Pamela Aue will retire from teaching, but not from singing at HFC

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Headshot of Pamela Aue.

After teaching for a year in higher education, HFC health sciences instructor Pamela Aue decided that teaching wasn’t for her – until she got a call from HFC (then Henry Ford Community College) in 2009.

“My adventures in teaching at HFC would never have happened if I hadn’t been in the right place and right time to say yes when two people I’ll never know withdrew from teaching classes they had been scheduled for, leaving students who were already registered without anyone to teach them,” recalled Aue. “Prior to becoming an instructor, I had been on the HFC campus a lot, starting in the fall of 1999, singing with Vanguard Voices and later with Renaissance Voices, both directed by (HFC retired music instructor) G. Kevin Dewey. That’s how the teaching opportunity arose.”

As 2025 draws to a close, Aue will retire from teaching at HFC – but not from singing.

“For the first time since 2009, I won’t be teaching when January comes,” she said. “I’ll still be on campus regularly for Vanguard Voices rehearsals on Thursday nights. I used to say that my HFC ‘life’ began in the Choir Room (Room F-113) in the MacKenize Fine Arts Center (Building F on the main campus), and when I was done teaching, I’d just go back to hanging out in the Choir Room. It looks like that’s exactly what I’m going to do!”

Working for textbook publishers led to teaching opportunity

The eldest of five, Aue was born in Boston. She moved to Michigan with her family when she was 10. She and her husband Craig live in Dearborn. The couple has two adult children and four grandchildren.

Aue is an alumna of Mount Pleasant High School. After graduation from high school, Aue earned her bachelor’s degree in English with minors in French and Russian from Central Michigan University. She later earned her master’s degree in English and language arts with a focus in curriculum development from Wayne State University.

Prior to HFC, Aue spent more than a dozen years writing and editing for Cengage Gale, McGraw Hill, and other educational companies that produced reference or textbook content in multiple academic disciplines. Her work for Gale primarily consisted of quality control of the statistical graphs and tables for the Information Plus titles, which focused on healthcare, economics, and social issues. She gained a deep familiarity with medical informatics from government databases and publications from agencies such as:

One-time teaching assignment became 16 years

Initially, Aue had no teaching plans beyond stepping in at the last minute to teach two 8-week sections of Computers in Health Care to help out now-retired Project Manager Roxanne Lopetrone of what is now the HFC School of Business, Entrepreneurship, and Professional Development (BEPD). Aue met Lopetrone in Vanguard Voices.

“Roxanne had hired someone to teach an accelerated version of the course as part of a state-funded workforce development program to get people into Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) jobs,” explained Aue. “Four days before the program began, the instructor backed out. Roxanne knew I had some teaching experience (at Baker College and Davenport University), so she asked if I would be willing, on very short notice, to teach basic computer skills with a healthcare focus.”

Aue accepted. Then-Associate Dean of Health Careers Ron Bodurka met with Aue, reviewed her portfolio of health sciences-related publishing work, and arranged for a full-time faculty member – now-retired Pharmacy Technician instructor Theresa Mozug – to mentor her.

“When the opportunity to teach came up, I learned about medical informatics, bioinformatics, health information technology, public health, robotic surgery, telemedicine, and everything else that class touches upon in addition to basic computer and information literacy. I’ve acquired and maintained health-related credentials and Continuing Professional Education (CPE) units over the years and have met departmental standards. That’s how an English major got to teach a health sciences-related course! Health sciences found me rather than the other way around,” explained Aue.

After those initial sessions ended, Bodurka asked Aue if she would teach a regular section of the class during the fall semester.

“No one else probably wanted that Friday afternoon section,” said Aue, laughing. “I said yes. Then in mid-August, I received a call from the Health Careers office: Would I be available to teach two more sections of the course that fall? I said yes and have kept saying yes every year, with gratitude for the continuing opportunity to do this work.”

Teaching has been an “unbelievable privilege”

Aue’s main reason for retiring is family and friends. This past June, her husband retired.

“Pretty much everyone I grew up with is now retired – some just recently, others years ago – so it feels like the right time to join that party!” said Aue. “Also, my mom is 91 and I’d like to be more available to her.”

For Aue, the best part of teaching has been supporting and inspiring students in their pursuit of higher education and a better life.

“HFC has provided me the unbelievable privilege to do that for hundreds and hundreds of students,” she said. “Their journeys have inspired me to continue doing this for longer than I would have imagined. A few years ago, I met one of my students from that first semester I taught in 2009. She continued her education and became the director of nursing at the assisted living center where my mom has lived since 2022. Within the past year I learned that another former student has been one of my mom’s favorite caretakers at her current residential center. Being able to play a small role in launching students into their healthcare education – and then to see where they go – has been so inspiring!”

While she confessed she won’t miss the Learning Management System or Teams meetings, She will miss the camaraderie among colleagues and students.

“After I made the decision to start 2026 as a retired person, I had no second thoughts or regrets until I participated in several forums during the recent Higher Learning Commission (HLC) site visit to campus,” said Aue. “It brought back all the enthusiasm and collegial energy I remember from my years as one of the first group of adjunct members of the Faculty Senate, serving on two Strategic Planning groups, participating in Center for Teaching Excellence and Innovation events, attending Faculty Org and State of the College meetings, wearing the ‘How may I help you?’ badges and T-shirts at the start of the semester. I will miss being an active part of the College’s mission, but I will still feel like I’m part of the community.”

A note about retiree stories

We value the contributions of all our retirees. When we become aware of a colleague's official intent to retire, we reach out to them to ask if we can write a story about them, to share their contributions and allow others to recognize and appreciate them. Some of our retirees decline to participate in the retiree story series. We respect their wishes and their privacy. If there is a retiree whom you want to see recognized in this series, you can talk to that person or reach out to HFC Communications. We will let you know if the person has declined to have a story published. In some cases, we might not be aware of their plans to retire.

—HFC Marketing and Communications