FROM ZTA BADGE TO Police Badge

By Lisa Perry, Contributing Writer

When Connie Koski (Zeta Omega Chapter, Ferris State University) graduated in 1990, she supplemented her treasured ZTA badge with a police badge. Saying she went on to work 16 intense years in law enforcement doesn’t begin to cover the spectrum of experiences she faced in her career. But her gritty police work morphed into the desire to educate and

Today Connie is able to relish a well-earned, more tranquil life. For this gogetter, tranquility doesn’t mean slowing down. She’s teaching college classes, co-writing textbooks, doing research and, a bonus—raising adorable goats in South Dakota. “I’m always operating outside my comfort zone,” she says.

Connie’s police career in Ypsilanti, Michigan, included a spectrum of hard-core, hands-on roles: patrol, major crimes detective, crime scene and evidence technician and accident reconstructionist. She also worked as a community outreach officer and recruitment team member. Why police work? Credit “Cagney and Lacey,” a 1980s police detective TV show.

Ypsilanti, on the I-90 corridor between Detroit and Chicago, was a “miniDetroit” to Connie with its mix of university students, automobile plant workers, low-income housing and affluent neighborhoods. Crimes included homicides, gang wars and drive-by shootings. “You could experience all the things that might have intrigued a young person to go into policing,” she says. On the flip side, the role puts officers in front of rude and disrespectful people. “If I had a dollar for every time someone said, ‘Shut the eff up and get a real job, you (@$%!).’ You just had to have the courage to say, ‘That’s not acceptable in my presence.’”

Connie was a first responder going into terrible situations “all the time.” The constant mantra among officers was: We see things so you don’t have to. But one tragic shooting involving a child was especially impactful. She describes in detail investigating the scene and taking steps to help a family member who discovered the victims. Eventually, Connie went home. “There’s something really surreal about standing in the safety and sanctity of your own home after someone has experienced a horrible life tragedy,” she says and then abruptly stops. “I didn’t think it would be emotional to talk about after all this time.” She then quickly lists a number of grisly crime scenes she investigated. “None of that really hit me until this particular incident,” she says. “That was the first time in my career I consciously realized what post-traumatic stress disorder is. The public has no idea what we see.”

Connie believes female police officers in the early 1990s faced extra hurdles. Before graduation, she asked for job-hunting advice from a small-town police chief who said, “You don’t really have to worry, because you’re a woman. They want you for diversity requirements.” At a police retirement party, a male co-worker asked a female officer to place her small hand up against his large one. He said, “That’s why women shouldn’t be police officers.”

While still on the police force, Connie inadvertently taught her first semesterlong, community college course in criminal justice. A colleague asked her to take his place because he didn’t like the class schedule. She had visited his classes as a speaker, so, master’s degree in hand, she accepted just days before the first class with no syllabus, textbook or outright experience in place. The result? She became completely enamored with teaching. Connie earned her doctorate degree and, ironically, her first tenuretrack job was teaching at Longwood University, a place she loved even beyond its ZTA roots.

In 2019, Connie moved from Virginia with her wife, Anita, to work at Oglala Lakota College in South Dakota. The couple own a goat farm together, and when they began making soap with goat milk, Grubby Goat Soap was born. Anita oversees the farm and Connie the business side. She helps with baby goats during kidding season, and both owners constantly provide hugs and smooches to the herd. The loveable goats and their antics inspired Connie to create a Facebook page that chronicles fanciful goat adventures (Facebook.com/ TinkerBelleTheGoat22).

Former ZTA National President Becky Kirwan, who was a mentor for Zeta Omega when Connie was chapter president and when Connie was an advisor, is a fan of goats and follows the herd on Facebook. Connie cherishes their longtime connection and speaks with gratitude about the thoughtful leadership wisdom Mrs. Kirwan shared with her. Connie has incorporated it ever since and passes it on to her students.

“Find a mentor,” she says, “for whatever you want to do in life.”