Finally, she lets them know she’s there to support them however she can.

On a service trip this fall to the University of the Virgin Islands, Gadsby found that students there were eager to know how she got from Barbados to the Bronx to where she is now.

She urged them “to talk to lots of people about what you want to do and what you're good at, and always ask if there is anyone else they can connect you to. That’s how you can rapidly broaden your network, and you may even find a mentor along the way.”

Some students wondered how she could have achieved so much. Her answer: “Because I was open to a variety of opportunities and not fearful of not being an expert or not knowing all of the answers. For many, especially for lawyers, that can be a scary place. Opening yourself up and being a little bit vulnerable and uncomfortable can, down the road, provide lots of opportunities for you. Take the chance; it will be worth it!”