After a decades-long career in software engineering, years on the Beverly School Committee and several degrees, one might expect Lorinda Visnick to take a break — but she isn’t done yet.
This past summer, the 60-year-old Boston University alum made headlines after completing a Massachusetts State House fellowship alongside interns a third of her age. While others in their sixties may hesitate to take on new endeavors in their careers, for Visnick, it was simply another chapter.
“I’m always curious,” Visnick said. “It doesn’t feel weird for me at all. It just feels like more of what I’ve already been doing.”
Raised in a family of six children just outside of Detroit, Michigan, Visnick became the first in her family to attend college. She graduated from BU in 1987, where — between tutoring, working as a resident assistant and playing on the women’s basketball team — she earned a degree in computer science.
Visnick made her first career shift nearly 30 years after graduating when she ran for a seat on the Beverly School Committee. Visnick’s passion for public policy arose from this work and reflections on her own educational experiences.
When the community of Beverly proposed to build a new affordable housing complex, Visnick said she began thinking about the intersection between education, public policy and legislature.
“When we look at the data, we see that children coming out of poverty are in an incredible achievement gap compared to their non-poverty peers,” Visnick said. “So for quite some time, I’ve been pondering the totality of that: what makes somebody break the cycle, and how do we close that gap?”
After six years on the committee, Visnick returned to school, earning a masters in organizational behavior studies from Endicott College. Last September, she took a step further and began her Ph.D. in public policy at the University of Massachusetts at Boston.
Paul Albright, the director of communications for Sen. Jason Lewis, who worked with Visnick during the summer, said he was impressed with her qualifications. Though Albright said it was “unusual” to have a 60-year-old fellow, this was only the case because none had applied before.
As a mother of four and former middle school basketball coach, Visnick found working alongside young people to be natural, which Albright noticed throughout her time interning.
“She was great at bringing us all together,” Albright said. “Every time she was in the office with all of us we were more cohesive in our interactions.”
Visnick’s work ethic and passion for public policy are unsurprising for those who know her.
“She was a model player as far as tenacity,” said Felicia Polynaski O’Donnell, Visnick’s BU basketball teammate. “I was injured, and she just had that spirit that we’re all in this together.”
Tom Kincaid, who attended BU at the same time as Visnick, said he was not shocked reading about her recent fellowship.
“She was doing a lot and taking on new challenges,” Kincaid said. “I really saw that throughout her whole life, enjoying each one and having the most fun.”
While her summer internship has come to an end, Visnick has no plans of ending her work in public policy.
“It doesn’t feel weird to me at all to be making this pivot,” she said. “Things happen for a reason, and so, I love where I am and the path that has brought me here.”
