Q&A:

Dr. Paul Beaudin Vice President of Academic Affairs

This fall, Northern Essex was pleased to welcome a new vice president of academic affairs.

While Dr. Paul Beaudin is new to the Merrimack Valley, his roots here run deep.

Both his mother and father are graduates of Lawrence High School, and he spent many summer vacations and holidays visiting his extended family in the area.

In his four-decade career as an educator, Beaudin has served as a principal and teacher in New York City’s Spanish Harlem, superintendent of a school district in the Bronx, and as a professor and dean at Iona College.

Most recently, he was vice president for academic affairs and interim vice president for student affairs at Suffolk County Community College, which is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system.

Beaudin replaces Dr. William Heineman, who left the college on July 1 to begin his new role as president of North Shore Community College.

What will you focus on first in your new position?

The first thing I will focus on is listening to and learning from my colleagues. I want to respect the work they have been doing. Most of my life has been committed to the transformation of the economic conditions of others through quality education marked by high expectations and engaging learning experiences.

That focus is part of who I am, and it’s a commitment that I know is shared by many at NECC.

You come from a family of Lawrence millworkers. How has the connection to Lawrence shaped you?

I grew up in Plattsburgh, NY because my father made a career out of the Air Force. We regularly drove down 89 to visit family on Bennington and Bruce Streets in Lawrence, and Peter’s Pond in Dracut. We would also attend weddings at the Assumption, funerals at St. Anne’s, and take day trips to Hampton or Salisbury. It was a simple life surrounded by French Canadian relatives who shared their drink, their food, and their air mattresses, spread out on tenement floors, with us visitors from New York.

What was the biggest challenge in your professional career and why?

We recently commemorated the 20th anniversary of the events of September 11th, 2001. On that day twenty years ago, I was an associate superintendent working in Manhattan. I saw the smoke, and witnessed tens of thousands of people rushing up First Avenue to get home to Queens, Westchester, and the Bronx on foot. For months, the trauma of that event consumed my principals, teachers, and their students. The stench in the air, the tanks, and the barricades were daily reminders that safety could not be taken for granted. In retrospect, I approached it by “showing up.” The rest of that year required me to simply be present for the educators and listening to those who were doing the direct work with children who became orphans or homeless or were sickened by the dust that was everywhere. I think that experience prepared me well for working through the pandemic and the fears of our current age.