Cantrell Named at EMCC

East Mississippi Community College Golden Triangle campus history instructor Kelly Cantrell, pictured at EMCC’s annual Reality Fair, was named EMCC’s 2013 LINK Educator of the Year in April.

MAYHEW – Kelly Cantrell has a history of being among East Mississippi Community College’s top instructors, and this year she earned a pair of honors to prove it.

Cantrell, who has taught multiple history classes at the college’s Golden Triangle campus since 2007, was honored in April as the Golden Triangle Development Link’s 2013 EMCC Post-Secondary Educator of the Year. And that award came on the heels of receiving the William Winter Faculty Scholar Award from the Mississippi Humanities Council.

A Biloxi native, Cantrell also garnered a Mississippi Humanities Council Teacher Award in 2009.

“Kelly is as essential a faculty member as we have at EMCC. In addition to her teaching duties, she directs the Honors Program, she created and teaches two honors classes and she serves as faculty sponsor for the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society. She is truly an outstanding instructor and team member and I wish we had more like her,” said EMCC Associate Dean of Instruction Gina Thompson.

Cantrell said she decided to anchor her career at EMCC because of the opportunity community college instruction provides for individualized instruction.

“As an instructor I strive to tailor my classroom to the needs of each individual,” Cantrell said. “My aim is to facilitate learning every moment a student is in the classroom and the community college environment makes in-depth discussions that help students construct global connections to their lesson possible in every class.”

She said community colleges, true to their names, are also more integral to their local communities than larger institutions which require many students to travel hours away from their homes.