[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/www.faulkner.edu\/news\/christine-wiggins-a-life-of-service-storytelling-and-compassion\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/www.faulkner.edu\/news\/christine-wiggins-a-life-of-service-storytelling-and-compassion\/","headline":"Christine Wiggins\u2014A Life of Service, Storytelling, and Compassion","name":"Christine Wiggins\u2014A Life of Service, Storytelling, and Compassion","description":"Christine Wiggins is awarded the Accomplished Alumna Award at the 2025 Marketplace Faith Friday Forums. When Christine Wiggins graduated from Faulkner University in 2022 with her Master of Science in Counseling, she added an important new chapter to a life…","datePublished":"2026-02-04","dateModified":"2026-02-04","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.faulkner.edu\/author\/rburylo\/#Person","name":"Rebecca Burylo","url":"https:\/\/www.faulkner.edu\/author\/rburylo\/","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/37a0c97fbd1eda89e38697defcaf0573?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/37a0c97fbd1eda89e38697defcaf0573?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Faulkner University","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.faulkner.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/Official-Horizontal-480x128.png","url":"https:\/\/www.faulkner.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/Official-Horizontal-480x128.png","width":480,"height":128}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.faulkner.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/Christine-Wiggins-scaled.jpg","url":"https:\/\/www.faulkner.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/Christine-Wiggins-scaled.jpg","height":1677,"width":2560},"url":"https:\/\/www.faulkner.edu\/news\/christine-wiggins-a-life-of-service-storytelling-and-compassion\/","about":["Adult Students","Alumni","Graduate","Highlights","News"],"wordCount":537,"articleBody":"Christine Wiggins is awarded the Accomplished Alumna Award at the 2025 Marketplace Faith Friday Forums. When Christine Wiggins graduated from Faulkner University in 2022 with her Master of Science in Counseling, she added an important new chapter to a life already defined by service, advocacy, and connection. Today, she is not only a counselor and student advocate, but also a journalist and a voice for her community.Wiggins currently serves as the Director of Wallace State Cares at Wallace State Community College, where she champions students facing challenges related to food insecurity, housing instability, medical and mental health needs, transportation barriers, and more. Through this program, she ensures students receive the holistic support they need to stay enrolled and succeed.She also leads Wallace State\u2019s partnership with the Megan Montgomery Foundation, helping promote healthy relationships and raising campus-wide awareness about relationship violence. Another project close to her heart is upLift, an eight-year initiative she coordinates to connect female students with female faculty and staff for mentoring and encouragement.Wiggins also co-hosts the local morning show Cullman Today. Using her bachelor\u2019s degree in Broadcast Journalism from UAB, she enjoys reconnecting with her roots in media while engaging with her community in a meaningful way.Her path back to higher education was anything but typical. At age 45\u2014more than two decades after her previous degree\u2014she enrolled in Faulkner\u2019s master\u2019s program while maintaining a full-time leadership role at Wallace State, serving on her church council, and caring for her family. Her desire to better understand and support her students motivated her decision, but the program soon became deeply personal.Having personally navigated anxiety and depression, Wiggins found that the coursework strengthened her empathy and fueled her passion to help others overcome emotional challenges in their own lives.Despite the fear of diving into online learning for the first time, she found the experience empowering. She describes her Faulkner professors as supportive, encouraging, and deeply compassionate\u2014qualities that helped her thrive both academically and spiritually.\u201cThey really wanted me to succeed,\u201d Wiggins recalls. \u201cTheir kindness and grace were ever-present. They understood that each student faces challenges, and they impressed upon me that people are doing their best\u2014 and that everyone’s \u2018best\u2019 looks different from day to day.\u201dWiggins was invited to Faulkner’s Montgomery campus in 2025 for the university’s Marketplace Faith Friday Forums where she was honored as the Accomplished Alumna for the College of Education. Beyond her role at Wallace State, Wiggins spends weekends counseling clients at Cullman Family Counseling as an Associate Licensed Counselor (ALC). She is currently working toward the clinical hours required to become a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC). Whether working with students or clients, her motivation remains the same: connection.\u201cI enjoy working with people to envision and create a path out of what isn\u2019t working for them,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s a joy to see someone overcome something they once thought would take them out.\u201dWiggins is the mother of two teenage daughters and the caretaker of two dogs and three cats. She loves exploring new places, spending quiet time at home, and enjoying life with friends. She credits much of her happiness to one simple habit: practicing gratitude."},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.faulkner.edu\/news\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Christine Wiggins\u2014A Life of Service, Storytelling, and Compassion","item":"https:\/\/www.faulkner.edu\/news\/christine-wiggins-a-life-of-service-storytelling-and-compassion\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]