Natasha Bartley is near the home stretch of obtaining her master’s degree in Urban Studies at SLU. An employee of the city Department of Transportation for a decade, Bartley enrolled to boost her climb up the job ladder. She’s focused on getting that diploma in hand and seeing it enhance her career.
She’s gained something else of great value along the way, too, she realized: Confidence.
“I do credit SLU for my confidence. Before I joined the master’s degree program, I felt I should be quiet,” Bartley said recently, reflecting on her journey in school, work and beyond. “Now I feel I am a different person. I am more vocal. I am more informed, and that in turn makes me more confident. SLU did that.”
As a person who takes professionalism seriously, she had a base to build on. Bartley was a 2022-23 fellow in the competitive Coro Leadership New York program. She ran for second vice-president of her union, CWA 1180, and garnered over 600 votes. She likes to look polished, embracing the classic advice to “dress for the job you want.”
Now Bartley is ready to play a stronger creative role in city government, rather than being a note-taker or observer of others making decisions and setting policy. And she was told that to move up would require a degree beyond her bachelor’s in business management.
“I knew I had to get that piece of paper to value my worth in the city of New York,” said Bartley, who will graduate in June. “That piece of paper gives you the key to go through the door and strategize.”
Expecting Rainbows
Bartley’s path to becoming director of administration at DOT’s Office of Livable Streets was hardly a clear one. She was born in New York to Haitian immigrant parents as the sixth of 13 children. Her father died when she was a teenager. Her family’s needs brought her into frequent contact with social services: welfare, foster care, homeless shelters, the housing authority, and the Red Cross after an apartment fire.
Bartley lived in the Mitchel Houses in the South Bronx for over 20 years, enduring mold, lead, vermin, crime, and unreliable heat and hot water with her three children in a one-bedroom apartment. Committed to giving her children a better environment, she entered affordable housing lotteries year after year, until finally winning a NYC Housing Connect lottery right before Covid shut down the city. She and her kids were given just two weeks to move into a three-bedroom apartment in Chelsea. They made it, and they cherish it.
“I grew up in the projects. You are not what your environment dictates you to be. You just need a lot of support. You need opportunity and you need mentors,” she said.
These days she has a home she enjoys, the stimulation that comes from her SLU education, and a sense of momentum toward her goals. But she wouldn’t change a thing about the past.
“Struggle is good,” she continued. “You have to be prepared for struggle. But also expect rainbows.”
One such bright surprise appeared when a DOT coworker informed Bartley about SLU. The colleague – Quinella Williams, who received her SLU master’s degree in Urban Studies in 2023 – said if Bartley took and passed the city’s civil service test for Administrative Manager, she would become a member of CWA 1180, and eligible for the union to pay for her degree. Williams herself took advantage of that funding.
One of Bartley’s siblings gave her a helpful push toward higher education. (All 13 of them live in the tri-state area, and Bartley sees her mom in the Bronx several times a week.) “My oldest sister said ‘You can do it! Pace yourself. You got this!’” Bartley recalled.
“As soon as I got the email” from the city about passing the test, she said, “I called SLU.”
Changing the Landscape
Bartley’s own life experiences spur her interest in playing a bigger role in shaping the city, from noting the differences between living in Chelsea versus Mott Haven, to considering whether her son will be safe bicycling in new bike lanes, to yearning for city hiring and advancement processes that feel more open to Black applicants and those with nontraditional credentials.
“Though the city’s landscape was dictated by white men, it can be changed by all walks of people,” she said, citing a lesson learned at SLU. “We can make decisions that enhance the city’s landscape. We can contribute.”
“If I could contribute to how neighborhoods are shaped, I would love that.”
Bartley enjoys her job at DOT but sees too few opportunities for Black women to gain leadership positions there. She believes the agency could do more to change that.
“I’ve learned I’m not alone in my struggle. I’ve met other Black women here who were told they hit the glass ceiling,” she said. “The workforce doesn’t have enough candidates that look like me.”
For her part, she and four coworkers, with the support of other Black employees, established an African American Career Advancement Network at DOT in 2019.
“That in itself is progress, but they’re not utilizing that entity to its full potential,” Bartley said. “I am seeing that we’re here trying to improve ourselves. And where will that lead us? What’s the next step for us?”
Bartley will keep forging a path forward. Her children inspire her “to work hard and lead with kindness,” she said, and her objectives go beyond a particular promotion or raise. “My goal is to make my parents proud,” she said – though she knows her mom is already proud – “while uplifting others.”