by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
As the executive director of Florida Community College at Jacksonville’s Advanced Technology Center, Linda Austin has big plans for the local business community.
“One key focus of the executive director position is to build business partnerships, making sure the businesses in the community know the economic development emphasis of the ATC as well as the educational and training emphasis of the ATC,” said Austin.
The facility will support four targeted industry groups, which resulted from an economic development study done in Jacksonville a few years ago.
“The ATC was planned and designed to promote economic development in the region focussed on information technology, advanced manufacturing, biotechnology and transportation technology,” said Austin.
In addition to the classes offered, Austin said the center will serve as a training ground for local businesses.
“We intend to allow employers to use the facility for corporate training, video teleconferencing and workshop seminars,” said Austin.
Construction on the center is nearly complete, with classes scheduled to start in January.
The first part of the $22 million project is a 77,000 square-foot facility.
The second part, which is currently being designed, should take about a year to complete and will include a biotechnology program, an expansion of the automotive program and more corporate training space or corporate sponsored labs.
“We are trying to make it as flexible and adaptable to meet business needs and to adapt to technology as it changes so rapidly for all of us,” said Austin, who is no stranger to higher education.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in business education from the University of West Florida, a master’s degree in business education from the University of Tennessee and a doctorate of education from the University of Houston.
“I love learning and for me a structured environment helps,” said Austin. “To me the real opportunity of getting my doctorate is to really delve into something in depth; to really become an expert in an area and to really immerse yourself in the research in that area. What you are really trying to do with a doctorate is to expand the knowledge base, to find a gap in the knowledge base in the world. Your study expands that knowledge of the world in terms of a new direction or new focus that needs to be added.”
Austin moved to Jacksonville from Houston just three days before she started her new position.
In Houston, she was the associate dean and center director for Cy-Fair College, where she ran a center similar to the ATC.
“I was also working with the architects to plan and design a brand new college,” said Austin.
She worked with a five-member design team for the new college to develop a master plan, programs to be offered, community needs assessment and building design specifications.
“Austin’s strong educational background coupled with her business and industry experience ideally suit her to the challenges and goals of Florida Community College’s Advanced Technology Center,” said Edythe Abdullah, FCCJ’s Downtown Campus president.
Austin has always had a love of learning and teaching. During her career, she has taught business education and computer information systems at the middle school, high school, community college and university level.
“I have also done corporate training, which of course is also teaching, it’s just teaching a different audience and in a different style,” said Austin, who has worked in Virginia, Washington, D.C., Germany, Ohio, Japan, Texas and now Jacksonville. “When you teach someone else something, you learn more about it as you teach it so that is an exciting piece of it to me.”
She attended FCCJ’s teaching learning conference last spring and Jacksonville made quite an impression on her.
“I was here last spring for the conference and I participated in that and got a feel for the Jacksonville community and really liked it,” said Austin. “This opportunity really fit my background and what I’ve been doing recently so I was very interested when the position came open. I applied and am very much enjoying the programs and the people here have been very helpful. Jacksonville has been very welcoming.”
She said moving to Jacksonville is like coming home — almost.
“I grew up in Pensacola, so now I’m back to my roots,” she said. “I have moved quite a bit and in terms of looking at new opportunities it’s always an adjustment to a new place, but one does their homework on a move; Jacksonville is rated as one of the Top 20 mid-sized cities in the country by Fortune Magazine. Also the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce website and the economic development focus and emphasis and all the planning that went into the initiative that resulted in the ATC, why would I not choose to do this?”
When she is not working, Austin enjoys traveling,
reading and gardening. She’s spending a good deal of her time right now exploring Jacksonville to determine where she and her husband James Daniel Simpson III want to live.