About Nina:
Title: Senior Associate General Counsel, University of Maine System
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Role: System DEI Steering Committee Member
Phone: 207-581-5868
Email: nlavoie@maine.edu
Nina R. Lavoie is Senior Associate General Counsel for the University of Maine System (UMS). Nina has worked for the UMS for over 29 years. Before becoming Senior Associate General Counsel in 2010, Nina worked as an Associate Counsel, Legal Associate and Legal Intern in the Office of General Counsel. She received her J.D. from the University of Maine School of Law in 1994, a Certificate as a Law Enforcement Officer from the Maine Criminal Justice Academy in 1989 where she was the first female valedictorian, and her B.A. in Criminal Justice Studies from Kent State University, Kent, Ohio in 1988. Between college and law school, Nina served as a municipal police officer in two Maine communities.
“From the equality of rights springs identity of our highest interests; you cannot subvert your neighbor’s rights without striking a dangerous blow at your own.” – Carl Shurz.
What DEI means to me:
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion are more than words to me because I began my professional career as the only female police officer in two all-male departments. My first badge said “Patrolman” and there were no uniforms for women, so I wore men’s uniforms. Thirty years ago in Maine, there was no diversity, equity or inclusion in the law enforcement community. I was sexually harassed, excluded and referred to as the “Girl Cop.” Law School opened my eyes and mind to history and to the continuing inequity of civil liberties in our world. I found the courage to speak truth to power in reading John Marshall Harlan’s “great dissent” in the “separate but equal” case of Plessy v. Ferguson. I discovered the only way I could maintain the right to speak my mind was to make sure that those I disagreed with maintained the right to speak theirs. I have been fortunate to spend my entire legal career in higher education where differing backgrounds, opinions and perspectives are not only respected, but an imperative. This is my purpose.