Lorynn Divita

Professor | Mother | Mentor

Whatever her role, Dr. Lorynn Divita does it in style — and fashionably, too. As an associate professor of fashion merchandising at Baylor University and a mother of two, she finds synergy between work and play. Divita jokes that her life is like a teeter-totter, rarely in perfect balance. But by mentoring others and volunteering, she gets the most out of her busy life.

WACOAN: What brought you to Baylor?

Divita: It was a combination of my job and my husband. When I was studying at the University of Missouri and dating him, he made it very clear that if I married a Texan like him, we would live in Texas, and that was fine by me.
When we were engaged in 1997, we were driving from his parents’ house in Irving to [see] some friends in Austin. On the way back, we stopped at the Texaco station on Fifth Street, which is no longer there. I got out and stretched my legs, and I looked over and said, ‘So, this is Baylor? Do you know if [Baylor] has a fashion program?’ I wish I had had any idea that just five years later, I would be living in Waco, and it would be my home for 10 years.

WACOAN: Had you heard about Baylor’s fashion program?

Divita: Fashion is a very unique discipline in that not every university has a fashion program. They’re special. The majority of fashion programs tend to be at large land-grant universities. I was at the University of Missouri and because the number of fashion programs at universities in the United States is small, you tend to hear about them. I found Baylor so unique because it was private, Christian and because it was exactly what I wanted to do…

By Katy Cranfill
Find the full article on page 56 of the March 2013 Wacoan magazine