AMERICUS — Josephine Reed-Taylor, Ed.D., chief academic officer for the Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG), is  keynote speaker for this year’s Black History Month program at South Georgia Technical College (SGTC). The program will be held at 11 a.m. Feb. 17 in the John M. Pope Industrial Technology Center on SGTC’s Americus campus. The public is invited.
Reed-Taylor formerly served as the deputy commissioner for TCSG, the Georgia State Director for Adult Education, and the Senior Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs at Minneapolis Community and Technical College. Under her leadership as deputy commissioner of TCSG, the system converted from quarters to semesters, merged several colleges, and increased transfer and articulation agreements with the University System of Georgia and the Georgia Association of Independent Colleges. The system is a partner in Complete College Georgia, the Accelerating Opportunity Initiative for adult education students and other efforts to increase collaboration between K-12 and postsecondary education.
Reed-Taylor serves on the national Board for the Jeremiah Program that focuses on reducing two-generational poverty, volunteers with a local program for homeless teens and young adults, is a member of Leadership Atlanta class of 2010, and is particularly interested in expanding educational access and employment opportunities for those underserved in the community. She holds a doctorate in educational administration from the University of Minnesota, a bachelor’s degree from Spelman College, and has completed post-graduate work in educational leadership at Harvard University.
The theme for this year’s program will be “Every Great Dream Begins with a Dreamer.”
SGTC’s 2016 Instructor of the Year Andrea C. Ingram will preside over the program and 2016 GOAL winner Ashley Rodgers will give the closing benediction. Racarda Blackmon of Americus, networking specialist student and president of SGTC’s Americus chapter of Phi Beta Lambda, will give the occasion for the event. Musical selections will also be performed.