Susan Pinkston: Savannah Tech Instructor of the Year 2013

When Savannah Technical College announced its selections for the best of the best in 2013, Susan Pinkston, STC department head for business management, was announced as the College’s 2013 Rick Perkins Award for Excellence in Technical Education honoree.

The Perkins Award honors technical education’s most outstanding instructors. The award has been an ongoing statewide program since 1991, and the recipients are technical college instructors who make significant contributions to technical education through innovation and leadership in their fields.

Pinkston, the College’s 2013 Perkins honoree, has been the department head for business management at Savannah Tech since 2006, when she created and implemented the business management program at the College. She increased student enrollment from 12 in 2006 to more than 200 now. She also established the College’s human resources management technical certificate of credit. Before she started teaching, Pinkston worked in human resources for almost two decades.

“I chose to teach in a technical college in order to pay it forward,” said Pinkston. “As a non-traditional college student, I faced many of the same obstacles as my students. However, I always kept my eye on the prize (graduation) and persevered. Along my academic journey, there were others who encouraged and believed in me. I now pay it forward by listening, by being firm but fair, and by encouraging students to never give up.”

A recent STC business management graduate who is an expeditor for JCB North America, Kevin Steinbach, said: “The program that she has implemented is one that prepares each person that goes through it for real life work situations and instills the knowledge they need to succeed whatever their goals may be. I have never had the amount of confidence in myself and in my abilities that I had when I was under the direction of Mrs. Susan Pinkston at Savannah Technical College.”