A chance meeting at an open house at Great Bay Community College led to a new twist in Lynne Lavigne’s long career as a care provider.
“I needed to switch careers, so I went to a job fair at Great Bay. I had no idea what I wanted to do, but I needed to find something stable,” said Lavigne, 53, who has spent much of her life helping people in need. “I looked at accounting, I talked about nursing, and then someone suggested I talk to Professor Kulberg. So I did.”
Eric Kulberg is the department chair and professor of Criminal Justice and Homeland Security. Lavigne was intrigued.
“I asked him, ‘Can I do this?’ And he said, ‘Absolutely.’ And so here I am in my third semester of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.”
She is thriving at Great Bay while maintaining full-time work as a home-care companion. “I am doing really well. I’m in the honor society,” she said proudly. “I have enjoyed all my Homeland Security classes. I find them interesting—challenging, but interesting—and I am excited to see where this goes.”
Great Bay was the first community college in New Hampshire to offer a two-year degree to provide emergency response professionals with the skills and expertise needed to effectively plan for and respond to natural or man-made disasters and emergencies. The program prepares students for careers in homeland security, emergency management, terrorism, crisis planning, and national incident management systems.
Lavigne began working in a nursing home at age 15, and providing care for aging and vulnerable populations became the focus of her career. While living in North Carolina, where her sons were stationed in the US. Marine Corps, she lost her townhouse to a hurricane, giving her first-hand exposure to a coordinated emergency response. As part of her own recovery from the devastation, she moved to Kentucky and then to Tennessee.
Just before Covid, a massive tornado hit the Nashville area. Continuing her instinct to help people during times of crisis and need, she volunteered through her church in recovery efforts. “I spent a lot of time walking through the woods picking up debris—wedding photos, baby clothes, tax information, any personal items that might be important to people.”
She returned home to New Hampshire to care for her ailing father, and then turned to Great Bay in search of a new career—or what actually turned out to be a new direction in her career. In hindsight, Homeland Security and Emergency Management was an obvious choice.
“I am a caregiver and always have been,” she said. “I have to help people. I am focusing on the emergency management aspect to help people who are in the situation I was in and still be able to be a caregiver and provide help and comfort when needed.”
Her academic success has been the result of hard work and learning to adapt as a non-traditional student, both in terms of inherent generational differences in the classroom as well as new ways of learning. “I am always one of the oldest in my class,” she said. “There have been a couple of classes that were online only that I struggled with. I do much better in the classroom.”
She is grateful for the camaraderie she shares with other students and the support of her professors. As for her career options, a lot can change between now and when she graduates, which she expects will be two years from now.
One thing that won’t change will be the need for emergency responders. Whether it’s for a government agency or for another entity, Lavigne will be working to help people when they need it most.