Wallace to Head Moultrie Tech's Student Affairs Division
Moultrie’s Leigh Penuel Wallace is the classic example of hometown girl does good. A 1988 graduate of Colquitt County High School, she has garnered almost two decades of experience in leading students in technical education and has recently taken on new challenges at Moultrie Technical College (MTC).
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Leigh Wallace, Moultrie Technical College Vice President for Student Affairs |
MTC President Tina Anderson named Wallace vice president for student affairs, a position she began on April 1 at the College’s Veterans Parkway Campus in Moultrie. She replaces Scott Hudson who resigned in March to join a family business.
“Leigh’s depth and breadth of knowledge, combined with her years of technical college experience and her knowledge of our communities, make her the perfect candidate for the position,” said Anderson.
In her new role, Wallace is charged with oversight of admissions, registration, financial aid, career services, the Workforce Investment Act, special student populations and student organizations, as well as a staff of 25 people in the MTC Student Affairs division across Colquitt, Tift, Turner and Worth counties.
She has watched first-hand the transformations and challenges in technical education since the early 1990s. Such changes include the transition from vocational-technical institutes to colleges in 2000, the addition of associate level degrees, new campus construction in MTC’s service delivery area, and over 115 percent enrollment growth at Moultrie Tech from 1997 to 2011.
“Moultrie Tech has been very fortunate in having over a decade of continuous enrollment growth,” said Wallace. “We can attribute that to exceptional customer service, quality programs and knowledgeable faculty.”
“I want to continue the well-established traditions and keep our college growing through the many changes ahead,” she added.
One of those changes will be the switch to a semester calendar in August 2011 after following the quarter system since Moultrie Tech opened its doors in 1964.
“I look forward to the growth of MTC as we transition from quarters to semesters and as we acquire additional accreditation through the Commission on Colleges. Leigh will do a brilliant job leading the Student Affairs division through these changes,” added Anderson.
Wallace began her career in technical education at Thomas Technical Institute, now known as Southwest Georgia Technical College, in Thomasville as a Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) case manager in 1993. She took time off as homemaker with the birth of her daughter and first son from 1995 to 1997 before joining the staff of Moultrie Area Technical Institute as a New Connections to Work instructor until 1999.
Serving as the federal School-to-Work grant coordinator for one year until 2000 at the renamed Moultrie Technical College, Wallace was promoted as the director of admissions and enrollment management – a position she held until 2009 when she became the College’s registrar in August of that year.
She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration in Marketing from Georgia Southern University in Statesboro from 1992 and a Master’s degree in Adult Education from the University of Georgia from 2007.
Wallace is a class of 2000 graduate of the Moultrie-Colquitt County Chamber of Commerce Leadership Colquitt County program, an associate member of the Moultrie Junior Woman’s Club and a Kappa Delta Sorority alumna. She currently serves on the boards of directors for the United Way of Colquitt County and the Moultrie YMCA.
She and her husband Ashley attend First Baptist Church of Moultrie. They have three children – Raley, a ninth-grader at C.A. Gray Junior High; Ryan, an eighth-grader at C.A. Gray; and Rob, a sixth-grader at Willie J. Williams Middle School.
