“Community colleges are my absolute passion,” said Dawn Lindsay, in her ninth year as president of Anne Arundel Community College. In addition, she is vice president of the board of directors for the League for Innovation in the Community College, and serves on both the American Association of Community Colleges Commission on Research and Data and the Fort Meade Alliance Board of Directors.
Raised in Fallston, the 61-year-old educator lives in Severna Park.
Here are three things you might want to know about Lindsay:
She helps to save strays.
“I keep a leash and treats in my car for rescuing lost dogs on the road. Several years ago, I picked up a pit bull near Route 50. She seemed a sweet dog, but she wouldn’t get into the back of my car or the passenger seat. She wound up sitting on my lap between me and the steering wheel, just looking into my face. I took her to the animal shelter and later learned she’d been reunited with her family.”
The kitchen is her comfort zone.
“I love to cook. As a kid I baked a cake every Saturday — and it was gone by Sunday night. Old family recipes are my favorite. I have five boxes filled with index cards of recipes my aunt wrote down 60 years ago. When my dad was alive, he’d pick out a favorite — usually beef stroganoff — and I’d fix it for him for Sunday dinner. It was a real nice tradition.
“I still have a Betty Crocker cookbook from 1954, though you can barely read some of the recipes and it is falling apart, especially the dessert section.”
Her father was her anchor.
“My dad has had a lifelong impact on me. He was my role model, guide and confidant. An orphan, he had a hard life and grew up having to trust others to survive. He taught me to always look for the best in people and, at night, to put my head on the pillow knowing I’d not hurt anyone that day.
“Family was most important to him, and he was very spiritual. He once told me, ‘Dawn, the first day you hear me curse is the day you can start cursing.’ Honest to God, I never heard that man cuss in my entire life.”
