NCC Employees Publish Best Practices in Higher Ed
Deana Guido, Dean of Transfer and Learning, Nash Community College
Articles written by two Nash Community College (NCC) employees have been published in national trade publications. The goal of both pieces was to provide lessons learned at Nash Community College that can be shared and adapted by other colleges.
In the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development’s (NISOD) Innovation Abstracts, Nash Community College’s Dean of Transfer and Learning Resources shared the college’s professional development experiences and instructional strategies. The article titled “If You Feed Them, They Will Come: Ten Commandments of Successful Professional Enrichment” explains NCC’s professional development experiences, Blue Love, the 10 Commandments instructional strategy and an AVID snack-and-share.
“Two years ago Nash Community College embarked on a campuswide, strategic professional development plan via AVID (Advancement via Individual Determination),” Guido wrote. “This comprehensive professional development included instructional activities that helped change the culture of the entire campus.” She described being part of this paradigm shift as one of the most significant and rewarding endeavors in her career. “Bringing faculty together from across the campus on a regular basis to identify barriers and build toward student success altered the trajectory of this campus, and the best is yet to come,” Guido continued.
NISOD was established in 1978 with grants from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Fund for the Improvement of Post-secondary Education. The organization is a consortium of two-year colleges sharing a philosophical commitment to excellence in teaching, learning, and leadership.
Guido holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in music history and theory from State University of New York at Geneseo, a Master of Science in library science from The Catholic University of America and a graduate certificate in counselor education from North Carolina State University. She is currently pursuing a Doctor of Philosophy degree in educational evaluation and research from North Carolina State University and has been employed at NCC since 2010.
Kelley Deal, Senior Director of Marketing and Communication, Nash Community College
Kelley Deal’s article, “Tried-and-True Strategies for Single-Handedly Managing Social Media,” ran in the National Council of Marketing and Public Relations’ July 2014 40th Anniversary edition of Counsel magazine and provides best practices for college social media managers. She recommends colleges use social media for customer service, and that they not try to have a presence on every channel, but to master where they are. “Social media should be used for more than one-way communication,” she wrote. “Sure, it serves as a medium by which we post announcements and share updates, but it is far more than that. Students should be engaged and feel informed because of the way you talk with them, not at them.” Deal serves as Nash Community College’s Senior Director of Marketing and Communication. “Being seen with only one follower and a couple of year-old posts can hurt your online clout as prospective students and donors may see this as an indication of your passivity in other areas,” she wrote. Deal joined the college in 2007 and holds a Bachelor of Art’s degree in communication from East Carolina University. She plans to complete her Master’s degree in communication at ECU this fall.
Both articles address the rapidly changing nature of higher education as an opportunity for community college leaders to be change agents. “Our prospective students’ world is instant and spontaneous. Today’s students are going to choose a college that aligns with their way of thinking, like it or not,” Deal said. “Millennials bring a different expectation of learning to campus,” Guido wrote. “Bringing faculty together from across the campus on a regular basis to identify barriers and build toward student success altered the trajectory of this campus, and the best is yet to come.”
