GTCC: seeking viable avenues to improve educational access
Ron Horn is the Associate Vice President for IT and CIO for Guilford Technical Community College (GTCC).
“I currently oversee about 30 permanent employees in the areas of infrastructure, security, networking, telephony service, delivery, application support and project management.”
Guilford Technical Community College (GTCC) is one of the largest community colleges in the US state of North Carolina, typically ranking fourth for the largest community college in the state, with between 20,000 to 25,000 registered students annually.
“We've been around since the late ‘50s,” says Horn. “There are five campuses here in Guilford County, which is part of, what they call 'the triad' region. Our programs include many traditional education opportunities, like associate and transfer degrees. But we also offer many skilled-trade options, like advanced manufacturing, CDL or truck-driving training, welding, automotive, healthcare and also, quite uniquely, we have aviation, with a large aviation program that's still growing.”
Horn says: “I have taken advantage of the opportunity to be able to contribute from a very non-traditional CIO perspective, bringing outstanding programs to the school – like 3D printing, autonomous vehicles, blockchain and micro-credentials or micro-certifications, Amazon web services (AWS) – and we have been partnering with agencies that are geared much more towards the community college environment.”
