Midlands Technical College names top employees for 2015

COLUMBIA, SC – Midlands Technical College (MTC) announced its Employees of the Year for 2015 at the college’s annual Fall Inservice event.  MTC President Dr. Ronald L. Rhames; Robby Wilkins, Chair of the MTC Commission; and Joe Johnson, Vice Chair of the MTC Foundation presented the awards.

“Recognizing our Employees of the Year is one of the most exciting parts of Fall Inservice,” said Rhames.  “Our faculty and staff are the foundation of our commitment to excellence. The entire college community has the opportunity to nominate colleagues to be honored, so selecting just one employee for each category is hard to do.”

MTC’s Employees of the Year are selected by committees comprised of the college’s Executive Council, Faculty Council and Staff Council.  They are:

• Katie Fox, Harbison Theatre Executive Director, was selected as Administrator of the Year for her work at the theatre that regularly attracts more than 20,000 visitors per year to MTC, while including the community and K-12 partners.
• Ray Thomas, the college’s Welding Program Coordinator was chosen as Faculty of Year.  Thomas helped create a Memorandum of Understanding with Lexington Technology Center that allows their high school seniors to exempt the first semester of the welding program at the MTC.
• Tom Schlictman, Executive Director of Development, was named Supervisor of the Year.  Schlictman has more than 20 years of philanthropic higher education experience and chaired the college’s Scholarship Committee, and a scholarship award process that awards nearly $100,000 to students in dozens of academic programs.
• Rhonda Kirkland, Administrative Specialist for Allied Dental Education Program and Health Sciences Program, was selected Staff of the Year.  She was noted for her role in reaching out to members of the local business community boards and asking them to share their time and expertise with the college to make sure MTC students receive education that’s relevant in today’s workplace.

In addition to the 2015 Employees of the Year, Midlands Technical College also recognized the recipients of its two Distinguished Lecturer awards:

• Dr. Floyd Bowles, Engineering Technologies and Engineering Transfer Program Coordinator, was selected as the Dunbar Tompkins Distinguished Lecturer in Career Programs.
• Dr. Donna Zeek, College Transfer Program Director, was selected as the Distinguished Lecturer in Arts and Sciences.

“MTC’s faculty are among the best in higher education,” said Rhames. “Many of our instructors earn state, regional and national awards for teaching excellence. Being Distinguished Lecturer is distinctive because these awardees are nominated and chosen by their faculty peers.”

About Midlands Technical College

Midlands Technical College (MTC) is a comprehensive, multi-campus, public, two-year college serving Richland, Lexington and Fairfield counties of South Carolina. The fifth-largest provider of higher education in South Carolina and the largest provider of transfer students to four-year colleges and universities in the state, MTC enrolls approximately 18,000 credit students annually. The college’s Corporate and Continuing Education program, one of the largest and most comprehensive in the Southeast, annually has 30,000 enrollments and provides continuing education to hundreds of area businesses each year. MIDLANDSTECH.EDU