South Georgia Technical College Board of Directors Vice Chair Janet Siders of Americus has been elected President of the Technical College Directors Association Executive Committee, announced Adie Shimandle, Executive Director of the Georgia TCDA.
“Janet will lead the Technical College Director’s Association into its 30th year of helping to develop the 250 members of the 22 local Boards of Directors from the Technical College System of Georgia’s colleges,” explained Shimandle. “It is appropriate that last year the oldest technical college in the TCSG system, North Georgia Tech’s board member Judge Chan Caudell was the TCDA President. Now he is being followed by the second oldest technical college in the system, South Georgia Tech’s Janet Siders at the helm.”
The President of TCDA’s Executive Committee, along with other members of the Executive Committee members, help host the annual Leadership Conference, help to design the TECH speakers at the conference, and represents the Technical College Directors Association at the ACCT Legislative Conference in Washington in February. Janet Siders served as the Vice President of TCDA last year, and met with some of the elected officers to discuss second chance Pell Grants for returning students, additional Pell Grant funding for all students, funding for short term programs, and probably one of the most important concerns – instructor funding for new programs, such as artificial intelligence and self-driving cars and vertical take-off-and-landing-vehicles, explained Shimandle.
“The Technical College System of Georgia will be the workforce that brings these new technologies to reality and we know that Janet Siders will be a driving force as the President of the Technical College Director’s Association this year,” said Shimandle.
South Georgia Technical College President Dr. John Watford congratulated Janet Siders for her election to this prestigious position. “We are very pleased that Janet Siders has been elected as the TCDA President and I know that she will do a wonderful job of representing the entire system. She has been a strong supporter of South Georgia Technical College, our students, and our faculty and staff.”
Siders came to Americus and served as the Director of Human Resources for Textron and Collins and Aikman. She later accepted the position as the Director of Human Resources for Georgia Southwestern State University.
Siders was first appointed to the South Georgia Technical College Board of Directors in 2002. She served 12 years and rotated off for a year before being reappointed to the board for two additional three-year terms.
Other members of the TCDA Executive Committee include: Vice President Stephen Sumer of Wiregrass Georgia Technical College, Treasurer Bill Stone from West Georgia Tech, Secretary Harold Wright of Augusta Tech, Past President Chan Cauldell of North Georgia Tech, Columbus Tech member-at-large Edwina Turner, member-at-large Artie Jones, Jr., of Coastal Pines Tech, TCSG’s Adie Shimandle Executive Director, Billie Izard, TCDA Executive Assistant, and TCSG Assistant Commissioner External Affairs Neil Bitting.