SCC names Dr. Denise King new Arts and Humanities dean before classes start

After more than five years of working at St. Charles Community College, Dr. Patrick Vaughn, former Dean of Arts and Humanities, left in June of this year.

"The college [then] formed a search committee to recruit and select the new Dean," Matthew Kroll, the Employment and Benefit Coordinator for SCC said.

The position of Dean of Art and Humanities calls for a qualified individual that has a Master's degree and administrative experience. The Dean is responsible for coordinating and managing the separate divisions of the English and Literature departments, along with Music, Theater, Art, Graphic Design, Philosophy, Foreign Language, Reading, and Communication Programs.

On August 3, the position was filled by Dr. Denise King, formerly of Skagit Valley College in the Seattle area. At Skagit, she had previously held the position of Director of the San Juan Center on San Juan Island, about seven miles from the Canadian border.

Dr. King has been moving around the US from when she was young. She was born in Texas and moved to Georgia in junior high, and went to college in California. Since then, till now she moved around on the west coast for education and occupations.

To get here, Dr. King and her husband packed a moving truck and drove more than 2,000 miles. When arriving in the St. Louis area, she was relieved to see something other than corn. "I never knew there were so many corn fields [in Missouri]," she said with a laugh.

Before her time at Skagit, she worked at Olympic College south of Seattle, still in Washington. It is located in a naval town on the main land. Olympic college was her "first taste of administrative work" and she discovered that she "enjoyed creating opportunities for faculty development and program growth."

She has modest plans for starting at SCC. One thing on her agenda: "I'd like to get my walls painted." She comes from a very "green"-conscious school, with wild orca whales, military bases, and nuclear submarines all sharing the water around Skagit.

Dr. King says "I am happy to be here and look forward to getting to know the students, faculty and staff of [SCC]."