Two decades of student service: Dr. Jenifer Greene announces retirement from Maryville College as the academic year comes to a close
April 12, 2024
Before she ever stepped foot on the Maryville College campus, the job description for which Dr. Jenifer Greene would apply sounded idyllic.
A graduate of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and Clemson University, her interests leaned into the human behavioral elements of management and business, and Maryville College’s liberal arts approach to instruction sought a new faculty member who would help students understand the bigger picture of such economic concepts.
“I was looking for anything that felt like a good fit, and when I brought the job description home to my husband, Walt, he said, ‘That’s you!’” Greene said. “I knew I wanted to teach at a small liberal arts college, and MC not only fit this description but supported this philosophy within its business program. Here, I knew I could provide management instruction through multiple perspectives, including through my background and interest in psychology.”
A visit to East Tennessee cemented her decision, and now, 22 years later, Greene will retire at the end of the 2023-24 academic year to return to the Palmetto State to be closer to family. It’s not the end of her teaching career — she plans to stay involved in education, as well as to keep an eye open for volunteer opportunities — but it’s the end of her Maryville College journey. And parting, she added, will be such sweet sorrow.
“The students are always the highlight of my work,” she said. “I have been blessed to meet so many talented individuals whom I have watched grow into such incredible professionals and citizens. I have also worked with some of the loveliest faculty, staff and administrators during my 22 years at Maryville College and have so enjoyed being a part of the MC team.”
A Carolina girl moves East
Because of her educational background and academic interests, Greene understands the concept of teamwork perhaps better than most. Born in Tampa, Florida, she grew up in Gastonia, North Carolina, and Travelers Rest, South Carolina, and after earning a bachelor’s in business administration from UNC, she discovered a newer program at Clemson centered around industrial-organizational psychology. She was one of the first business graduates accepted into it, earning an MBA and a master’s in applied psychology on her way to a Ph.D. in the field, and when she answered the call for applications to Maryville College, she was struck first by the hospitality.
“Walt and I came up a weekend or so before my interview, just to get a feel for the location, and even though I’ve always found the Carolinas to be so very, very welcoming and friendly, when we walked around here, it was amazing!” she said. “People on the streets were just so friendly, and it seemed like such a nice community — and of course it’s gorgeous. I’ve always been a beach girl, but Blount County is stunning and reminds me of having lived in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.”
The campus was no different: One of the first Scots she met was Dr. Mary Kay Sullivan, now professor emerita who retired herself in 2010 after a 21-year career and has served on the Maryville College Board of Directors since 2014, including four years as chair. Throughout her interview process, Greene said, she kept returning to the realization that MC embodied a community spirit in which each employee played a vital role, and in which the students benefitted from everyone’s contribution.
“I still remember my teaching demonstration, and the students were so receptive,” she said. “I remember the students at lunch who asked very pertinent questions and were very engaged. They took me on a tour of the campus, and everyone was just very welcoming and supportive, and there’s a lot to be said for that.
“As I watched how individuals interacted with each other, I could see that everyone was collegial and appeared to work well together. That suggested to me that this was a great place, and it just felt like the right fit for me. The student-centered focus of the College was exactly what I wanted to contribute to and be a part of, and ever since, the students have been the highlight of my career here. Everything is about them.”
The liberal arts approach — which explores issues, ideas and methods through a humanistic lens, even in specific fields such as business and science — lent itself ideally to the organizational psychology that Greene sought to explore as an educator, she added.
“It considers the big-picture view of the world in which you live, in which you work, in your connections with others,” she said. “It’s vital to provide seasoned professionals who can be successful in whatever they pursue. The liberal arts speak to the person as well, in how they’re going to function and be a part of a greater society in so many roles, including as a citizen.
“It recognizes that at this very important time in a person’s life, we have an opportunity to broach those questions when they’re in this place, preparing for careers and life. It helps to stimulate that lifelong curiosity, that lifelong desire to continue learning and to connect with others. I think that’s something that we at Maryville College are invested in pursuing.”
Twenty-two years of dedication
Successful student outcomes, she added, are paramount, and while she’s earned a place as a beloved faculty member in the classroom, she’s also earned the respect of her peers for never losing sight of that priority. In 2011, when Professor Emerita Dr. Barbara Wells was named interim vice president and dean of the College — a position made permanent a year later — Greene took over as chair of the MC Division of Social Sciences. She held the post for 8 ½ years, and the next year was elected as chair of the faculty, serving off and on in various other roles ever since.
During her time at MC — the second longest-serving faculty member in the Social Sciences after Political Science Professor Dr. Mark O’Gorman, who started at the College in 1997 — the number of majors has grown exponentially, and while her leadership certainly helped establish such programs of study as Criminal Justice, Human Resource Management and Marketing, among others, she’s insistent that every division accomplishment was the result of teamwork.
“I am a part of this team. We’re colleagues, and I have such wonderful colleagues,” she said. “We like to say that we put the ‘social’ in the Social Sciences. But beyond us, everybody matters here. All of us together — faculty, staff and administrators — provide vital support to our students in helping them grow throughout their time with us.”
Even as she prepares to step away from MC, she’s looking out for them. The decision to retire wasn’t a hasty one; returning to South Carolina, she said, will put her and Walt closer to family, and to support their daughter, who’s enrolled in college there. She made sure to give her colleagues plenty of notice, and she’s spending as much time preparing her to-be-named successor as she is wrapping up this academic year.
“My biggest consideration is for my students and colleagues,” she said. “Anything I’m leaving behind, I wish to wrap up tightly so the transition is smooth for them.”
Despite the parting of ways, she’s confident that they’ll be left in good hands. Maryville College, after all, is an institution still dedicated to the liberal arts tradition, and just as it provided a home for her more than two decades ago, it will serve her replacement equally well, providing them with all of the tools they need to carry on the tradition of teaching students to “do good on the largest possible scale.”
“The liberal arts perspective will always provide individuals the knowledge to be successful in their journeys,” she said. “Jobs have evolved at a much faster pace than they did in the past, and we know now that students are most likely going to work in many different positions and organizations over the course of their careers. What we do is to equip them with as many tools and skills as possible to help them evolve with those jobs, and to evolve personally as they grow and consider different paths throughout life.”
