Dr. Lisa Johnson has been named associate vice president for student success at Tusculum College. While not a new position, the title change is part of an organizational restructuring around college goals. She will continue with her current responsibilities which include the office of the registrar, academic advising, and the Academic Resource Center.

Dr. Johnson previously served as assistant vice president for academic affairs, director of the School of Education and as assistant professor of education.

She will report to Dr. Ron May, interim vice president of academic affairs.

Dr. Lisa Johnson

“I look forward to working with the faculty, staff, leadership team and students as we pursue a variety of avenues to build and foster a sense of community that ensures the success of our students. The Board of Trustees and the administration of Tusculum College has shown long-term commitment to this effort, and it’s exciting to dive in and get to work on the projects we have in front of us,”  said Johnson.

In her new role she will serve as chair of the Retention Committee, develop and implement a comprehensive retention plan for all students, collaborate with the academic deans to establish Tusculum College as a transfer friendly institution, partner with faculty to foster engagement with students in activities both inside and outside the classroom, collaborate with core student success team to identify barriers to student success and develop an evaluation model to determine effectiveness as well as data to guide improved services.

“Dr. Johnson has contributed to the success of Tusculum College for many years in the various academic leadership and administrative roles she has held,” said Tusculum President Nancy B. Moody. “With her leadership in this new position, we are reinforcing our commitment to student success and retention.

“Having her skill sets dedicated to this endeavor will be to the benefit to our students, as she leads all the staff and faculty that have a role to play in this regard.”

Dr. Johnson, in her previous role, has led the efforts to institute Orange Rush week, a series of events on the Tusculum campus to encourage engagement among new students joining Tusculum as freshmen or as transfer students. Orange Rush activities began on Friday.

Dr. Johnson, who holds a Bachelor of Science degree in special education from East Tennessee State University, also earned her master’s degree and doctorate of education, both in educational leadership and policy analysis, from ETSU.

Dr. Johnson also currently serves as a program evaluator for the Tennessee Board of Examiners.

Tusculum College’s Center for Economic Development & Entrepreneurship is offering an informational workshop on the business development program, “Help Me Help You” on Thursday, Sept. 18, at 7 p.m. in the Chalmers Conference Room in Niswonger Commons on the college’s main campus in Greeneville.

To kick off the new year, the Center for Economic Development & Entrepreneurship will host the informational session to discuss the 2014-15 goals, provide more information about the HMHU course and allow possible course attendees to meet the individuals that comprise the CEDE.

Registration for this event is encouraged. Registration and information is available by calling extension 5256 or by e-mailing cede@tusculum.edu.

The “Help Me Help You” certificate program is supported by the Greene County Partnership, Main Street Greeneville and Rural Resources. The free program, designed to support small businesses, will consist of 10 sessions between September 25 and December 11 at the Greeneville campus. It will be open to 15 participants.

Fall semester spots are limited, and anyone wishing to sign up is encouraged to do so as soon as possible before the deadline on Sept.18.

Interested business owners will be asked to provide their name, contact information, business name and a brief summary about themselves, their business and their product or service.

Through the 10-week program, sessions will focus on market definition, cost administration, pricing, marketing and sales strategies, body language in business, financing, legal issues, networking and business presentations.

The program provides a huge opportunity for Tusculum students and local small-business owners to work and grow together both personally and professionally, thanks to community partners who have picked up expenses in order to allow the program to become established.

Operated by Tusculum College’s Center for Economic Development and Entrepreneurship, HMHU is committed to helping participants increase profits, create a business plan, expand their network and improve practical and interpersonal skills through a variety of globally tested activities. In the last three years, the HMHU course has assisted dozens of small business and organizations to reach their goals including retail operations, restaurants and other food establishments, service providers, non-profit and community organizations.

The program has the support of the Tusculum College administration, as well as the School of Business, the Center for Civic Advancement and the Office of Institutional Advancement. Because of community support, participants will not be charged a fee.

“The Help Me Help You course has been a perfect Christmas present for my business,” said Warren Verity, a participant in the course and the owner of a local photography studio.

“Two big take-aways from the class are being able to talk through and discuss the business plan in detail. The HMHU team has been there for me, encouraging, leading, understanding and providing a much-needed kick in the backside. Each team member has had my best interests at heart,” Verity said.

Tusculum’s faculty are a rare and unique breed, as working with students in three-hour blocks calls for talent, creativity and a constant desire to learn some innovative technique or interesting method to engage the students. This is certainly true with Heather Patterson, assistant professor of English and chair of the English Department.

