Coming from a family of academics, Lauren Wagner’s journey to becoming a radio, TV, and film production professor and, more recently, the Cosumnes River College Academic Senate President was almost as if it was scripted.

From a young age, Wagner always found herself gravitating towards TV and film and pondering their meaning, she said. She had a slight hesitance about her major in the beginning, thinking about becoming a lawyer, but said her passion was always media.

“I love thinking about TV and movies,” Wagner said. “Even nerding out on social aspects of, or the power of media, and how people can find identity in what they choose to watch and how we can use the media to regulate mood. I just dig it, so what else was I going to do?”

Her mother, Christine Wagner, who taught on campus as a communication studies professor, said Lauren was always in front of a TV growing up and was consistently expressing creativity, which is apparent in Lauren Wagner’s teaching.

“I think this suits her creative spirit, which is what TV and film allows you to do,” Christine Wagner said. “She said to me once ‘you got all these troubles and things in the world that bother you and make life complicated, exhausting and wonderful at the same time, but there always comes a time where you want to be taken away from all of that for an hour or two and that’s what a movie does.’”

After Christine Wagner suggested the programs offered on campus, Lauren Wagner decided to take classes at CRC before transferring to a four-year university.

“She told me there were classes that I could take right away that would give me hands-on experience in TV and studios and doing stuff that I was really interested in,” Lauren Wagner said. “That sounded better to me than waiting until my junior year at a four-year university.”

Lauren Wagner said it was great to have her mother’s help as she navigated campus life as a student at CRC and later as a faculty member.

“You don’t know what you don’t know,” Lauren Wagner said. “It was helpful to have someone tell you ‘this is what this committee does, this is what this department does.’”

Lauren Wagner said seeing the difference between what students see versus faculty was a lot to absorb, but with her mother on campus, it made the transition smoother.

Christine Wagner said she, along with her husband David, who also works in higher education, loved to help Wagner any chance they could.

“It gives us a good opportunity to connect and share. I had some history, I knew some of the faculty that she was working with,” Christine Wagner said. “Since I had some of the senate history, she could talk about a resolution or something and I could say ‘well, there’s a story behind that’ and then I would fill in details that I would remember. It’s good to have a bit of oral history at your disposal.”

Lauren Wagner’s former RTVF professor Gary Martin, said Wagner was an outstanding student.

“There are very few students who worked as hard as she did to get good grades,” Martin said. “She had a strong interest in the course content.”

Martin said interest in the content is only half of the battle in the media industry, but Wagner had the full package and more.

Martin said Wagner has the people skills that are respected and appreciated by those around her.

“It is difficult to be successful in our industry if you aren’t one of the people who other working professionals want to be around,” Martin said. “You have to work and play well with others, and Lauren just had that natural gift in connecting with other students, and later on other faculty.”

Wagner got her Bachelor of Arts in Broadcast and Electronic Media from San Francisco State University, later going to graduate school at University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts.

Wagner went on to work on more televised productions in Hollywood after getting her bachelor’s degree, helping on projects like “The Big Spin” game show, commercial work, graphic design and freelancing.

In 2010, she found herself coming back to CRC as a part-time RTVF professor.

“The dominos fell a particular way and it led me back home,” Wagner said. “I couldn’t stay away.”

After teaching on campus for nine years, Wagner was approached by former Academic Senate President Greg Beyrer, to fill a vacant representative and senator spot. After lots of convincing, Wagner agreed to join.

“I was like ‘I don’t know, man. I don’t know if I would be good at any of that,’” Wagner said. “He appointed me anyway and I became a senator and did that for several years.”

This pattern continued with Wagner being convinced to fill vacant positions until she found herself being the academic senate vice president and later running and becoming the senate president.

Christine Wagner, who served as Academic Senate president in her fourth year of teaching, said she’s happy Lauren Wagner has the opportunity to show off more of her skillset as senate president.

“I know it’s a tough job for her right now, but I think she’s well suited for it,” Christine Wagner said.

Communication studies professor Georgine Hodgkinson said she has known Wagner for many years, and having been a senate president herself, said she was not surprised that Wagner was appointed as senate president.

“I was definitely a supporter of Lauren and I feel very confident she is going to excel in this role. She is smart and she’s ethical. I think that those things matter,” Hodgkinson said. “I think that she’s well suited for leadership and I think she’d make a great district president as well.”

Hodgkinson said that both of the Wagner women had great personalities separately, but one trait shines through both of them on campus.

“They're both student-focused. They are both the kind of teacher who would go above and beyond for their students,” Hodgkinson said. “They both deeply care for their students and you can tell. When a teacher is there and they really like their job, and really like their students, it comes through.”

Hodgkinson said that the Wagner name would be mentioned in conversations by students around campus praising them.

“I have heard students comment on how much they’ve learned. They were just really blown away with how much they learned and got out of that class,” Hodgkinson said. “I think that both women bring so much expertise into the classroom and work so hard to do a good job. Students who take their classes are very fortunate.”

Courtney Ramirez, instructional assistant for the RTVF department and former student of Wagner’s, said she appreciated how Wagner organized her classes.

“I knew how she taught. I knew her structure and knew what to expect. She is more structured than most,” Ramirez said. “There’s a reason why she has things structured a certain way. If we don’t hit that certain thing in that class, then everything gets deterred.”

Ramirez said even though they are coworkers now, Wagner’s welcoming and joking nature stayed the same throughout it all whether they were student-teacher or colleagues.

“She pretty much treats you like an adult as a student, so it’s not all that different now. I just get to see more in depth of what’s happening in the department,” Ramirez said.

Martin said that he always saw Wagner in a leadership position even as a student. He said in his advanced classes, Wagner was a producer of their game show, “Tree of Totally Useless Knowledge,” and was very enthusiastic about her work.

“She had the leadership position and she was instrumental in making the show go,” Martin said.

Martin said he was proud Wagner was taking the opportunity to lead the senate, though he was not surprised she was elected.

“Her mom was a senate president, and I was certainly too, but the fact that she is also stepping into that type of leadership role to represent all of the faculty in dealing with the administration and the college president says a lot about who she is and the fact that she is respected by the faculty at large,” Martin said.

Wagner said since being elected senate president this year, she is figuring it out day by day.

“I’m still learning as I go,” Wagner said.