GPI: Erin Nechipurenko, Vice President of Legal and Government Affairs

Alexis Schlesinger / THE GATEPOST

By Dylan Pichnarcik Associate Editor By Dylan Sibley Staff Writer What is your academic and professional background? I went to Wheaton College as an undergraduate, and after I graduated from Wheaton with my English degree, I worked for a company called Arts Marketing Services, which is based in Toronto, and they raise money for arts organizations and nonprofits. And so that was my first job out of college - setting up and managing telemarketing campaigns for them. I got the opportunity to work with the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, the Baltimore Museum of Art, Utah Opera, and the Milwaukee Ballet. I moved around for about six months at a time at each place, and then, after doing that for a couple of years, I decided that I wanted to be back in Massachusetts, and so I moved to Massachusetts, and then got a job in HR for a fundraising company called Integral Resources. It doesn't exist anymore, but they raised money for political organizations and some nonprofits, and that was my first HR position. I was hired as a human resources director, and when I was there, I realized that I wanted to work somewhere where I could have a mentor in human resources. The position at Mass Art opened up, and that's how I made the transition over to Mass Art, and I worked there for 10 years. I started as the assistant director, and when I left, I was the director. … And then the position for assistant director of human resources opened up here, and so I applied and got that position, and sort of worked my way up through just different progressively responsible HR positions, and I was here for 13 years, and then went to St. Paul's, and now I’m back. What made you choose to study law? I’ve been working in public higher education for quite a while. My first job in public higher education was at Mass College of Art and Design. While I was at Mass Art, I knew I wanted to go back to school, but I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to do. Working in human resources, I realized that I was very interested in trying to take some of the gray out of the work that I was doing. And so a law degree made a lot of sense. So I went to law school at night at Suffolk University, while I was working full-time to put myself through law school, which was great. After I finished law school, I had been promoted to director of human resources at Mass Art, and I decided that I wanted to stay in HR and use my law degree to help with the work that I was doing in HR and Mass Art - it's a sister institution of Framingham State, and we share collective bargaining agreements across schools. And so when I was in law school, I took every sort of law-related class that was related to the work that I was doing. So I took labor relations, arbitration, mediation, workers' comp, and employment law, so it was like anything and everything related to the work in HR that I was doing. I took those classes, and then all the other required classes like torts, constitutional law, and contracts. What do you love about Framingham State? I love the fact that it's a small regional school. I think that it's a place where, as I said before, the faculty is amazing here, and people can get an amazing education, and it's really what you put into it, right? I think the programs are amazing. And then my kids went to the child development lab. So, when they were little, I just became enamored with the education department and the programs there. … And then, when my kids were in public school, we had Framingham State people who had worked in the lab that was in their schools, and so they'd already built connections with students. And so it was nice to be able to see the regional connections. And I really like the people here. It's been great being back. And I don't know everybody, so I'm still meeting people, but I do know a good number of the faculty and staff here, and it's felt really heartwarming to be back and to be welcomed back to the community. What advice would you give to students at FSU? Your time studying in university is so short. You don't realize that when you're studying. … We have amazing programs, amazing faculty, and my advice would be to really get to know your faculty and to try to develop those one-on-one relationships, where they can really get to know you and help you think about how you're going to use your degree when you leave. That's probably the first thing I would recommend. Then, this is a time in your life where you can really explore what it is that you want to do, and it doesn't have to be forever. So just as an example, I was an English major, and people always said, “Oh, what are you going to do with an English degree?” And I think there's a lot that you can do as an English major. It's about really learning how to write. Some people know how to write when they come to school, but learning how to write and think critically about things is something that you really need for any type of career. And I think if there's something that you're interested in, you should pursue it and give it a shot, but know that you, depending on what your degree is in, you can always reinvent yourself and move in different directions. But just doing things that you're really passionate about, I think, is important.