August 2023 Volume 7 Issue 1

Adjunct of the Year Award Winners (2022-23)

This is the second year the Faculty Senate has chosen Adjuncts of the Year based on colleague nominations. The awardees received enthusiastic and glowing nominations summarized below. The awardees exemplify the importance of our adjunct faculty to the success of our students and programs. While the Adjunct Awardees were announced at Convocation, please take time to congratulate them and thank them for their service to Nashville State.

School of Arts and Humanities

Lori Giblin, Adjunct Instructor, English as a Second Language (ESL)
Lori’s knowledge of the ESL field is top notch and Lori stepped up to help with ESL testing and placement during the pandemic and the recent retirement of the previous ESL Coordinator. Again and again, ESL full-time faculty wrote of their appreciation of Lori’s commitment and flexibility, helping the ESL Department survive these transitions. Lori was also a founding member of the Senate Adjunct Subcommittee and served in 2021-22 and 2022-23. Thank you!

School of Business and Professional Studies

Business: LaTasha Thomas, Adjunct Instructor, Paralegal Studies
LaTasha has taught technology based paralegal classes for the last four years and has gone above and beyond to keep updated with the ever-changing technology and ensure students have access to the most recent developments. LaTasha finds creative ways to make these technology-based courses engaging and relevant, changing the course to match the unique needs of students.

School of Business and Professional Studies

Social Sciences: Sean Bentzen, Adjunct Instructor, Political Science
Teaching political science courses at Nashville State for more than five years, Sean created the general education assessment for POLS 1030 American Government an important course offering in our Social Science general education core. Sean also gathered valuable course resources for a successful course redesign. Sean was a founding member of the Senate’s Adjunct Subcommittee in 2021-22. Thank you!

School of Health Sciences

Lynne Warf, Adjunct Instructor, Occupational Therapy
Lynne provides high-quality instruction and mentorship as an occupational therapy fieldwork educator. Lynne is an excellent communicator and collaborator, working closely with other faculty members to develop and implement new curriculum and teaching methodologies. The success of our Health Science programs depends on dedicated and caring fieldwork adjuncts like Lynne.

School of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math

Heehyun Kim-Son, Adjunct Instructor, Math Learning Support
Heehyun was one of the math adjuncts who helped us roll out the previous math learning support emporium model, jumped in to support the co-requisite model, and now is helping pilot seven week learning support. In addition, Heehyun tutors math in the Learning Center. Students seek Heehyun out each week. Heehyun shows how important adjuncts are to the academic support of our students.

Outstanding Faculty of the Year Award (2022-23)

Each year, Faculty Senate awards one full-time faculty the Outstanding Faculty of the Year. This year’s awardee was announced at Convocation and their accomplishments summarized. But, I’d like to do so again. Please take time to congratulate Rachel if you haven’t had a chance to do so.

Rachel Lewis, School of STEM, Instructor, Biology
While at Nashville State, Rachel has taught BIOL 1010, BIOL 1020, BIOL 1110, BIOL 1120, BIOL 1215, BIOL 2010, BIOL 2020. Rachel is the only full-time biology faculty on the Humphreys County and Dickson campuses. Rachel has taught on-campus, online, hybrid, and virtually. Then take into consideration that like the rest of us she managed to switch to online and virtual learning in 2020 at the start of the pandemic, but in a rural area where internet access was not a guarantee. Then just as the pandemic was easing up, in fall 2021, Humphreys County was hit by a catastrophic flood that affected Rachel personally and professionally. The Humphreys County campus closed. Then Rachel started teaching at the Renaissance Center Dickson campus in spring 2022, the Nashville State lease ends and the college is homeless. Without lab space in Dickson or Humphreys County, Rachel designs a hybrid that puts virtual labs online and the lectures in-person in fall 2022. Now, the Dickson campus will be seven-week terms only in fall 2023, and Rachel is shouldering that change in teaching style for the biology department. We are so lucky to have dedicated and multi-talented faculty like Rachel serving our extended campuses.

The Center for Workforce Development & Continuing Education would like to introduce “The Workforce Minute” where every month, our department brings you the latest news and highlights coming out of the WFD.

What is the Center for Workforce Development?

Maybe you’ve heard of the Center for Workforce Development but don’t know what we do. Our focus is providing non-credit students a tailored education for professional advancement as well as personal enrichment courses. We’re constantly moving to implement new initiatives and programs to better serve these students and the community.

Our Team

We’re comprised of 7 individuals with varying backgrounds and expertise coming together with the same goal in mind- to make a difference!

Joseph Johnson, Executive Director
Larry Mangrum, Workforce Solutions Consultant
Rob Tudor, Director, IT Partnerships
John Cunningham, Director, Healthcare Partnerships
Brenda North, Coordinator of Advancing Workforce Equity Grant
Jayla Crawford, Senior Administrative Assistant
Megan Murray, Business Operations Coordinator

 “The Workforce Minute” will feature stories and accomplishments of students and programs, so, stay tuned! We’re thrilled to include you on our journey to supporting Vision 2030.

Fall Forward 2023 was a great success. The Office of Online Learning and The Teaching Center collaborated to provide 6 days of professional development for NSCC employees. 117 employees completed 794.08 hours (about 1 month) of professional development. This includes:

• 598.92 hours (about 3 and a half weeks) focused on culturally responsive teaching practices.
• 542.78 hours (about 3 weeks) focused on Learning.
• 419.78 hours (about 2 and a half weeks) focused on being Equity Driven.
• 375.6 hours (about 2 weeks 1 and a half days) focused on Accountability.
• 269.3 hours (about 1 and a half weeks) focused on being Data-informed.
• 627.92 hours (about 3 and a half weeks) focused on being Student-centered.

50 NSCC employees earned the Fall Forward badge by completing 8 or more hours of professional development. Please join the Office of Online Learning and The Teaching Center in celebrating these employees’ accomplishments.

Nashville State Music Technology students Latif Vaden, Austin Collier, and Bill Durkin took home the Bronze at a Nashville Section of the AES (Audio Engineering Society) event. Area colleges with audio recording programs were invited to participate in the annual student mixing competition.

Each team was given identical raw original studio tracks, identical mixing environments, and eight hours to create a stereo mix. The students were only informed of the judging criteria and what equipment they would be using. The mixing was performed in post-production rooms at Paramount Global’s Country Music Television facility.

The panel of judges were made up of industry professionals.

Welcome Week 2023

Fall 2023 Events

August brings the close to our NSCC Campuses Summer Projects. Parallel to these efforts are the ongoing major projects which are now beginning to gain momentum.

Here is the overview of the NSCC Campuses Projects

• Clarksville: Project Design in Final Stages – General Contractor on Board – UNDERWAY
• Dickson:
  • New Campus Project – Designer Being Selected – UNDERWAY
  • Janitorial – Contractor – Additional Furniture Installed – COMPLETE
• Humphreys County: Janitorial – General Clean Up – Lab Equipment to Dickson – COMPLETE
• North Davidson: HVAC – Roof – Tile Floor – Hood – FEMA Trees – UNDERWAY
• Southeast:
  • Refurbishment Project – BID UNDER REVIEW
  • New Chiller Project – Commissioning – UNDERWAY
• White Bridge:
  • H – C – A – K Building Construction Pkg – AWARDED with 9-5-23 Start Date
  • Central Plant Project – AWARDED

The Summer Projects have been very successful due to the combined efforts of TSD, FM, Security, and the individual campuses departmental staff. NSCC benefits from these collaborative team efforts in preparation of the campuses for the returning students, faculty, and staff.