She sat in her office, a transgender pride flag hung on her office door.
She smiled, and friendliness radiated off of her.
Beverly Tomek, dean of Humanities and Social Sciences Division, laughed as she talked about her life before Michigan in her home state, Texas. Pecos, Texas to be specific. Home of the first rodeo, she threw in nonchalantly.
“I never was one of these ‘boo-rah’ Texans, I just never felt like it was the greatest place,” Tomek said. “I didn’t feel like it was awful until I would say like the last decade.” She attributed this to Obama’s election and the reaction that came from it.
She said moving specifically to Michigan was never on her mind. She only visited Michigan out of the need to drop her daughter off at college after she was accepted into Interlochen Center for the Arts, but that visit sparked an interest.
“The first time I really came to Michigan was when I brought her there, and I was like ‘This place is amazing.’ She fell in love, and every trip up to get her and take her back I fell more in love,” she said.
She said as much as she had come to love Michigan, coming to work at MCCC was a complete coincidence. While still in Texas, she saw the job posting and was intrigued reading about the school, still not knowing where the job was.
“I just started reading about the school and I got so excited mostly because of all the fine art opportunities, because it has music, it has band, it has art, it has choir, it has everything that I think is wonderful in life,” she said.
After learning it was in Michigan she applied, and after getting the job she moved up with her daughters in July 2023.
Once coming to MCCC, she was hired alongside Alia Pilcher, Humanities/Social Sciences Division coordinator.
“I enjoy working with her and I think she’s a great boss,” Pilcher said.
She said Tomek started around the same day as her, learning the ins and outs of the school together.
“If I had to do it with anyone, she’s the one,” Pilcher said.
However, a new job wasn’t the only reason Tomek moved to Michigan with her daughters.
Her two daughters, along with her son, all fall on the LGBTQ+ spectrum. While still living in Texas, both daughters came out to Tomek as transgender. Tomek said one daughter came out to her around May 2023.
“My immediate reaction was ‘Okay, fine, but I need to get you whatever you need,’” she said.
She said this was right around the time anti-transgender laws in Texas were taking effect. Scared of the possibilities of violence, Tomek decided that was her final straw and moved out of her home state.
Tomek said her political beliefs are nothing new to her, and she said she’s been left leaning her whole life.
She said her mother raised her and her siblings to be very alert about race issues, and to not only not be racist, but to be anti-racist. “My mom taught in a high school that was, I guess you would call it, ‘majority minority’, and she didn’t want to be like some of the people in town where we were,” she said.
Her concern with gender and gay rights formed in high school when a fellow student took his own life after hearing his parents use a slur for gay men.
“That was a huge awakening because I never thought about it before that. But I remember thinking ‘I will never be a parent who will have any risk of causing something like that,’” she said.
Her beliefs and her positive, kindhearted demeanor are apparent in her work at MCCC according to her coworkers.
Jenna Bazzell, associate professor of English, spoke highly of Tomek. Bazzell said her first impression of Tomek is similar to what it is now.
“She is one of the most caring individuals I have literally ever met,” she said. “It has not changed, it has only gotten stronger.”
Bazzell said Tomek is here by choice, not by requirement.
“She’s choosing to be here and choosing to stay here because she knows she can make a change and hopefully bring others together to be able to do that,” she said. “That’s significant.”
Tomek said she’s here for the students and she wants them to know that.
“That’s why I’m here, is for our students,” she said. “And I want to make sure everybody gets a fair shake.”
Tomek said she hopes for the fair treatment of everyone on campus.
“All I want for my MCCC students is what I want for my own children and all humans: to be valued, loved and respected.”
Tomek said she wants to “un-cruel” the world and will fight to make it happen.
“I ain’t giving up,” she said.
