HARLINGEN — Amanda Posada, Texas State Technical College’s executive director of Dual Enrollment, has taken on a new role at TSTC’s campus in Harlingen: interim provost.
“I was extremely humbled, honored,” Posada said. “I want to continue to build on the growth and the success that the Harlingen campus has seen.”
Posada stepped in for former campus provost Cledia Hernandez, who recently accepted the position of TSTC associate vice chancellor for External Relations and Workforce Development.
“To say it’s been an honor to serve as provost is an understatement,” Hernandez said. “Words cannot express my gratitude. Our work is not over; on the contrary, it continues to grow, and I know Amanda will do an amazing job.”
Posada will be working with Hernandez during the transition, mapping how Hernandez’s new role in External Relations will interrelate with the interim provost’s leadership in TSTC’s instructional areas.
Additional interim duties include working with TSTC Vice Chancellor of Student Learning Jeff Kilgore and others in coordinating the process of identifying the next provost of TSTC’s campus in Harlingen. This process will begin in the near future.
“Amanda’s leadership working across and with most all areas in and around Student Learning, having spent most of her tenure at TSTC on the Harlingen campus, positions herself well in this role,” Kilgore said. “She will continue to lead TSTC Dual Enrollment during this time.”
Posada began her career at TSTC in 2013 as an administrative assistant in the Workforce Development (now Training) and Continuing Education department. Within two years, she became a coordinator for workforce training, working with grant-funded initiatives and incumbent workers.
She spent the past six years in TSTC’s Dual Enrollment department, starting as a dual enrollment representative before becoming the department’s regional director and then its statewide executive director.
“It’s kind of full circle because I started with the adult learners and incumbent workers and then went all the way to the other end of the spectrum with high school kids,” Posada said. “We’re creating the pipeline.”
Posada looks forward to helming TSTC’s campus in Harlingen at a time when the college is ideally positioned to develop skilled workers who will, in turn, boost the Texas economy. That comes with the added benefit of providing options — and opportunities — to students who might not realize what they are capable of.
Working in dual enrollment, Posada found that some students felt they had no other option than a four-year college degree. “No,” Posada told them. “You have technical training at TSTC that puts you in a career.”
As interim provost, Posada hopes to share more about TSTC’s mission with the community, as well as helping to promote exciting short-term opportunities for students, like flexibly paced performance-based education programs and occupational skills awards available in a number of course pathways.
If students can invest a little of their time in a program at TSTC, then they have the chance to reap the returns in high-paying careers afterward.
“We’re not just here to provide education,” Posada said. “Our intent is helping you into a career that helps support your family, that helps support the economy. (TSTC is) invested in your success from the moment you start our program to the exit point — whatever that may be for you. Whether you want to continue to a higher-level award or you want to go straight into the workforce, we have those options for you.”
Learn more about TSTC at tstc.edu.
