AUBURN, Ala.—As a high school student in South Carolina, Christine Eick wanted to do something to benefit society and was interested in protecting the environment, so a program in safety and health management at Clemson University attracted her interest.

“I knew that medicine was not the career for me,” Ms. Eick said, laughing. “I'm good in an emergency, but I don't even like to watch an "ER' on television.”

After earning her B.S. at Clemson, she started work in 1987 for USF&G Insurance Co. as a loss control specialist. “That was just a fabulous learning experience,” Ms. Eick said. “It really emphasizes analytical skills. You're thrown into places you really don't know a whole lot about. So it teaches you to do your homework before you go.”

“Then, when you go out there, you have to ask a lot of questions and be confident to ask those questions,” she said. “So I think that was really just a great training ground for me, because I'm not afraid to ask questions or show that I don't know something, so I'm constantly learning.”

While starting a family, Ms. Eick worked as a consultant before going to work in 1993 as risk manager at Georgia State University in Atlanta. “One of my turning points was the College of Risk Management and Insurance called and they wanted some help with a safety issue,” she said.

While there, the college's business manager suggested Ms. Eick take graduate classes in the department. “I made that decision that day to start graduate school. And I'll confess it was more of a, "Heck, I'm here anyway; I might as well go to school'” decision, she said. “I later learned what a prominent department Georgia State's risk management and insurance is.”

Ms. Eick went on to earn a master of science in risk management and insurance at GSU. “I don't think I could be doing this job or be this successful without the technical training that I got from Georgia State University,” she said.

In 1996, Ms. Eick and her husband, Charles, came into the Auburn University community, she as director, risk management, and he to earn his Ph.D. “So it was a good move for us as a family and a fantastic move for me,” Ms. Eick said.

Since joining Auburn, Ms. Eick has earned a doctorate in higher education administration from the university while being named its executive director, risk management and safety in 2003.

“It was crazy. We took turns going to school,” Ms. Eick said.

Today, Charles is a science education professor at Auburn while one son is a sophomore at Auburn and the other is to graduate next year from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

Away from work, Ms. Eick and her husband enjoy bicycling—”my husband more enthusiastically than I do. He rides further and faster,” she said. “I ride more for transportation.” They also enjoy going to the beach, and Ms. Eick said she's “started taking advantage of being in a university town,” currently taking line dancing classes with a group of friends.

“Now that I don't have to be at all my kids' sporting events, I've started enrolling in university outreach programs,” she said. “It was a hard transition, but now I'm kind of enjoying the empty nest.”

Particularly striking is that with her two athletic sons in college, “I have leftovers now.”

“I do enjoy cooking,” the Auburn risk manager said. “That's probably my biggest hobby. I get a great deal of pleasure out of cooking for people.” She confided with a laugh that one of her life's goals is to appear on the Food Network.

Perhaps because of her university orientation, Ms. Eick also offered an interesting observation on some who have sampled her cooking.

“I was working on a recipe to enter in the "Ultimate Recipe Showdown' and the accountants are the best food tasters. I'd be bringing in my famous pumpkin muffins and the accountants would give them very good, discrete feedback; and public safety would say, "I ate them and they were both good.' The accountants were giving me feedback on the quality of the crumb and the subtle flavors and the moistness and what not.

“I thought, "Well I could do a research study on this, on the assessment of muffins,” Ms. Eick said. “Boy, isn't that tax dollars at work.”