Maryville College names Joy McCamey as director of forthcoming Title III grant improvements
March 22, 2024
As a career educator, Joy McCamey knows a thing or two about student success, which makes her the ideal candidate to assume the role of Title III director at Maryville College.
McCamey, an East Tennessee native who will lead efforts across MC to implement the Title III Strengthening Institutions Program grant awarded to the College last fall, received her bachelor’s degree in behavioral sciences from Athens State University, a master’s in management from Faulkner University and has spent almost two decades in various higher education roles, most recently as project director of TRIO Student Support Services at Berry College in Rome, Georgia.
In various capacities throughout her career, McCamey has struck the balance required by the new position between direct student support and working closely with federal agencies, primarily the U.S. Department of Education, to apply for, implement and manage numerous student-facing grant projects. At Berry, she oversaw all facets of the school’s DOE grant for TRIO, an umbrella designation for eight federal programs “targeted to serve and assist low-income individuals, first-generation college students and individuals with disabilities to progress through the academic pipeline.” (MC also received a five-year, $1.3 million DOE grant in 2020 to support the College’s own TRIO program.)
In addition, she’s served as a counselor and interim director of TRIO at Wallace State Community College in Hanceville, Alabama, and as part of the TRIO staff at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga. For three years, she was the Pellissippi State Community College career coordinator for the Tennessee Governor’s Investment in Vocational Education (GIVE) grant program, designed to prioritize learning opportunities in rural counties and enhance career and technical education across the state.
As the GIVE career coordinator for Knox and Blount counties, she also took part in the 2023 Leadership Blount program, a year-long course designed to better acquaint area leaders and professionals with the greater Maryville community and the ways in which positive impacts can be made. McCamey began her career as a TRIO advisor and coordinator at the North Alabama Center for Education Excellence in North Alabama.
That combined experience, according to MC Vice President and Dean of Students Dr. Ja’Wanda Grant, positions McCamey perfectly for leading Title III efforts to boost first-year retention at Maryville College through the establishment of a “Building an IDEAL Community Project.” The acronym — which stands for inclusive, diverse, equitable and accessible learning — will be anchored by the implementation of a student success model with a diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) focus, supported by new staff members, summer transition and first-year program enhancements, and one-stop student support services on campus.
“Representation matters when seeking to have and maintain diversity on any college campus,” McCamey said. “I will start with student focus groups to ensure first-generation and BlPOC student voices and experiences inform ongoing implementation of Project IDEAL activities.”
Part of the Higher Education Act of 1965, Title III is a federally funded program designed to support the infrastructure of institutions that serve a high percentage of students who come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Funded by the U.S. Department of Education in five-year cycles, Maryville College’s grant will fund the creation of the IDEAL Community Project through 2028.
The grant award is $2.25 million (82.2% of the total cost) over a five-year period to implement the project, and the College has committed $487,717 (17.8% of the total cost) in additional resources to ensure the initiative is well-supported.
Maryville College was last awarded a Title III grant in 1999, which transformed the classroom experience through instructional technology.
“Project IDEAL is the largest infrastructure grant Maryville College has received, and in turn it requires strong grant management experience and extensive collaborations across the College,” said Grant, who also serves as the Title III project director. “Joy is a TRIO alum who brings extensive experience with TRIO and other grant programs involving campus-wide and cross-institutional collaborations. The Title III team is thrilled to work with Joy in fostering an IDEAL community for all students at Maryville College.”