Lynne Varner speaks with authority about the value of higher education and the details of what is available at WSU Everett.

That’s not too unusual, seeing that Varner is Associate Vice Chancellor for Marketing at the Snohomish County-based campus of Washington State University.

But Varner has also used to her voice to speak with authority first as a reporter for the Washington Post newspaper and then as an opinion writer for the Seattle Times. Her efforts at the Times led to two nominations for a Pulitzer Prize.

Varner says those two career paths are tied together with an early desire to learn and research subjects. That desire was first fed with first jobs serving as a staff member in congressional offices and interning at United Press International.

Varner also shares that growing up near Washington, D.C. in a military family instilled an appreciation for discipline and hard work.

At the Times, Varner started as a reporter on the education beat. “I knew that someday I would leave journalism and help pull up others as they had helped pull me up,” Varner says.

Episode length: 58:10

Links

• Lynne’s LinkedIn profile
• WSU Everett
• Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine
• Land-grant universities wiki
• United Press International
• The Pulitzer Prize
• University of Maryland
• Seattle Times
• Washington Post
• Rainier Scholars