The new senior vice president of academic and student success at Lambton College has been motivated by the college's success for several years.
Mary Vaughan joined Lambton's leadership team July 20.
"I love the college feel and the area around Sarnia is absolutely beautiful, the water is stunning," she told Blackburn News. "The comprehensive programs that are at Lambton College are exciting and it's world renowned for the Enactus team, the community outreach that the students do here in research, and it just seemed like a vibrant, exciting, place to be."
Vaughan was born and raised in St. John's, Newfoundland and spent 18 years working with the College of the North Atlantic before becoming the dean of business at Seneca College in Toronto.
"I started off as a geologist, working in remote locations around Labrador and northern Ontario and a little bit of work in the United States, for copper, nickel and gold. I ran my own business for a little while and then went back to school for business and IT [information technology] and then started teaching and totally found my passion in post secondary."
Vaughan said her first impression of Lambton College was a lasting one.
"I was with the Enactus team when I was at College of the North Atlantic and when I came to Toronto, first thing, I was like, 'Seneca, you need an Enactus team!' I took a group of faculty to see the nationals and it was the year that Lambton won and it was just explosive in terms of the impact that it had on the faculty at Seneca."
Vaughan said Seneca decided to develop an Enactus team after that trip.
In 2018, Lambton College won the Enactus Canada Nationals and Enactus World Cup.
Vaughan replaces Rob Kardas who assumed the role of president and CEO July 1 following the retirement of Judith Morris.