Business professor Carolyn Seefer doesn’t let 2,416 miles interfere with her passion for teaching.

This semester, she’s doing a full load of DVC classes online while living in Washington, D.C.

Seefer moved there with her husband, Christopher, after he became the new assistant director and deputy general counsel of the Financial Crises Inquiry Commission, formed by Congress to study the meltdown on Wall Street and report its finding to President Barack Obama.

“I was able to work things out with DVC,” said Seefer, who is teaching Applied Accounting and Business English from her furnished apartment in the 19th century building located in the Dupont Cidre neighborhood, just north of the White House.

She does most of her work at an antique desk in their apartment, but soon the Library of Congress will become her new office.

“I plan to do some of my work there in the magnificent and historic Main Reading Room in the Jefferson Building,” said Seefer, who started teaching at DVC in August 1996.

While teaching her courses online has its perks, Seefer admits to a big disadvantage.

“I miss seeing my students in person,” she said.

But she doesn’t let this stop her from connecting with them.

“I post photos and personal anecdotes so that my students can get to know me, and I encourage them to do the same.”
Seefer started teaching at the college level in 1987 and still has the passion for the job as she did 23 years ago.

“I remember playing ‘teacher’ as a child—it’s just something I always knew I would do,” she said.

The Commission her husband works for has held only two days of hearings so far, and Seefer attended them both, sitting in the same room with important bankers like Bryan Moynihan, Bank of America; Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase; and Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sachs.

When not at her antique desk or watching the hearings, Seefer attends media events as a member of the Newseum, a 250,000 square foot museum devoted to journalism located on Pennsylvania Avenue, next to the White House.

But what she does in her free time is not the only thing that has changed for Seefer. She has also had to adapt to D.C.’s harsh winter.

“I was able to experience ‘Snowmageddon,'” she said. “What an exciting time to be in our nation’s capital.”
 

Contact Christa Balingit at [email protected]