Alumni Spotlight: Laura Greenwood

Alumni Spotlight: Laura Greenwood

SHSU College of Criminal Justice (SHSU COCJ) alumna Laura Greenwood (’15) has two words of advice for current college students.

“Don’t stop!”

Greenwood began her college career with SHSU COCJ in 1976. She experienced a freshman year that few, if any, other SHSU COCJ students can claim. During that time, her father, a former district attorney in the Corpus Christi area, tried a case in the Hazel B. Kerper courtroom in the SHSU George J. Beto Criminal Justice Center.

“He did a change of venue on one of his cases to Sam Houston State University,” Greenwood said. “All my friends were there. They grew up knowing my dad and they all went to the courtroom to watch him.”

Laura later paused her undergraduate studies to embark on a career with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice working as a guard, a groundbreaking move at the time since women made up less than 10 percent of correctional officers in the United States.  She later moved to New Mexico where she worked as a dispatcher with the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department.

After losing her husband to cancer in 2012, Greenwood set her sights on activism where she worked with lawmakers in Washington D.C. to pass legislation that benefits those affected by nuclear testing that took place during the 1940s.

At the same time, Greenwood says she felt pulled back to where her career began, returning to SHSU to complete her Criminal Justice degree – this time alongside a very special classmate.

“I wanted to finish what I started,” Greenwood said. “I felt something was incomplete in my life. I jumped back into Sam Houston and my daughter jumped in with me. It was especially cool because we graduated at the same time.”

Greenwood now spends her time serving on the board for the Texas Rangers Hall of Fame and Museum, where she was instrumental in working with Texas lawmakers to pass resolutions honoring the Texas Rangers on their 200^th anniversary in 2023.

She says from her perspective, all the exciting things she’s accomplished over the course of her career points back to SHSU.

“I could never achieve what I have if I didn't get to Sam Houston State University,” Greenwood said. “It was my beginning.”