My Journey to Higher Ed

Some of my EDL 561 students wondered how I got into higher ed after I posted a VoiceThread which detailed my university experience. Let me explain here.

I noted previously that I "fell into" higher ed. That's true. It was never in my early career plan to work as an administrator at a university. In junior high I thought I might like to be a translator because I took several years of Spanish and enjoyed it. Then I became more interested in journalism through my work on the newspaper and year book in high school. I believe I did start out in college at the University of West Florida as a journalism major, but I found the inverted triangle style of writing (just the facts, ma'am) left little room for creativity. One course with Professor Tom Groth, Ad Man Extraordinaire, and I was hooked on advertising. Here was the job that allowed me to be creative!

I followed my undergraduate degree with a graduate program in Advertising and Public Relations at the University of Alabama. While there I learned a desktop publishing program called QuarkXpress. It would prove to be the thing that helped me get my foot in the door of higher education.

Immediately after graduating with my master's degree I joined my husband (David) of one year in Moscow, Russia, where he was enrolled in a study abroad program for his Russian language and literature major. I got a job at The Moscow Times, an English language newspaper for the expat community, in the advertising production department. Dave and I enjoyed our Russian experience so much that we extended for another year and I continued working for The Moscow Times.

On returning to the states we settled in Birmingham, Alabama where I worked temp jobs while I searched for suitable employment. UAB was looking for someone to produce their class schedule. This was back in the 90's when the class schedule was in newspaper format and since UAB was on the quarter system (plus a Maymester), the schedule came out five times a year. My graphic design skills, which have since badly eroded, got me the job; so I fell into higher ed. What I discovered was how very comfortable I felt in the college environment. Cheesey as it sounds, for the first time in my working life, I felt like I really belonged where I was working.

The rest is history. I moved to other positions at UAB, realized that I liked learning and helping others learn, took advantage of tuition benefits to get my doctorate, and was lucky enough to land a job at USA in 2006. Here I am six (wow!) year later, helping to introduce others to the joys of higher ed and to turn out higher ed professionals who will improve the field and the lives of college students!