Retiring, but not resting: Pam Davis begins a new chapter

By Nicole Wadkins
Staff Reporter

Mental Health Counselor Pam Davis grew up in Greenville, Michigan, in what she described as a “typical middle class” household. She grew up as the eldest child with two younger brothers. Her mother was a stay-at-home mom until her youngest brother entered school and her father was active in the community.

At a young age, her parents instilled in her the importance of “appreciating what we have, giving to others, not taking things for granted [and] helping other people when we can,” Davis said. What really influenced her perspective was her father being involved in the Optimist Club. The club supported low-income children, so Davis and her father would pick kids up at their homes and drop them off where they needed to go. "That was probably one of the biggest things that shaped me, was helping me realize that we can lift each other up as human beings,” Davis reflected.

Davis recalled Greenville as a “white community” with little exposure to cultural diversity. That all changed later in her life, and it's part of what she appreciates most about LCC and in living in a bigger community: “I like having exposure and meeting people from more than one culture [and] more than once lifestyle.”

In Davis’s teenage years, she was balancing school, sports, and work. At the time, women’s athletics teams were growing in her hometown, so Davis participated in several sports. With Greenville being a relatively small town, “The group of athletes was small, so we tended to play all the sports,” she said.  She played girls’ basketball all through high school. Her senior year, there was a new volleyball team and a softball team. She made the volleyball team, but did not earn a spot on the softball team. Despite that, she still ended up joining the softball team during practices, since her friends were there and they needed people to practice with. For three summers, she earned some money working at McDonald’s.

After graduating high school, Davis's journey to becoming a mental health counselor was anything but linear. “I tell students about it because some students feel bad that they haven’t chosen a major,” Davis said. From a young age, she wanted to work with people who have hearing loss. She was initially inspired by the story of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan which made her “fascinated with hearing loss and deafness.” Her original plan was to be a teacher, and teach deaf students, which led her to study at Lake Superior State College.

Later on, she transferred to Michigan State University because MSU taught total communication—a method of teaching both sign language and lip reading. There, she decided that she did not want to be a teacher, and someone talked Davis into studying audiology. However, she soon realized that her passion did not lie within the technical side of studying audiology. “I wanted to go more into the emotional component of losing hearing,” Davis said. “I wanted to actually help them through the challenges of it versus just giving them a hearing aid.” This realization then caused her to stumble upon MSU’s master's program in vocational rehabilitation counseling, which helps people with disabilities find employment, while addressing personal and emotional challenges.

After getting her master’s degree, Davis began work at the Michigan Department of Rehabilitation Services. “I had the deaf and hard-of-hearing caseload,” Davis said. A lot of her clients were college students, so she became the liaison for both LCC and MSU. Eventually, her caseload evolved to include any college student with a disability.

One of Davis’s proudest moments was receiving the Marge Chmielewski Award for professional contributions to the disability community. This award was created by the Michigan Association of Higher Education and Disability, which honors members who make a significant impact on students with disabilities.

Then, when an opening appeared in what was known as LCC’s Office of Disability Support Services, Davis applied and got the job. Beginning in 1995, she worked in that office for 18 years, and her job was reviewing applications and approving classroom accommodations.

While there, she also did some mental health counseling. “I was kind of trying to figure out how to get a full-time counselor position here as somebody retired,” Davis said. “But then the college just moved me into that position when they made some structural changes.” She has been a mental health counselor for the last 13 years at LCC.

Davis approaches counseling by helping students reexamine how they view their problems. “I [ask] a lot of questions to help them think differently about a situation,” Davis said. “I also learn what their goals are and make sure that the changes [they are making] are their goals and not my goals for them.”

Her philosophy is that everyone has the capacity for positive change. It's a belief that has kept her hopeful. “It keeps me coming to work,” Davis said. “I’ve seen people access counseling and make positive changes. And because I’ve seen people do it, I believe it can happen.”

In addition to her counseling role, Davis served as a liaison to the Office of Student Compliance and taught stress management courses both in-person and online. Over the years, she has taught a deaf culture course, and a student development course called “Elimination of Self-Defeating Behavior.” Davis said, “I like variety in my job and so I appreciate the differences.”

Then over a decade ago, the college created the Behavioral Intervention Team, which is now known as the CARES Team—and Davis is one of the original members. The team is guided by a national organization which focuses on identifying and responding to student safety concerns while connecting students with support and resources.  

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Davis has seen a dramatic shift in students reaching out for help. “Mental health counseling isn’t as much of a stigma as it was,” Davis said. “More people are open to coming to counseling.”

While Davis is retiring from LCC, she is not stepping away from counseling. Starting in January, she plans to work part-time with a private practice in mental health.  There she will be able to set her schedule and continue doing what she loves. “I just decided it was time for me to have more flexibility in my life and take advantage of what I’ve earned to this point,” Davis said. “

She’s also looking forward to spending more time at her condo in northern Michigan, on the shore of Lake Michigan. “I’m just looking forward to the flexibility to be able to travel ... but still stay connected in Lansing,” Davis said. “I’ve been here [in Lansing] over 45 years, so to be able to stay rooted but also spend time where I love—I don’t take it for granted.”

As she prepares to step back, Davis knows that there is a lot that she will miss about LCC. “I’m going to miss a lot of my colleagues. I’m going to miss working with the students and seeing their successes,” Davis said. “I’m going to miss the ebb and flow of college life and just all of the diversity on campus.”

She noted that she feels lucky, since not a lot of people stay in a job for so many years and still continue to love the work they do. “I’ve worked in a job that I love for 30 years. I can’t even imagine how many different students I’ve impacted over those years and supporting them in their educational goals and their life goals,” Davis said. “It’s been a blessing!”