In the midst of the hustle and bustle of the ever-popular Senior Mini College at Pueblo Community College's Fremont Campus, the school's new dean continues to settle into her new position.
Dr. Lana Carter assumed her new role March 11 after former interim dean Sterling Jenkins left the campus to pursue other career opportunities.
Carter came to PCC in 1999 as chair of what then was the Social Sciences and Education Department and as a psychology instructor, and she later also served as Teaching and Learning Coordinator. She was named Dean of the Arts Sciences Division in 2006, and in April 2012, Carter was named Executive Dean of PCC's Arts Sciences Division.
Her early education experiences were in a one-room schoolhouse on a Navajo Reservation in a remote region of southeastern Utah.
"It really set the stage for my philosophy as far as education is concerned and the importance of having access to resources and educational opportunities," she said.
Some of Carter's earliest memories are the monthly visits from a bookmobile.
"That was such an incredibly important part of my life," she said. "We didn't have access to television, radio was sporadic, and we didn't have a telephone."
Carter graduated from Montezuma-Cortez High School and went on to earn a bachelor's degree in psychology from Fort Lewis College and both master's and doctorate degrees in counseling psychology from Colorado State University.
"I went into the field of psychology mainly because I thought that would be a good career path for a woman," she said. "Then in my graduate work at CSU, I really became interested in emergency services -- the impact that large events have on people's psychological and mental health."
She was asked to write a curriculum for the National Terrorism Preparedness Institute near the time of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. She then began to travel across the country teaching Critical Incident Stress Management for Weapons of Mass Destruction/Acts of Terrorism.
After she decided to stop traveling, Carter began to pursue her passion for teaching at Fort Lewis College, CSU Fort Collins and Farmington, N.M., before starting to work at PCC in Pueblo.
"One of the first things that struck me when I came to the Fremont Campus was how dedicated to the students and the campus this community is," she said. "It's about serving the community and meeting student needs. I look forward to being a part of the great work that people already have done here."
Carter plans to continue to settle into her position, meeting with individuals on campus and members in the community.
"The second step will be to start meeting with our community partners and asking them to help educate me in some of the things that they would like to see us be able to help with in the community," she said.
Carter, who lives in Penrose, has three grown children and nine grandchildren. Her daughter and son-in-law, Erin and Rod Davidson, own and operate Big D Superfoods in Florence. She enjoys reading, gardening and dog walking.