Linda Lanier
Assistant Professor, Counseling
Cuyahoga Community College

Linda helps students identify the strengths and talents within to reach individual, family, and community goals. Each year she formally mentor 5-7 students. This mentoring includes developing SMART goals, creating academic plans and identifying internships or volunteer opportunities. Linda involves her mentees in community projects, programs and act as an advocate for them in pursuing higher education or employment.

“I get professional fulfillment when a student (who statistically) should not graduate – graduates. When my belief in a student to succeed is internalized in the student.”

The person that Linda admires most is her mentor Connie Mathews.

“She is 82 and still active in the community. A former Social Worker, she is currently a foster parent for hard to place young women. She continuously and intentionally finds new things to learn. It is her lifelong learning and ‘doing’ that inspires me.”