ASHLAND, Ky. — On behalf of the faculty and staff of Ashland Community and Technical College, Dr. Larry Ferguson is pleased to welcome three new faculty to the ACTC family: Heather Cantrell, Dale Queen and Robert Langford.
Heather Cantrell has worked as a Certified Surgical Technologist (CST) since December 2008. She is a graduate of the surgical technology program at ACTC.
Cantrell started her journey at ACTC as an adjunct faculty member/clinical instructor for the Surgical Technology Program in August 2018. She served as Interim Program Coordinator from October 2019 until she was hired full time in June 2020.
In talking about her future at ACTC, Cantrell said, “I’m excited to see and implement all the improvements made to this program, not only with the curriculum but the laboratory as well.”
Like Cantrell, Dale Queen joins the full-time faculty as a communications instructor after serving the college as an adjunct instructor.
“I loved working as an adjunct instructor and thought the timing was right when the position came open. I like the leadership and the friendliness and professionalism of all the faculty and staff,” Queen says.
He says joining the faculty in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic has presented challenges, but also opportunities.
“This is indeed an exciting time with education during the COVID crisis. It appears that each day will be different and we will see what works and what doesn’t work. We will need to constantly reevaluate our classes daily and be able to change quickly. My students can expect a person who cares about their education and their dreams. I want to help them achieve their goals and I always encourage them to push themselves in order to reach their dreams,” Queen says.
After 25 years with the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice, Robert Langford retired, and is now a member of the Criminal Justice program at ACTC. Like Cantrell and Queen, he taught as an adjunct instructor for the college before being hired as a full-time faculty member.
He began teaching Delinquency and the Juvenile Justice System as an adjunct instructor in 2018. He continued to teach that course, as well as adding additional classes to his course load, before getting hired full-time.
“I am working under Beverly Sharp, who is the current Criminal Justice Program Coordinator in hopes of becoming the Program Coordinator next year when she leaves our program. I hope to keep up her diligent work increasing the number of students in the Criminal Justice program,” Langford says.
He says teaching full-time has always been a career goal.
“It has been my long-term plan to become a full-time college instructor for over five years, when I started applying for adjunct positions,” he says.
Langford says his experience working in the criminal justice system will allow him to use his firsthand experience as an instructional tool.
“Students can expect me to use my 25 years of knowledge of the justice system to make classes relatable with real world knowledge and experience to engage the students making the classroom and online learning enjoyable as well as educational,” he says.
