Wiregrass Georgia Technical College Cosmetology Instructor, Leigh Ingra, received the 2018 Rick Perkins Award for Excellence in Technical Instruction, also known as Rick Perkins Instructor of the Year award.

The Rick Perkins Award for Excellence in Technical Instruction is awarded annually. This award is designed to recognize and honor technical college instructors who make significant contributions to technical education through innovation and leadership in their fields. Instructors are nominated for the Rick Perkins Award by their peers. Competition among instructors occurs at the college, regional, and state levels.

Five finalists participated in the interviews, they were: Kiva Brownlee (Adult Education Instructor- Ben Hill-Irwin Campus), Randy Harrell (Math Instructor – Coffee Campus), Leigh Ingra (Cosmetology Instructor- Cook Campus), and Don Mason (Math Instructor- Valdosta Campus). Ingra will compete at the regional level in Tifton on the Southern Regional Technical College campus in February.
Ingra was nominated by her peers throughout the college. She is described as “I have always been impressed with the depth of Leigh’s knowledge concerning her individual students; you can tell she listens to and gets to know them.

Her students are always involved both inside and outside of the classroom, thereby creating well-rounded students for the workforce.”   Another nomination shared that she has done a great job igniting the Cosmetology program in Cook County.  Leigh has been teaching at Wiregrass for 10 years.  Teaching is certainly a passion of hers as her goal is to produce students our local workforce cannot do without.

Leigh stated, “I am motivated to teach in hopes that I can make a positive difference in the lives of our students.  If our students leave us with positive knowledge, then our work force is a better place. I want our students’ talent and work ethics to be a constant reminder to employers that technical colleges work hard to prepare students for all aspects of a job. Our students are the total package.”
 
Nicole West, Student Navigator, serves as the Rick Perkins Coordinator.

The following instructors were nominated and participated in the selection process for the instructor award (in alphabetical order): Kiva Brownlee, Adult Education Instructor; Cecilia Bruce, Medical Assisting Program Coordinator; Cabot Carlton, Welding Instructor; Sherry Carroll, Psychology Instructor; Joy Clemons, Cosmetology Instructor; Rebecca Gallagher, Digital Media Production Program Coordinator; Angela Grant, Business Education Instructor; Randy Harrell, Mathematics Instructor; Kristy Henderson, Cosmetology Area Director; Liane Holbrook, Psychology Instructor; Vicky Honeycutt, Business Education Instructor; Alice Jackson, Patient Care Assisting Program Coordinator; April Lott, Cosmetology Program Coordinator; Don Mason, Mathematics Instructor;  Dora Nash, Associate of Science in Nursing Instructor;  Katherine Pack,  English Area Director; Rainy Rasmussen, Commercial Truck Driving Instructor; Jennifer Ray, Radiologic Instructor Program Coordinator; Wally Rewis, Program Coordinator Welding Instructor; Cherlyn Sands-Anderson, Adult Education Instructor; Jackie Spriggs, Practical Nursing Instructor/ Assistant Dean;  and Kerry Watts, Environmental Horticulture Program Coordinator.
Leigh will represent Wiregrass at the Regional interview competition in February at the Tifton campus of Southern Regional Technical College.  All college winners will represent their colleges in April at the state Rick Perkins and GOAL (student of the year program) awards event where the region winners and state winner will be announced.