Today marks the beginning of a new, exciting challenge for me. This past fall, Dr. C.J. Vires, Dr. Barbara England and Dr. LeAnn Self-Davis approached me about beginning a new program in photography at FHU. At first I didn’t think it was a viable possibility and wasnt sure I wanted to leave marketing, but after discussing it further with LeAnn, Dr. Vires and President Wiley, I was intrigued and ultimately decided to take on the new venture. Because of that, beginning August 2, I am an assistant professor of art, in the department of fine arts, in the college of arts and sciences at Freed-Hardeman University. I begin this after being the director of marketing and university relations at FHU for the past 16 years. While I am very excited about my new position, it is bittersweet as it marks the end of an era for me. I will miss working with Algene Steele, with whom I worked every day of those 16 years. Algene is a great Christian man, humble and wise and counted among my friends. I will miss Brad and Kristi Montague with whom I worked for more than 10 years. Kristi played a major part in allowing me to have this opportunity by convincing me to go back to school and get my master’s degree and ultimately my terminal degree (MFA) from the Savannah College of Art and Design. She has been a real inspiration through all of this, as has Brad and I love them and will always consider them wonderful friends. I will miss morning conversations with Nancy Bennett, who I replaced back in 1998, only to have her come back to be part of the team in 2011. She is the consummate professional and just an all-around wonderful person. I’m kinda fond of her kids too. I will miss Erin Marshall who never missed a deadline in the time we worked together and began to transform the image of the office because of her professionalism. She is simply awesome. I will miss Stephanie Pearson and her dependability and eagerness to do a job no matter how difficult or inconvenient. OMUR has had some great people over the years. I have great memories of Kelly Redd, rescued from WBBJ, ridiculed for his long hair, and hired because of his awesomeness. He became the university’s first web master. He is now a UI Developer and Senior Web Developer at loststudio in Nashville. I remember Bob King and our morning league basketball games. He has become a very talented graphic artist. I remember hiring Josh Woods who could drink more coffee and tea than any Columbian I ever met, now works at my former Alma matter as the director of communications and marketing at the Auburn University College of Agriculture and Alabama Agricultural experiment station…yeah I taught him everything he knows. I remember when we hired Anna Reid McAnally who was so much fun to have in the office, along with Kelly, Bob and Josh…nothing but good times. I think Anna has 47 children now with Ben her husband. I remember Leah Harrison, the only left-brain among us, whom we all feared, lovingly, as she whipped our office into shape and changed how the campus perceived us. She has gone on to whip University Advancement into shape. Staci Milligan who worked tirelessly to keep athletics happy…bless her heart. And of course both Jonathan and Caley Newberry who brought a fresh insight and creativity to the office at a time when we most needed it. Jonathan is now art director at Causelabs and Caley is a flourishing photographer in Nashville. Additionally, we worked with some great people outside of the university. One I would like to mention is Tennessee Industrial Printing Services (TIPS). Wayne Chambers, Kathy and Therese always delivered on their promises and made our office look great. Thank you TIPS. Finally I want to thank Dave Clouse for hiring me back in 1998. Dave is the best manager ever. While I worked for him from 1998-2008, he always stayed in contact and always provided counsel for me. I appreciate and love him for that. You the man Dave. As of today, the Office of Marketing and University Relations (OMUR) no longer exists. All marketing responsibilities have been outsourced (kind of) to The Bramblet Group. By kind of, I mean Jason and Dawn are both FHU alumni and work right across the street from FHU. They know us as well as anyone and will do a wonderful job taking over those responsibilities. I inform you of this change because any of you who may be in the ad business, feel free to forward you sales calls to them. ☺ As I think back over the last 16 years, I have great memories of this job and FHU. It is why I love this place so much and believe in her mission and those entrusted with creating a vision and purpose for it. Granted, not every moment was perfect. By no stretch was I perfect, but my intentions, to enhance the image of this wonderful institution, were always perfect. As I step into this new role I am very excited to be among the students, in the trenches, hopefully making this place a better, training Christian professionals to make the world a better place. I cannot wait to work with Laquita Thompson, Barbara England and Brian Bundren and we develop this new photography major and grow the fine art program. I also look forward to working with Steve Johnson and Janine Dunlap in the communication department. Now on to new things, the university has given me reign over the studio space located in the basement of Gardner Center. If you are on campus and want to see the space, visit with some great students, whatever, come by…I’ll be happy to youre your picture.
Posted on: Tue, 05 Aug 2014 13:52:16 +0000
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