Cambridge College Springfield

Mental health counselor and pastor Carmen Vega [MEd MHC '17], who was born and raised in Lawrence, has been appointed executive director of Lazarus House Ministries, a faith-based organization that provides food, shelter, and guidance to families and individuals in need. Vega describes herself as “a Lawrencian through-and-through.” She was raised by a single mother who lost her job due to inadequate child care. Vega attended middle and high school in Lawrence, then went on to earn a bachelor’s degree at Mount Washington College in New Hampshire and a masters in education from Boston’s Cambridge College. She received her licensure as a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and settled in her beloved Lawrence with her husband and children. Her experiences growing up in Lawrence have given her an open-minded empathy for the clients at Lazarus House. She shares of her childhood, “I was raised in the Hancock Housing Projects in Lawrence. My family, friends, and neighbors all struggled with the issues we see in a typical urban city – some of the same hardships that the families we serve at Lazarus House are working hard to overcome. “We are all only one life event away from homelessness or food insecurity,” Vega says. “We don’t judge. We welcome, we love, and we support.”