Susanne Dubord

Alumni

Today, Susanne Dubord is employed as Delta County’s chief deputy county clerk – a position where she relies heavily on the skills she learned as a Bay College student. Susanne earned her associate degree from Bay in 2006 after attending the college at three different points in her life.

Susanne graduated from Gladstone Area High School in 1988 before heading to Bay College that fall – though she did not stay there for long.

“I went to Bay right away for one semester, but my fiancé was in the Army, so we got married and moved away,” she said.

According to Susanne, she and her husband moved to Fort Knox, Kentucky in 1989. By then, she was a stay-at-home mother.

In 1992, Susanne and her husband moved back to Gladstone.

“It’s where we were from, and he was getting out of the military and didn’t have a job at the time,” she said.

At that time, she found what was initially a part-time job as an administrative assistant for the Gladstone Housing Commission.

“The job was right for my skillset, the hours were what I needed them to be, the location was right – it was just kind of a combination,” Susanne said.

On top of that, Susanne was able to return to Bay in the fall 1994 semester.

“I wanted to finish my degree, and I was able to go part-time and take a class a semester while still working and being a mom,” she said.

When she returned to Bay, Susanne was a business administration major. She said this decision was motivated by this pathway’s ties to the work she was already doing at the housing commission. However, her second stint at Bay was also cut short ahead of schedule. She had another child in 1996; as a result, she no longer had the time to continue college classes.

But this was not the end of Susanne’s journey as a Bay student – she returned to the school for a third and final time as a full-time student in 2004. Then, she graduated in 2006 with her associate degree in business administration.

“It actually felt pretty good, finally finishing something that I started,” she said.

Because of Susanne’s unique history as a Bay student, she had a chance to attend many different types of classes offered by the college.

“The first time I went, it was strictly day classes – I was just out of high school, and my main goal was just to continue going to school. I didn’t have the obligations of a full-time job or a family at that point. When I went back after having kids, everything had to be night classes, weekend classes, and eventually some online classes. I managed to catch some of those as they were starting to utilize the online system,” she said.

Still, she said her instruction remained consistently high-quality, thanks largely to the dedication of her teachers.

“I ended up being blessed with some very, very good instructors. The quality of the staff that was working when I was there was rather excellent,” Susanne said.

After graduating from Bay, Susanne continued to work at the Gladstone Housing Commission through February 2009.

“Then, I ended up applying for and getting the job of elections and vital records clerk for Delta County,” she said.

Susanne worked in this role until the summer of 2017. She entered her current role as Delta County’s chief deputy county clerk at that time.

In this position, Susanne said she has a broad range of job duties.

“It involves entering filings for circuit court (both civil files and criminal files), opening new cases, continuing to help with the elections, helping customers at our office get the documents they need or figuring out where to get the documents they need, processing restitution and bonds for circuit court, and maintaining files,” she said of her current role.

Fortunately, she was able to prepare for this job with the skills she acquired at Bay.

“I took several computer classes, which have really helped me. I use Excel a lot, and I like that they had a specialized class strictly for Excel,” Susanne said.

Additionally, this experience has helped Susanne deal with her office’s ongoing switch to new software.

“My classes at Bay have helped me move the process along. I’ve been able to provide a lot of input on features we’d need in the proposed new software and make the conversion as simple as possible,” she said.

According to Susanne, she is not the only member of her family who has attended Bay. Her daughter graduated from Bay’s nursing program in 2015.

“It’s been very successful for her. She is now a labor and delivery nurse at Mayo Clinic in Eau Claire, Wisconsin,” she said.

Susanne said she is pleased Bay is part of the local community, especially due to the “broad spectrum” of educational opportunities it provides.

“I think that Bay is an excellent resource for our young people. Not everyone’s meant to go off to a four-year college, and it’s good that we recognize that and give them options,” she said.