Rebecca Ashford
* Age: 44* Job: President of Chattanooga State Community College* Hometown: Merritt Island, Florida* Family: Husband, Richard; two daughters, ages 12 and 10* Last job: Vice President of Student Affairs at Pellissippi State Community College* Education: Doctor of Education in Education Leadership from the University of Central Florida
Rebecca Ashford, 44, a former Pellissippi State Community College administrator, takes the helm as president of Chattanooga State Community College on Monday.
Ashford, who was vice-president of student affairs on the Knoxville campus, has been climbing the education leadership ladder since she earned her first college administrative job at age 26. She became a dean at Brevard County Community College (now East Florida State College) at an age when some people are still in graduate school.
“I was perceived as too young,” she remembers of those early days in coastal Florida. “People wondered, ‘Who are you?’ ‘What do you know?’
“That pushed me to prove myself on a daily basis,” Ashford told Edge magazine in an article in the July issue. “To dress well. To get to work early and stay late. Some of the people who worked for me could have been my mother.”