Three Faculty honored as TCTC’s Educators of the Year

Three faculty/staff members have been honored as Tri-County Technical College’s Educators of the Year and will be recognized at the South Carolina Technical Education Association (SCTEA) meeting in February.  Dr. Brian Swords, director of the Easley Campus and QuickJobs Training Centers, is the College’s outstanding administrator; Deborah Brock, instructor in Medical Laboratory Technology and faculty development liaison, is the outstanding instructor; and Stephanie Winkler, coordinator of Disabilities Services, is the outstanding staff nominee. SCTEA is a professional association of technical education personnel and others interested in post-secondary technical education. A 20-year employee of the College, Dr. Swords currently serves as director of the Easley Campus, as well as the QuickJobs Training Centers in Anderson, Easley and Seneca and the Watkins Center classroom/lab facilities in Honea Path. In addition, much of last year he spent coordinating and overseeing a new matriculation (enrollment) process that focuses on student success and student engagement.  Those efforts helped to earn him the College’s 2013 Staff Excellence award.  Nominations from his peers lauded his work on the new matriculation process that focuses on proper assessment, registration for the right courses during students’ first semester and a support system in place to help the students throughout their college career.  Brock joined the College in 2006 as an instructor for the Medical Laboratory Technology (MLT) department. She also serves as the faculty advisor to the student chapter of the Future Laboratory Professionals Organization and is a regular presenter at state and national conferences focusing on topics that promote student success in the field of medical laboratory technology.  Last May she was honored with the highest award presented to the faculty.  She received the Presidential Medallion for Instructional Excellence at the College’s spring commencement. In her role as faculty liaison for professional development, Brock is instrumental in coordinating faculty development at Tri-County.  She manages professional development opportunities and coordinates new faculty orientations. Working as Disabilities Coordinator since 2011, Winkler spends much of her time on the telephone or in student meetings, educating new students and parents, along with high school groups, about the College’s resources that are available to help students with disabilities. She provides students who have a qualifying disability with equal access in their educational programs. She’s taken the lead on two major College projects this year, opening the new veterans center and co-designing and implementing the new Twenty20 mentoring and personal relationship-building program that kicked off last fall. Winkler teamed with Dean of Students Dan Holland to design a Twenty20 program for Tri-County that is similar to the positive experiences they had as college freshmen.  Twenty members of Tri-County’s faculty and staff each serve as “Twenty20 coaches” for twenty students to improve student retention and success.  This initiative supports the institutional goal of increasing student retention.  A pilot program began last fall with 10 coaches teamed with 20 students each.