Meet the New SWCC Osceola Center Coordinator Tisha Gannon

Tisha Gannon is the new Southwestern Community College Osceola Center Coordinator, who took the place of Sue Stearns at the start of November.

Gannon is originally from northern Iowa and while she lived in Nebraska for six years she has been in the Osceola area for the past 16. Gannon’s background is in dental hygiene from the University of South Dakota. During her 21 years in the dental field Gannon worked in private practice, public health, managed the southern tier of Senior Dental Care and then went back to private practice.

“It was then that I decided I wanted to do something different career wise and I decided I wanted to teach,” said Gannon.

She went back to school, earning her master’s degree in health and human performance and taught classes at SWCC including personal wellness and care and prevention of athletic injuries.

“For me it kind of felt like, because we don’t offer a major in those programs here, it was difficult to find a full time faculty position,” said Gannon.

She enjoys working with the age range of the students that come through SWCC from the high school and traditional college aged students to those who are coming back to school as non traditional students. Going from teaching to the Center Coordinator position felt like a natural progression for her.

“When I realized this spot was going to be open I knew it was something I really wanted to do,” said Gannon. “Working one on one and more hands on with several more students, a larger student body than what I had before.”

Gannon is looking forward to the advancement of the technical training center that has been proposed by the Clarke County Development Corp. to go up next door to SWCC’s Osceola Center.

“I’m really excited to see how the relationship develops there, how we can get more students involved and more students out here on this campus as well as partnering with them. We can have our technical students in the building,” said Gannon.