Dublin – Bladen Community College will welcome Lisa DeVane as guest speaker for the 2015 Fall Convocation Service on September 1, 2015, at 11 AM, in the college auditorium. She serves the college as a faculty member and Department Chair for Math and Science.
Ms. DeVane holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Animal Science and a Bachelor of Art degree in Chemistry from North Carolina State University. She received her Master of Art degree in Science Education with eighteen hours of chemistry credit from the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.
While Ms. DeVane believes she has found her destiny in the college classroom, her journey to teaching college chemistry was circuitous. “After graduating from NCSU, I worked as an assistant scientist for a bio-technology company in the Research Triangle Park,” she remembers. “While I was in college, I met my husband, Casey DeVane. We married and moved to Elizabethtown.”
The Garner native was not prepared for rural Bladen County life. “My in-laws and Casey’s extended family really welcomed me,” she recalls. “The DeVane family helped me transition into the community.”
DeVane was working for AAI Clinical Research Company in Wilmington when she learned of an opening at Bladen Community College.
Though she was hired as a lab assistant with the college in 2005, the caveat was that she would also teach chemistry 090. “That expectation was the catalyst that sent me back to college for a master’s degree,” remarks DeVane. “I wanted to become a full time instructor.”
The transition to faculty member was comfortable for DeVane. “I always wanted to help others. I have that opportunity here.”
Now, ten years later, DeVane is confident she chose the right career focus. “I feel like this is my niche.”
Her peers also feel DeVane is where she needs to be. Faculty member William Resseguie remarks about DeVane, “She is an amazing person. She is the personification of the word integrity. She is the kind of person in whom you can trust implicitly.”
Faculty member Doris Horne echoes these observations. “Lisa is an exceptional person. She has a strong moral code and a high degree of integrity. She wears a smile every day and it is a pleasure to work under her supervision.”
DeVane credits her strong commitment and work ethic to her family. She values the daily opportunities she has to reach out to others. She remarks, “It is important to be a teacher that cares.”
This caring spirit is evident in cards, notes, emails, and gifts from ten years of students who believe she is a caring professor. One particular gift from a group of students is especially poignant. The amber-colored earthenware bowl is engraved with interlocking hearts and a message that reads, Follow your dreams…you never know where they may lead you. Turn the bowl over and one may read hand written messages to DeVane. Thank you for being the best teacher I ever had. Thank you for being the kind of teacher you are. You are truly an inspiration to me.
As the convocation speaker, Ms. DeVane will weave this same caring spirit into her oration. She plans to remark on the value of working together as a faculty-and-staff team to make Bladen Community College even stronger. “Without each other, we cannot work effectively. We need each other,” comments DeVane.
“At BCC, we care about each other. There is a sense of family here,” she remarks. “We are all part of the puzzle that comes together to benefit the students.”
The Bladen Community College Fall Convocation is Tuesday, September 1, 2015, at 11 am in the college auditorium. To learn more about opportunities at BCC, call 910 879-5500 and speak with a counselor.
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