Albany Technical College names GOAL finalists, Perkins Award and EAGLE winners

ALBANY — Albany Technical College held its annual awards banquet Monday for nominees selected for the Georgia Occupational Award of Leadership (GOAL), Rick Perkins Award (Instructor of the Year), and the Exceptional Adult Georgian in Literacy Education (EAGLE) for the upcoming calendar year.

The 13 nominees for GOAL included Jamie Darlington (Business Administrative Technology); Brennon Farmer (Electrical Computer Engineering); Jerri Jarrell (Medical Assisting); Elvin Mallory (Cosmetology); Donald Poole (Design and Media Production Technology); Perry Reeves (Environmental Horticulture); Pamela Roberson (Accounting Technology); Lacreasha Small (Design and Media Production Technology); James Tillman (Design and Media Production Technology); Benjamin Warren (Civil Engineering Technology); Joe White (Environmental Horticulture); Lucretia Williams (Environmental Horticulture); and Riley Williams (Environmental Horticulture).

Four finalists — Jarrell, Mallory, Tillman and Warren — were selected by an Albany Tech panel. Later, an Albany Area Chamber of Commerce panel will select one of the four to compete at the State GOAL competition to be held in April in Atlanta. The state winner is the official spokesperson for technical education in Georgia for 2014.

The ATC’s final GOAL winner will be announced at a later date in January by the Chamber at a monthly Rotary Club meeting.

The Albany Tech winner will also have an opportunity to compete at the Regional Competition for GOAL, which will be held for the Southwest Georgia consortium in March at Moultrie Tech’s Tifton campus.

The Rick Perkins Award winner was Lisa Riddle, an instructor in Hotel/Restaurant/Tourism Management, who was selected from among six nominees including Matt Beard (Culinary Arts); Tomekia Cooper (Business Administrative Technology); Mark Crawford (Plumbing/Pipefitting Technology); Dan Jenkins (Accounting Technology); and Theresa West (Business Administrative Technology).

The EAGLE Award winner was Maleeka Stephens of Randolph County, who was selected from a pool of nominees which included Terez Cobb of Clay County, Alexander Cretcher of Lee County, Gabrielle Lemon of Calhoun County, Malcolm Mitchell of Dougherty County and Chad Thompson of Terrell County.