Patricia Roark, RN, director of the Tech Foundations Lab at the Tennessee Technology Center at Elizabethton and former faculty representative on the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR), has been named Outstanding Faculty Member of the Year for the 27 technology centers in Tennessee.
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| Patricia Roark - Teacher of the Year |
Tom Hall, former vice chancellor for technology centers, in presenting the award at the national meeting of the American Technical Education Association in Chattanooga on March 11, said "Patricia Roark has taken numerous innovative approaches in education, both online and on campus, to improve the quality of life of individuals. She set high expectations for her students and assisted them in meeting or exceeding those expectations."
Among accomplishments, Roark developed:
- An online Dietary Manager training program, in conjunction with the Dietary Managers Association, which has more than 150 graduates in 30 states.
- A partnership with Ivy Tech Community College System in Indiana to offer the online Dietary Manager training program to their students.
- Online courses in Dementia Care and Dosage Calculations for Nurses that are among online curriculum offered by TBR.
- A "credit recovery" program to allow Elizabethton High School students to earn academic credits needed to graduate with their peers.
- An online food safety course for those employed in food services.
- A Nurse Assistant Training Program, which is offered every nine weeks, to prepare graduates for the state exam to become a Certified Nurse Assistant (CNA). There were 192 graduates of the 135-hour CNA program at TTC-Elizabethton in 2008.
- An "after school" CNA training program for high school students.
Roark, who holds a BSN degree, joined TTC-Elizabethton as a member of the nursing faculty in 1989. Previously, she was a staff nurse at Veterans Affairs Medical Center and head nurse at Carter County Memorial Hospital. She is a member of the Sigma Theta Tau Nursing Honor Society and Advisory Committee for the Nursing Assistant State Testing.
Originally from Grundy, Va., Roark has two sons, Matt, who is completing law school, and Lucas, a pre-law student at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City.