Aeolian 2013
KATHY LOVE (’85)
“I was in my mid-20s when I started my college education,” said Dr. Kathy Love, Savannah Technical College president. “I was a stay-at-home mom and lived in Americus.”
Love took a road not often traveled while attending Georgia Southwestern. She was enrolled in the newly developed computer science program in the early 80s.
“It took me more than four years, and I was involved in the first co-op that IBM in Boca Raton, Florida had with Georgia Southwestern. For six months, I loaded up the kids, took my oldest out of kindergarten and went south to Florida. I think maybe eight or nine of us were in that group, and I was the only non-traditional student.”
Moving her family, as Kathy did, for only months at the time was a difficult task, but she took it in stride.
“I loaded a U-Haul trailer and drove my kids to Florida,” she said. “I had a wonderful experience there. What I did there allowed me to transition over to a job at South Georgia Tech where we developed the microcomputer specialist degree.”
Love continued her education in GSW’s MBA program while teaching at South Georgia Tech, and she was eventually promoted to vice president of Administrative Services.
“My ultimate goal was to be a technical college president,” she said. “And there is not a clear path to that position from the business office. In 1994, I had the opportunity to go to Middle Georgia Technical College in Warner Robins as the vice president of Instruction (now known as Academic Affairs).”
Just before taking the job at Middle Georgia Tech, Love finished her specialist degree in education from Columbus State University (1994). She worked at Middle Georgia Tech until 2001, when she took a job as vice president of Flint River Technical College in Thomaston (now Southern Crescent Technical College). Kathy was appointed to interim vice president after a short time there and was named permanent president in 2002.
“Thomaston Mills had just closed their doors when I arrived at Flint River Tech, and half of the people in the community lost their jobs from one day to the next,” Love said. “Fourteen hundred textile workers were unemployed, and the technical college system commissioner at that time and I tried to help put something in place to retrain those workers – to get the community back on its feet.”
Love was named president of Savannah Technical College in 2009 after serving Flint River Tech for seven years. She has accomplished her career goals by understanding leadership and how to support her staff.
“I have done a little bit of everything, which sometimes comes in handy,” she added. “In fact, we are all wearing more and more hats, especially over the last three years changing from quarters to semesters. My principal philosophy involves getting my people what they need and to help them when I can and not ask anyone to do anything I’m not willing to do myself. I think this builds a good team.”
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