Rural Community College Peer Learning Network: Sharing Community Facilities Grants Experiences

DeAnnia Clements holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Valdosta State University and a Masters in Computer Information Systems from Georgia Southwestern State University. She has more than 20 years of experience at TCSG, whose career in technical education began as an adjunct instructor for South Georgia Technical College in 1999. She would become a Computer Information Systems Instructor for East Central Technical College that later merged to become Wiregrass Georgia Technical College in 2010. Throughout the years, Clements became Dean of Professionals Services and Dean of Allied Health, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Wiregrass.

She received the Wiregrass Georgia Technical College Lewis I Brinson Leadership award in 2016 and serves on various community boards, accreditation teams, and workforce development efforts in the college’s 11-county service area. She is married to husband Jon Clements, who is an Insurance Marketer and they live in Fitzgerald. They have one son, Mason, who attends Georgia Southern University and is majoring in Biology/Physical Therapy.

Michelle Warren is a Grants Specialist for Wiregrass Georgia Technical College and an alumni of the college. Her personal experience as a student and employee has given her the unique ability to work with instructors to seek and obtain grants that will benefit students. She has worked at WGTC for four year within the grant department overseeing and managing all USDA awarded grants. At WGTC, she has an extraordinary opportunity to help students and faculty obtain the most up-to-date equipment for their labs and classrooms. With this hands on training, students are empowered with the knowledge needed to succeed within Georgia’s rural areas.

Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, Dr. Tiffany Evans is the Vice President of Academic Affairs at Colby Community College, in Colby, Kansas. Dr. Evans came to CCC from the Kentucky Community and Technical College System, where she served as the Provost and Chief Academic Officer at Elizabethtown Community and Technical College, the Interim President and Chief Executive Officer of Henderson Community College, and Special Assistant to the Chancellor at the System Office. Dr. Evans has also held leadership roles at South Piedmont Community College (NC), Salt Lake Community College (UT), Stephen F. Austin State University (TX), and Cuyahoga Community College (OH). She served as a faculty member these and other colleges and universities. Dr. Evans is an avid and successful grant writer and fundraiser, personally winning over $60,000,000+ in grant funds, and personally securing $22,000,000+ in private donations.

Dr. Evans earned her B.A. in Political Science from John Carroll University; her M.A. in Art History and History from Cleveland State University; her M.A. in Non-Profit Management from the University of Akron; her M.L.I.S. from Kent State University, and her Ph.D. in Library and Information Science from the University of Pittsburgh.