VGCC Recognizes Six Employees with Annual Honors

At Vance-Granville Community College’s annual fall convocation, President Randy Parker announced several awards to outstanding VGCC employees. Collectively, the honors are known as the Glen Raven Excellence in Teaching and Leadership Awards.

Curtis Tyndall of Henderson, the college’s coordinator of Public Services, was named Staff Member of the Year for 2007, while Psychology program head/instructor Lydia Powell of Oxford was chosen as Faculty Member of the Year. Parker also presented President’s Leadership Awards to Senior Systems Administrator Vickie S. Watkins of Oxford, Vice President of Information Technology Kenneth Lewis, Jr. of Nashville, Dean of Prison Education Philip White of Raleigh and Dean of Adult Basic Education Leo Kelly, Jr. of Henderson.

Powell and Tyndall are now eligible to be considered for the North Carolina Community College System’s Excellence in Teaching award and Staff award, respectively.

Curtis Tyndall:

Curtis Tyndall, as Coordinator of Public Services, has been responsible for

administering training programs in fire, rescue, Emergency Medical Services and code enforcement since 1996. Tyndall is recognized as an innovator in “live burn” training for firefighters. He has demonstrated new techniques to instructors across the state.

Before becoming the coordinator, Tyndall was a part-time VGCC instructor between 1986 and 1996, while working for the Henderson Fire Department. Tyndall is also a VGCC graduate, having completed his Associate in Arts degree at the college in 2000 (while continuing to work full-time). As a student, he was inducted into the Phi Theta Kappa honor society.

Lydia Powell:

Lydia Powell has been a full-time VGCC instructor for the past 25 years. She earned bachelor’s degrees in psychology and education from Wake Forest University, and a master’s degree in Clinical Psychology from North Carolina Central University. After working in the mental-health field, Powell taught in VGCC’s education program and headed that program before becoming a psychology instructor.

Powell grew up in Nicaragua and lived there until she entered Wake Forest. An Oxford resident, Powell is active in her community and in her profession. She helped found the North Carolina Community College Sociology and Psychology Association, and served as that organization’s secretary. A fluent Spanish speaker, she has served as an interpreter for non-English speakers and has been involved in mission projects to Nicaragua and Panama.

As part of VGCC’s mission to increase its students’ global awareness, Powell and three other Arts and Sciences instructors organized a Global Studies program, which undertook a 25-day trip to Costa Rica in 2006. On the study abroad, 11 VGCC students studied biology and Spanish.

“Teaching is about finding your passion, and I find that I am energized as soon as I hit the classroom door,” Powell said. “Teaching is not only about motivating students to learn, but about communicating and bridging the gap between theory and its relevance to the real world.”

Vickie Watkins:

Vickie Watkins of Oxford is VGCC’s Senior Systems Administrator, responsible for maintaining the college’s administrative computer system, updating software, maintaining system security and back-ups and acting as a “help desk” for users. Her association with the college dates back to her days as a student at J.F. Webb High School, where she took classes at the college through the dual enrollment program. She later completed associate’s degrees in both Electronic Data Processing and Accounting at VGCC. Watkins worked at the college part-time for about two years before becoming a full-time employee in the Information Technology department in 1984. Since then, she has gone through numerous advances in technology, and the department has grown from two employees to nine. Most recently, she played a key role in the college’s conversion to a new computer information system as part of a statewide community college upgrade. Watkins has been an active member of the Institutional Information Processing System Users group, an organization of information-technology professionals at community colleges across North Carolina, and served as Secretary of the group for one year. At VGCC, she has also served on several committees.

Ken Lewis:

Ken Lewis came to VGCC in 2000 to serve as Director of Information Technology, and was later named Vice President of Information Technology in 2005. He graduated from Nash Community College in 1991 and holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from East Carolina University. Lewis is currently a doctoral candidate in Technology Management at Indiana State University. Before working at VGCC, Lewis was director of Information Technology at Halifax Community College. In addition to overseeing VGCC’s computer information system conversion in 2007, Lewis has helped lead efforts to enhance online instruction and to implement a first-of-its-kind distance education project for inmates at the Federal Correctional Complex in Butner. He is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the Institutional Information Processing System Users Group and the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, and holds several technical certifications.

Philip White:

Philip White is the Dean of Prison Education at VGCC, overseeing instructional programs for inmates at federal and state correctional facilities in the college’s four-county area. After growing up in western North Carolina and serving in the United States Army, White earned a bachelor’s degree at Western Carolina University in 1974. He taught in Costa Rica and then was the Education Director of Head Start in Davie County. White graduated with a degree in Agronomy from North Carolina State University, and then worked in that university’s Crop Science Department for several years before earning a degree in Curriculum and Instruction from NCSU in 1992. He worked for Wake Technical Community College in GED and English as a Second Language instruction from 1993 until he came to VGCC to coordinate prison education in 1998. In 2007, White’s department shared the college’s national award for the innovative distance education program at the federal prison in Butner.

Leo Kelly:

Leo Kelly, Jr. is a veteran VGCC employee, currently serving as Dean of Adult Basic Education (overseeing GED and Adult High School programs) and head of the English as a Second Language program. He earned a B.A. at North Carolina Central University and a master’s degree from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. In 1971, Kelly started working at VGCC full-time as assistant director of adult education, and he later became Dean of Continuing Education. Under Kelly’s leadership, VGCC’s GED and Adult High School programs have grown to become the third-largest in the state. Active in his community, Kelly serves on the Maria Parham Medical Center board of directors and has been involved in leadership roles with the Henderson Family YMCA, Vance County Arts Council, Vance County Chamber of Commerce board of directors, local State Employees Credit Union advisory board, Cotton Memorial Presbyterian Church and the Community Relations Council for the Kittrell Job Corps. Kelly is also a former member of the Henderson City Council. Kelly has also taken on statewide leadership roles on the North Carolina Community College Adult Education Association board, the Adult Basic Education Leadership Board for the community college system, and the American Association of Community Colleges Council on Black American Affairs (North Carolina chapter).

Above: VGCC’s 2007 award winners included, from left, seated, Staff Member of the Year Curtis Tyndall and Faculty Member of the Year Lydia Powell; from left, standing, President’s Leadership Award recipients Leo Kelly, Ken Lewis, Philip White and Vickie Watkins. (VGCC photo)