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Faculty & Staff Profiles

TCC SMART Center
SMART Center announces new principal investigator, director

The Southeast Maritime and Transportation (SMART) Center has named Thomas Stout as its principal investigator and Jennifer Palestrant as its director. Housed at Tidewater Community College’s Virginia Beach Campus, the SMART Center is the only National Science Foundation Advanced Technology Education center in Virginia solely focused on developing a pipeline of credentialed skilled technicians in […]

Elizabeth Briggs
Communications faculty started in banking but found her passion in teaching

Meet Elizabeth Briggs, who teaches communications studies at Tidewater Community College’s Chesapeake Campus. Briggs joined the college in 2011 after finding her passion in teaching. Why did you choose to pursue communications studies? “I didn’t go to college right out of high school and instead chose to go to into banking. I did well in […]

Rick James
Criminal justice students learn law and order in Rick James’ classes

You’ll learn more than fingerprinting and shoe castings from Tidewater Community College Professor Rick James. His favorite textbook costs a mere $1.25. It’s a pocket-sized copy of the Constitution. “Required reading in my class,” said James, program head of criminal justice on the Portsmouth Campus. “Education is power, and the Constitution is a symbol of […]

David Wright
TCC annual award winners to be honored on Aug. 17

David Wright, chair of the physics and astronomy department, is TCC’s Professor of the Year Tidewater Community College will recognize five faculty and staff members from across the college with annual special awards on Aug. 17. Selected by their peers, the honorees will receive their awards from President Edna V. Baehre-Kolovani at TCC’s 2017 Fall […]

Lara Tedrow
Psychology professor right at home teaching at Norfolk Campus

Norfolk native Lara Tedrow is a graduate of Maury High just like her mother, grandmother and cousins. It’s no surprise that she enjoys teaching psychology at Tidewater Community College’s Norfolk Campus, which is just a few miles from her home. Tedrow began teaching special education classes in elementary schools, but prefers the collegiate level. “Psychology […]

Linda Ferrera
Once upon a time she worked at 30 Rock. Now she’s a TCC instructor

Linda Ferrara rattles off a list of previous employers that would be the envy of many seeking to make a place for themselves in corporate America. 30 Rock? The Queens, N.Y., native was an executive assistant for RCA in the famed skyscraper. She’s also worked for the CEO of Bloomingdales on 3rd Avenue, Manhattan-based Cooking […]

Michael Plumb
Navy veteran turned professor loving life in the classroom 16 years later

Michael Plumb grew weary of being stalled outside the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel en route to Newport News Shipbuilding from Virginia Beach. The time-wasting commutes forced Plumb to rethink his career path. Now he’s got an easy 20-minute drive and a rewarding position as a program head at Tidewater Community College. Plumb is head of the mechanical […]

Krista Fulton
Krista Fulton works as a lawyer for the City of Norfolk by day, and at night, she teaches at TCC

Teenage single mother Krista Fulton could have ended up as a statistic. Instead, she is a lawyer and adjunct professor at Tidewater Community College. “I always knew whatever profession I chose, I wanted to do something that would actually help people,” Fulton said from her office in the Berkeley section of Norfolk. “I wanted to […]

Christine Chzasz
Alumna and arts professor lives, breathes and even wears Visual Arts Center

Alumna and professor Christine Chzasz loves Tidewater Community College’s Visual Arts Center (VAC) so much, she wears it on her sleeve. Or rather, her ankle. Her right ankle is adorned with a red column and the letters “VAC.” “I’m a walking billboard,” she quips. Chzasz describes herself as someone going nowhere fast as a single […]

Kyndra Brown
Staffer is passionate about preparing students to ‘go anywhere’

Kyndra Brown believes knowledge is power and everyone can learn. Those ideals make her perfectly suited to be the developmental education manager at Tidewater Community College’s Chesapeake Campus. Brown manages the curriculum for developmental education, which includes grammar, reading and math. The program involves more than teaching core subjects. Faculty also focus on basic study […]