Opinion: Rachelle Lyons Helped Me Find Community and Direction

By Alison Kaiser

Published April 12, 2026

On Friday, April 3rd, Professor Rachelle Lyons gave the keynote speech at the President’s Commission on the Status of Women Theo Kalikow Award ceremony honoring women in the Plymouth community who have achieved excellence. Professor Lyons is a beloved contract faculty member of the Environmental Science and Policy program. She delivered a beautifully moving speech that praised the resiliency of women both present and past who have shown strength despite systemic oppression. In attendance were the award winners and their loved ones, a handful of faculty, representatives from Student Life, a few students and a more-awkward-than-usual Nathaniel Bowditch. Notably absent from the President’s Commission ceremony was President Birx himself. The day after the ceremony, I heard the news that Professor Lyons’ contract had not been renewed for the fall after thirteen years of service to PSU. The non-reappointment notice was brief in its contents, a three sentence paragraph that cited ‘enrollment, staffing needs, and budgetary concerns’ as rationale.

I transferred to PSU in 2023, then a 22-year-old who had been thrown off course by COVID-19, desperate for community and direction. I found it in the Environmental Science and Policy program, and in Rachelle Lyons. Her course, Intro to ESP I, was the first I took at this university and the one that gave me confidence this was the right place for me. Her background as a non traditional student and her willingness to share her struggles inspired me and showed me what was possible.

Professor Lyons grew up in New Hampshire, and has fought to make education accessible in the state throughout her career. Last week a group of ESP students traveled to Bethlehem to attend the 9th annual Intergenerational Climate Conversation, an event founded in part by Professor Lyons that allows fifth and sixth graders to converse with college students and community elders about climate change in a calm, impactful way. Two days before, Bethlehem Elementary students came to PSU for a yearly tour of campus where I had the pleasure of showing them around Boyd Science Center with my classmate Madelyne Radzvilla. We explored the planetarium with Professor Moser, learned about proxy data and climate analysis with graduate Meteorology student David Zywiczynski, Professor Doner and Professor Pendleton, and played community building games with other ESP students. During the tour, an elementary student told me this trip is their favorite event of the year. I didn’t know then that this year may be the last.

Rachelle assured me she’ll be fine. She’ll move on to a position that has much better pay for fewer hours of work, and add to her list of accolades. However, her voice broke when she told me how much she’ll miss working with students, or ‘points of light’ as she called them. At the time of publication, I am the only student who knows about her leaving- not because it’s a secret, but because she doesn’t know how to say it out loud. Professor Lyons is the kind of professor that will dedicate the first day of class to getting to know each person’s name. She’ll test herself by going around the room until she gets it right. She’ll learn what you’re interested in and send you emails for an internship you’re perfect for. If you’re a little quiet one day, or the bags under your eyes are darker than usual, she notices. She’ll kneel next to you or pull you aside to check in, to offer a snack or remind you her door is always open. Not only because she cares, but because she’s been there. She told me once that she had someone who championed her education, who showed up for her when she needed it most. She didn’t have to tell me for me to know she has spent her life repaying that kindness.

At the peak of her career, Plymouth State will likely replace Professor Lyons with a less experienced teaching lecturer. Someone hired on a course by course basis, disrupting the interdisciplinary nature of the program. Teaching lecturers don’t have any advisees, help out with any clubs (Professor Lyons advises the Geo Club) or have the pleasure of watching students grow throughout their four years. They may not even teach the same course more than once. If this sort of replacement were to trend at PSU, it would have a detrimental cascading effect on the success and lives of students post graduation.

Professor Lyons told me she advocated for a three year contract throughout her career because of the widespread connections she has formed to make sure her students leave PSU with as much real world experience as possible. Over the years in her courses I’ve taken countless field trips, made invaluable connections with community environmental organizations, and gotten to bond with my peers in a way that just isn’t possible in the classroom. I’ve gotten emails at night inviting me to amphibian migrations, and invitations to sit in on classes I’m not even enrolled in because “There’s someone I want you to meet”. My resume is stacked with volunteer opportunities, my linked in covered with letters of commendation from Professor Lyons. Most importantly, I know I’m not the only student who can say this.

Recently, I was accepted to graduate school in New York to pursue a master’s degree in Environmental Studies with the support of Professor Lyons, who wrote me a letter of recommendation. In my ‘Educational Goals Statement’, I wrote an ode to my undergraduate program and how well it had prepared me for the future. I wrote that the ESP program taught me the importance of choosing the right school, and that I was grateful but ready to move on. When you leave home for college your freshman year, you expect it’ll stay mostly the same.Your hometown friends will work the same jobs, the dog will always greet you at the door and your sweatshirt will still be on the bed where you left it. When I graduate from Plymouth State in May, nothing will be the same. Six faculty I’ve grown close to (and countless others) will have been quasi retrenched or otherwise outright fired. Mary Lyon Lawn will be ripped up and in shambles with the future of this university not far behind. There may not be a home to come back to.

The ESP program has five core faculty to its 90 majors and recently created minor. A beloved member of this faculty is on indefinite medical leave, and another, Professor Lyons, has just been terminated. I have no doubts about Professor Pendleton, Professor Kim, and Professor Doner’s abilities to still offer an outstanding educational experience and do everything in their power to soften the blow. But, they’re just three people. Three people who have watched their colleagues dwindle, watched powerlessly as the institution they love crumbles around them while simultaneously profiting off of being ‘environmentally focused’. Professor Lyons is also the only professor in the program that teaches courses directly about environmental policy and environmental justice/ environmental racism. The erasure of her position also means the erasure of well rounded, empathetic ESP students. I reject the narrative that New Hampshire is a rural state, one whose residents can’t afford access to higher education or simply don’t need it. I never thought that college was possible for me, nevermind grad school. Three years in the ESP program have permanently altered the course of my life.

This Friday, April 12, Professor Lyons’ Land Conservation Techniques course will travel to Boston to the Emerald Necklace Conservancy. We’ll learn about the remediation of the Charles River, the importance of green spaces in urban environments and how we can use our future careers to make a difference. Professor Lyons also arranged a docent-led tour of the Arnold Arboretum and the Museum of Fine Arts. We’ll load up into the vans at 8am, and Professor Lyons will have snacks waiting for us for the long drive. Someone will DJ, inciting a sing along. We’ll talk about plans for graduation, summer internships and what we’re most excited for about the day.

This will be one of the last field trips I’ll take at PSU, but not my last memories with Professor Lyons. Last night we spoke on the phone, and she told me what she wants students to know the most is that just because she won’t be in her office anymore doesn’t mean she won’t be there for us. She’ll always provide references, always want to know what’s new in our lives. I feel a sense of loss not only for myself, but for the students that will never have the pleasure of knowing Professor Lyons and building the kind of relationship I am lucky to have with her. I know that wherever Rachelle goes she’ll make a lasting impact, because of the kind of person she is. I can only hope her absence will serve as a wakeup call, and inspire positive change just as she does