Hazard Community and Technical College Professor Madeline Flannery to retire at the end of the month

Madeline Flannery, who has spent more than three decades as a professor of Communications at Hazard Community and Technical College, is set to retire at the end of this month.

Professor Flannery started her time at Hazard Community and Technical College back in August of 1989. She started as the Extended Programs Coordinator, where she visited off campus sites and taught a handful of different General Education classes. She then moved on to coordinating a new welfare to work program with the Cabinet for Families and Children. She held that position for five years before settling into her role as a full time Professor of Communications.

One of her students was quoted in an article about Flannery’s retirement as saying, “Feedback from the instructor helped me to reach a higher potential that I thought I didn't have. I have gained a lot of valuable information and feedback from this course that will help me with my future career goal.”

Flannery has taught many classes in her time as an educator, such as Sociology, Appalachian Studies, Marriage and Society, Mass Media and Society, Intercultural Communications, Interpersonal Communications, and Basic Public Speaking.

She spoke on her time as an instructor, saying, “I worked hard to create a community in my classes. I insisted on learning all my students' names within the first two weeks, and I required the students to learn each other's names because I tested them on it. Despite their initial resistance, students often told me they made their first friends in college because of that. Everyone is expected to share something from the week's reading or assignment, and we really get to know each other. I've attempted to create that sense of community in my online classes, but it's much harder.”

Prior to finding her way to Hazard Community and Technical College, Flannery attended her graduate program at Teachers College, Columbia University in New York City. While she was completing her Master of Arts and Master of Education degrees, she worked full time in the communications and education fields. She also edited videos for a pilot project that was a partnership between United Cerebral Palsy and the Children’s Television Workshop, and taught at the College for Human Services in New York City.

She then returned to Eastern Kentucky in 1986 where she worked in Hindman at TV 12, before coming to Hazard Community and Technical College. 

Looking back at her career, she said, “I am honored to have been able to teach two, sometimes three, generations of families over my 34 years at HCTC. I take great pleasure in seeing graduates go on to achieve their dreams. I'm especially proud of some of the young women I worked with as teen parents in the 90's who are employed in jobs they love and are able to provide safe and comfortable homes for their children and grandchildren.”

Professor Flannery plans to spend her retirement traveling, writing, gardening, and supporting flood relief efforts.

More information about Hazard Community and Technical College can be found at the school’s website.