Patterson has recently received a fellowship to attend the Salzburg Global Seminar where she hopes to bring back new ideas to motivate her student writers.

The Seminar’s mission is to challenge current and future leaders to solve issues of global concern. The seminar Patterson will be attending is “Defining America: New Writing, New Voices, New Directions,” and will focus on changing patterns in the American identity through literature. It will include a look at the disappearance of bookstores and the voices of new and established writers in an attempt to find out what direction American is heading.

“We have only exceptional writers amongst our faculty in Arts and Sciences,” said Wayne Thomas, interim dean of the School of Arts and Sciences. “Heather being selected for a Salzburg Seminar evidences that she’s amongst the best. Heather’s selection is quite an honor to her and to the institution that is Tusculum College.”

Patterson explained that the Salzburg Global Seminar, “will tender an important dialog that I can bring back to my institution to enhance the work we’ve very undergone to revamp our literature concentration. Since Tusculum College has made a commitment to exposing students to works often excluded by older models of literary canons, I’d like to return from this Salzburg Seminar with new ideas and approaches to introducing our students to ‘voices, writing, directions’ that have not only been neglected in the past, but that are also now emerging around us due to demographic changes, new connections made available through expanding technologies, changes in political climates.”

She hopes to explore the city during her time in Salzburg. Some of the places she hopes to see include Mozart’s birthplace and museum, the Hellbrunner Monatsschlösschen (a folklore museum), several art museums and galleries, and the Salzburg Cathedral.

“My participation in this seminar will certainly aid me in my mission to process the ways in which American writing is changing, the reasons for these changes and how I might open our literary journal and classrooms to the consideration of these transformations.”

She added, “I’m proud to represent Tusculum College in Salzburg. This is a global seminar, so I will be able — and so will those who are afforded the opportunity after me — to enter into a conversation that isn’t restricted by geographic boundaries, an important conversation that centers on imagination, sustainability and justice, the themes of the seminar that hold keys to human progress.”

Patterson has a Master of Fine Arts in fiction from Washington University and a Bachelor of Arts in English from Georgia College and State University.

Tusculum College is pleased to host two-time Watauga District Teacher of the Year, Mary Kent Whitaker, for the first Humanities Series event of the year. Whitaker will be giving a presentation on “Academic Freedom and Students’ Right to Read,” specifically discussing her and her students’ activism for the right to read Isabel Allende’s “The House of the Spirits.”

This event will be held at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 11, in the lobby of the Thomas J. Garland Library on the Greeneville campus.

Whitaker, a high school English teacher in Boone, N.C., has been an educator for 38 years. She is a National Board Certified Teacher and is currently the Watauga County District Teacher of the Year. She also received this honor four years ago and is the only teacher in the history of Watauga County Schools to receive this honor twice.

Written in 1982, by the award-winning “The House of the Spirits” follows three generations of one family as they deal with the Chilean Revolution. This is the selected reading for the sophomore honors English class at Watauga High School.

Content in the book upset a parent in 2013, who formally requested the Watauga Board of Education take it off the required reading list for all sophomore honors English students

Whitaker and students in the class opposed the action, arguing that class members have alternatives to this book. They can read “Moby Dick,” take a different English class or take honors English online. Also, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction lists “The House of the Spirits” as appropriate reading for sophomores in North Carolina.

In February of this year, members of the Watauga County School Board finally settled the controversy. With a vote of 3-to-2, they decided to keep “The House of the Spirits” in the curriculum for sophomore honors English.

Whitaker graduated from Columbia College in South Carolina with a major in English and a minor in art. She received her master’s degree from Appalachian State University.

She began her career in education as a high school English teacher in 1971.  Following that she was program assistant and then director of the Upward Bound program at Appalachian State University, served as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Eastern Caribbean and was director of the Center for Exceptional Children in Jefferson, N.C.

Whitaker’s teaching license includes high school English, middle school language arts, mentally disabled, learning disabled and academically gifted students.  For 10 years she taught the academically gifted and students with learning disabilities in Ashe County, N.C., followed by four years teaching middle school language arts. She has been teaching high school English at Watauga High School for the last twelve years.

This event is part of the Humanities Series, sponsored by the Tusculum College English Department. The reading is free and open to the public. Arts and Lecture credit is available for Tusculum College residential students.

For more information, contact Dr. Clay Matthews, assistant professor of English, at cmatthews@tusculum.edu

Tusculum College is pleased to host two-time Watauga District Teacher of the Year, Mary Kent Whitaker, for the first Humanities Series event of the year. Whitaker will be giving a presentation on “Academic Freedom and Students’ Right to Read,” specifically discussing her and her students’ activism for the right to read Isabel Allende’s “The House of the Spirits.”

