Yearbook photo

Yearbook name: Carol Lynn Pannek (Panic)

Pen name: Carol Lynn Luck

Lives in: Framingham MA

Website: www.CarolLynnLuck.com

Family members: Ben Lach (husband), Lisa and David (children)

Current Projects:
Author, with two published novels, which are available on Amazon (under the pen name of Carol Lynn Luck)…

• First book, Heroines of the Kitchen Table, is a novel about four women who defied Hitler and struggled to save their loved ones. These stories were woven together from ones told by my grandmother, my mother-in-law and two dear friends over their kitchen tables.
• My second book launch is this month (March 2016), in time for our 50th reunion. Gym Class Klutz is based on a few actual events from my days at GCM. It may bring you some laughs and memories of the ‘60s.
• Working on a third novel, The Day the Chalkboard Fell, based on experiences teaching in Mississippi, New York and Massachusetts.

Current president of the Massachusetts Association for Gifted Education
Member of the Writer’s Loft
Mentor/volunteer at Framingham High School and the Framingham History Center

Brief History:
After graduating from Purdue, I received my masters in science education from Cornell. Then I taught middle school and worked in hospital labs for a few years before returning to Purdue for my PhD. I worked in cancer research, primarily antitumor drug development and environmental epidemiology in collaboration with Mt. Sinai and Upjohn. Then my career turned to marketing and training scientists to use biotechnology software. While working for a company in Madison WI, I travelled to 46 states from Bar Harbor Maine to the Salk Institute in CA.

En route to the 20th GCM reunion, I met my husband, Ben, on an airplane. We corresponded and married a year later. When I moved to the Boston area (Framingham), I was hired as a technical director for Millipore Corporation. Our daughter was born in 1988 and our son in 1991. I stayed home with the children and helped my husband start his own jewelry business for a few years. When Lisa started school, we had just gotten a computer lab, so I volunteered and was then hired as the first technology teacher in the public schools. After 8 ½ years, I went to the Massachusetts Department of Education and worked as an educational technology coordinator, and later as a math and science manager, where I stayed for 10 years.

In 2013, I retired and started my writing career while still advocating for a meaningful public education that allows all students to reach their full potential.

Photos:

Lach family in Boston, Dec 2015