Gary M. Lavergne was born in the small Southwestern Louisiana Cajun community of Church Point where he attended a parochial elementary and a public high school. He was the son of a policeman and the cafeteria manager of the elementary school Gary attended. In all of his messages and presentations, Gary draws from his unique, rich Cajun background.
Gary earned a B.A. in Social Studies Education (1976) and a M.Ed. (1981) in Secondary School Teaching from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. In 1988, he earned an Education Specialist degree (Ed.S.) in Educational Administration and Supervision from McNeese University in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Gary has also done post-graduate study at Rutgers University, where he was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship in political science. He also attended a Program in Professional Education in School Law at Harvard Graduate School of Education.
After several years of teaching Social Studies at Rayne High School in Rayne, Louisiana, Gary became the first Director of the Southwest District Professional Development Center (PDC). In 1988 he was appointed the first Director of the Region IV Education Service Center of the Louisiana Department of Education. In 1989, he accepted a position with the American College Testing Program (ACT), and in 1997 he went on to become the Director of Admissions and Guidance Services for the Southwestern Regional Office of The College Board. He served in that position until August 31, 2000.
Today, Gary is the Director of Admissions Research and Policy Analysis at The University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of numerous Admissions Research reports for the University of Texas. In March of 2001 he gained international attention with his New York Times Op-Ed piece entitled "Is This the End of the SAT?"
In April of 2001, he was selected Outstanding Alumnus of the Class of 1976 by the College of Education at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and was honored at their annual Awards Night Banquet.
Gary has been published in regional, national, and international scholarly journals. His book, A Sniper in the Tower: The Charles Whitman Murders, has received rave reviews from best selling authors and many of the nation's largest and most respected dailies and trade magazines. In October, 1998 A Sniper in the Tower became available in mass market paperback from Bantam, Doubleday, Dell Books, but is now out of print.
Gary's second book, The Bad Boy from Rosebud was released in July of 1999. Dan Rather of CBS News called it "classic crime reporting." The paperback version of Bad Boy from Rosebud was released by St Martin's Press in November 2001. It is still available and is entitled Bad Boy.
Gary was also a featured author for Southern Scribe and the 1997, 1999, and 2003 Texas Book Festivals. He also moderated a 2004 Texas Book Festival featured session in the House of Representatives Chamber of the Texas State Capitol.
His third book is entitled Worse Than Death, and is the story of the largest mass murder in the history of Dallas, Texas.
Just recently Gary announced that his third book will be entitled Adult and Citizen and will be an account of the events surrounding the dramatic 1950 civil rights case Sweatt v Painter. Pamela Colloff of Texas Monthly said that the manuscript was “Vivid, absorbing, and gracefully written... Gary Lavergne’s gifts as a storyteller bring Sweatt’s journey, and the context of his struggle, alive. With a novelist’s eye for character and detail, Lavergne gives us an intimate portrait of Sweatt... Adult and Citizen is both a monumental work and a great read. Sweatt’s story is one that every American should know."
Gary Lavergne is a member of the Texas Institute of Letters and has appeared on DATELINE NBC, the Today Show, the History Channel, Biography, American Justice, and The Discovery Channel. Click here to see one of his appearances.