Dr. Nadene L’Amoreaux
Dr. Nadene L’Amoreaux’s father, a union electrician, showed her the benefits of the union.
“I watched my father on strike many times,” she said. “I heard stories about how the union representation benefited or helped him.”
L’Amoreaux first joined APSCUF in 1998, shortly after becoming a faculty member in the counseling department of Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
“It wasn’t a question on whether I joined (APSCUF) or not, it’s join and then how active do I want to be once I’m in it?” L’Amoreaux said.
L’Amoreaux has been involved in meet-and-discuss at the local and state levels and has participated in legislative assembly. She said she has drawn heavily on her counseling skills during her time in APSCUF, especially as the local grievance chair at IUP. This included giving people good news — but also letting people down gently with bad news.
“It helped me get out of my silo,” referring to her time as grievance chair at IUP. It allowed her to meet people across campus, including administrators. It forced her to meet with grievance officials statewide, including other grievance chairs on other campuses, and with the staff at state APSCUF. She said the work on the grievance committee greatly improved her knowledge of the collective bargaining agreement; she became familiar with significant articles in the CBA that relate to frequently encountered issues.
L’Amoreaux became the state meet-and-discuss chair on June 1, succeeding Dr. Kara Laskowski, who was elected State APSCUF vice president.
She originally did not want to be M&D chair, she said.
“When Ken (Mash) contacted me, I was trying to give him reasons why I wasn’t the right person to be chair of state meet-and-discuss, and he wasn’t buying any of them,” L’Amoreaux said.
After that conversation, she decided to remain in consideration for the position.
L’Amoreaux noted the longevity of the M&D team; she served under immediate-past chair Laskowski and President Dr. Kenneth M. Mash when he chaired the M&D team. She praised the state meet-and-discuss team, saying that the team is what makes state meet-and-discuss so successful. State meet-and-discuss converses with the State System regarding issues related to contractual implementation, with the state level focusing on all the campuses. She said they are to be one voice for all 14 campuses in the System.
In her new position, L’Amoreaux said she hopes to push for decisions that are the best for students. In this, she wants to be able negotiate with the State System in a more productive way. One of the goals, she said, is to provide a quality education to the students in the State System.
MORE ABOUT L’AMOREAUX
Nadene L’Amoreaux earned her doctorate from Kent State University. She is a licensed professional counselor and an approved clinical supervisor.
—Jesse Daugherty,
APSCUF intern