Fall — 2004

Laurie McElhannon and Susan Anderson

SMC Students 1975-Present,
UCLA & USC, Geologist & Physician’s Assistant

“The teachers at SMC are wonderful! I’ve met amazing people like Fran Manion in math and Gary Fouts in astronomy and Vickie Drake in earth sciences.”

Laurie McElhannon remembers the above teachers as being some of the best she ever had. And when she and her buddy, Susan Anderson, get together, their chats frequently center on SMC, where their long friendship began in 1991. “Laurie and I met in Dr. Arnold’s General Chemistry class when Laurie was studying physical sciences and I was studying life sciences,” recalls Susan. “And we’ve been friends ever since.”

From a common beginning, the two friends’ lives were to go on distinctly separate paths. “I’m a geologist working in the environmental realm doing risk assessment and due diligence,” says Laurie. “We check a lot of gas stations for contamination and safety.” Though Laurie began at SMC in 1975, Susan’s career path was perhaps even more circuitous. “In the early ’60s, few women entered medical school, so I became a social worker and a teacher. And it wasn’t until I was in my 40s that I finally became a physician’s assistant,” Susan recalls. “That allowed me to fulfill my personal dream of providing medical care to patients. And SMC gave me all the prerequisites to enter the program at USC.”

Fixing up the world and fixing up people. The two women have become a sort of ‘Butch & Sundance’ over the years in their own ‘buddy movie.’ And their dreams were given shape and form at SMC. “When I was four years old, I had a nurse’s outfit, complete with cape!” recalls Susan with a laugh. And Laurie’s love of science has her doing work for the benefit of us all. They’re friends throughout their lives. With the possible exception of the week leading up to the UCLA-USC football game….

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