Three Faculty/Staff Members to Represent Tri-County
Technical College at SCTEA Competition

CONTACT: LISA GARRETT, EXT. 2315

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 10/29/2001
(By Lisa Garrett)

PENDLETON --- Three faculty/staff members have been selected as Tri-County Technical College's nominees for the South Carolina Technical Education Association's (SCTEA) outstanding educators of the year.

Durell Rochester, of Seneca, dean of instruction, is the College's outstanding administrator; Tammy Morton, of Westminster, Medical Assisting department head is the outstanding instructor; and Anne Bryan, of Anderson, executive secretary for the Office of the Executive Vice President and the Dean of Instruction, is the outstanding support staff.

They have been nominated by fellow SCTEA members and will be recognized at the SCTEA conference in the spring of 2002.

Rochester joined Tri-County as an accounting instructor in 1974 and was named head of the Business Technology department in 1980. He became head of the Computer Technology department the same year. In 1986, he was named Business and Human Services Division chair, and in 1991, he assumed the position of dean of instruction, the chief administrator of the college's educational programs.

Throughout his tenure as an instructor, he initiated the Business Leaders of Tomorrow Club and a scholarship program for business students, served on the Faculty Senate and worked with the Business Technology Advisory Committee to earn Tri-County's Advisory Committee of the Year trophy.

He has been selected as a nominee to represent the College at the SCTEA competition for outstanding educator of the year.

He is a member of the Chief Instructional Officers Instructional Affairs Committee for the S.C. Technical College System and is the state liaison for the Industrial and Engineering Technology Peer Group. He was recently appointed to the Faculty Credentials Appeals Committee for the S.C. Technical College System.

He and his wife, Nancy, live in Seneca.

Morton joined Tri-County in 1997 as a faculty member in the associate degree nursing program. Last May, she assumed her leadership role of the new Medical Assisting diploma program, which is designed to train students to become multifunctional health care workers in doctors' offices.

She is a 1989 alumna of Tri-County's nursing program. While a student at Tri-County, she was co-founder and president of the first Student Nurses Association and served as president of the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society. She received the Eleanor Nenstiel Nursing Leadership Award in 1989 and was named to Who's Who Among American Junior Colleges.

After graduating from Tri-County in 1989, she worked at Oconee Memorial Hospital's emergency room as an R.N. In addition to working at the hospital, she taught courses in the licensed practical nursing program at the Fred P. Hamilton Career Center and nursing labs for Clemson University.

She continued her education at Clemson University where she graduated summa cum laude with a B.S.N. degree in 1992 followed by an M.S.N. in 1996. At Clemson, she was a member of the Golden Key Honor Society and Phi Kappa Phi honor society and Sigma Theta Tau honor society of nursing. She was named to Who's Who in American Nursing in 1993 - 94. Currently she is a doctoral student in the Vocational/Technical Educational program at Clemson University.

She is a member of Sigma Theta Tau and was named a Virginia Henderson Fellow for the organization. She chairs the Southern Appalachian Leadership Initiative on Cancer in Oconee County.

Morton and her family live in Westminster.

Bryan joined Tri-County after almost 10 years of working for law firms in North Carolina. She holds a B.A. from Presbyterian College. At Tri-County, she is past chair and a current member of the Staff Advisory Committee, has served on the President's Council and is a member of the Faculty/Staff Workshop Steering Committee.

She is a member of St. Joseph's Catholic Church and the Concord Elementary School PTA.

She and her family live in Anderson.
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