This event will be held at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 11, in the lobby of the Thomas J. Garland Library on the Greeneville campus.

Whitaker, a high school English teacher in Boone, N.C., has been an educator for 38 years. She is a National Board Certified Teacher and is currently the Watauga County District Teacher of the Year. She also received this honor four years ago and is the only teacher in the history of Watauga County Schools to receive this honor twice.

Written in 1982, by the award-winning “The House of the Spirits” follows three generations of one family as they deal with the Chilean Revolution. This is the selected reading for the sophomore honors English class at Watauga High School.

Content in the book upset a parent in 2013, who formally requested the Watauga Board of Education take it off the required reading list for all sophomore honors English students

Whitaker and students in the class opposed the action, arguing that class members have alternatives to this book. They can read “Moby Dick,” take a different English class or take honors English online. Also, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction lists “The House of the Spirits” as appropriate reading for sophomores in North Carolina.

In February of this year, members of the Watauga County School Board finally settled the controversy. With a vote of 3-to-2, they decided to keep “The House of the Spirits” in the curriculum for sophomore honors English.

Whitaker graduated from Columbia College in South Carolina with a major in English and a minor in art. She received her master’s degree from Appalachian State University.

She began her career in education as a high school English teacher in 1971.  Following that she was program assistant and then director of the Upward Bound program at Appalachian State University, served as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Eastern Caribbean and was director of the Center for Exceptional Children in Jefferson, N.C.

Whitaker’s teaching license includes high school English, middle school language arts, mentally disabled, learning disabled and academically gifted students.  For 10 years she taught the academically gifted and students with learning disabilities in Ashe County, N.C., followed by four years teaching middle school language arts. She has been teaching high school English at Watauga High School for the last twelve years.

This event is part of the Humanities Series, sponsored by the Tusculum College English Department. The reading is free and open to the public. Arts and Lecture credit is available for Tusculum College residential students.

For more information, contact Dr. Clay Matthews, assistant professor of English, at 423-636-7300.

Professional barbecue cooks from across the country will converge on Tusculum College when the first-ever Grills Gone Wild barbecue cook-off and festival comes to town in September.

The event is scheduled for September 12-13 on the Tusculum College campus. The Grills Gone Wild Barbecue Festival is organized by the Inferno Group of Harrogate, Tenn., and will feature top-flight barbecue masters competing for the $5,000 competition prize.

Grills Gone Wild is a family-friendly event, which will include a barbecue cook-off, a car show, a 5K fundraiser run and many other activities. The event will be held in front of Pioneer Park baseball stadium on the Tusculum College Greeneville campus.

The public is cautioned that professional barbecuers will not be offering samples of their barbecue, but there will be food vendors available during the Festival.

Confirmed Pro Cook Teams that will be competing at this event include Contagious Q, Smoke On This, Sons of Smoke, Hoggy Bottom Boys BBQ, Under the Radar- TN, Our Dogs Like It! BBQ, East Tennessee Q Crew, Caught By The Fire, Last Smoker Standing, Pull My Meat, River Road Grillbillies, Uncle Butch BBQ and Harlan County Coal Burners.

On Saturday, the car show begins at 2 p.m. and will include awards for Best of Show, Best Engine, People’s Choice and many others.  The “Run in Glow Motion” 5k Run/Walk begins at 8 p.m., with registration beginning at 6:30 p.m.  A post-race party will be held at 9:30 p.m. Registration for the race includes a gift bag with t-shirt, glow glasses and various glow products.

Other weekend activities include vendors, inflatable attractions for children, live music and a corn hole tournament.

This is a Kansas City Barbeque Society sanctioned event, where the teams will prepare their best ribs, chicken, beef brisket and pork.

Grills Gone Wild activities will be tied in to Orange Rush weekend on campus, a series of events on the Tusculum campus to encourage engagement among new students joining Tusculum as freshmen or as transfer students.

This is the first year for the event, and organizers hope to draw people from around the region to participate and attend the festivities. The event has previously been held in London, KY.

In addition to Tusculum College, sponsors for this event include Big Green Egg, Amedisys, Fatz Café, DirecTV, Big Adventure Inflatables, Durham-Hensley Health and Rehabilitation and Fit Club. Stage entertainment and events will be provided by Electric 94.9 FM.

For more information on the event, contact David Martin, director of facilities at Tusculum College at 423.636.7300423.636.7300.