August 15, 2016
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. – After successful nationwide searches, Johnson County Community College has selected the following higher education professionals for key leadership positions within the Instruction and Operations branch of the college.
Dr. L. Michael “Mickey” McCloud has joined JCCC as vice president of instruction/chief academic officer. He comes to JCCC from Metropolitan Community College of Kansas City (MCCKC), where he had served since 2004, as an English professor, a faculty senator, a member of the faculty salary negotiation team, and president of the Penn Valley Campus Faculty Association. He was associate dean of instruction at Penn Valley from 2011 to 2014, when he became dean of instruction for the Blue River campus of MCCKC.
His academic accolades include being a National African-American Achievement Scholar and a George Washington Carver Memorial Scholar and being named a State of Iowa Promising Teacher by the Iowa State Council of Teachers of English during his undergraduate years. His graduate accolades include being awarded a Kemper Minority Fellowship in 2000 and a School of Graduate Studies Preparing Future Faculty Fellow by the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 2001. In 2010, he was awarded as a Chancellor’s Dissertation Fellow and has presented his academic work at the Mid-American Medieval Academy and the International Medieval Congress. His doctoral work has yielded specializations in both English and history, and he defended his dissertation this spring.
McCloud is a native of Saginaw, Michigan. Graduating from Iowa State University with a degree in English in 1997, he taught high school English at North Kansas City High School and Park Hill High School from 1997 to 2004. In 1999, he completed his master of liberal arts degree in three disciplines – English literature, philosophy and religious studies. In 2016 he completed his interdisciplinary doctorate through the University of Missouri-Kansas City in the fields of English and history. His academic specialties include Middle English romance, knighthood and gentry studies, and Ancient and Medieval European History.
Dr. Vincent Miller has been named the Dean of Academic Support at JCCC. The Academic Support division includes the new Collaboration Center, Educational Technology and Distance Learning, the Library, Video Services, and Information Technology Planning for the Instruction and Operations branch of the college. Miller has worked at JCCC since 2005, first as a Project Manager in Information Services and most recently as Director of the Educational Technology Center and Video Services. Before coming to JCCC, he worked in Information Technology at Aquila/Utilicorp in Kansas City, Missouri.
In 2008, the League for Innovation recognized Miller as an Innovator of the Year. He was a participant in the 2013 EDUCAUSE/Next Generation Learning Challenges (NGLC) Breakthrough Models Academy, working on a project called FutureEDU, which proposed to develop an online platform defining multiple pathways through educational offerings, both traditional and emergent. He also presented on the topic of "The Future of Technology in Higher Education" at the Free State Festival in Lawrence, Kansas, in 2015. He was the 2014-2015 chair of C2C (Colleague to Colleague), a regional higher education instructional technology consortium that hosts the annual SIDLIT conference.
Miller studied at the University of Kansas and the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned his Ph.D. in Germanic Linguistics. He has held a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification since 2009.
Christy McWard has been named Director of JCCC’s new collaboration center. Currently under construction and opening this fall, The CoLab will be a regional hub of innovation, active learning and community engagement, facilitating collaboration on interdisciplinary projects among students, faculty and industry. The CoLab will support student and faculty connections to area businesses and community organizations, helping the college fulfill its mission to inspire learning, transform lives and strengthen communities. Follow The CoLab on Twitter @CoLabJCCC.
McWard has served at JCCC since 2004, most recently as Director of Marketing and Event Management. In that role she led strategic marketing for continuing education programs as well as planning and promotion of special events across campus, including fundraisers, performances, community lecture series, and many regional and national conferences. Prior to joining JCCC, McWard held leadership positions in magazine publishing, public relations and business development.
McWard holds a master of science in journalism/marketing communications from the University of Kansas and a bachelor of journalism from the University of Missouri School of Journalism.###