Welcome aboard, Anita Brackin
Associate Vice President for Workforce and Economic Development

Southwest named Anita Brackin associate vice president of Workforce and Economic Development and Continuing Education Feb. 2. Brackin returns to Southwest to manage the development and implementation of workforce development, continuing education and personal and professional development programs to drive the College's workforce alignment and economic development initiatives. She also is responsible for engaging and developing collaborative partnerships with state and federal workforce and economic development organizations, as well as private sector organizations, community agencies, secondary and post-secondary partners and other groups.

Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Christopher Ezell says this role is vital to making certain Southwest continues to play a leading role in the region's economic growth and vitality. Anita Brackin has worked with a variety of employers, constituents and companies and has had excellent relations with them all, he said. We look forward to the premier role she and her team will play in workforce training, economic development and continuing education in the Memphis region.

Brackin brings more than twenty-five years of experience in higher education to the role with extensive experience working with companies to deliver impactful education and training opportunities for their employees, aligning education programs with regional labor markets and achieving national recognition for the innovative design and delivery of customized credit and non-credit programs. She most recently served as Director of Workforce Development and Education for the Greater Memphis Chamber for the past three years with a key focus on developing strategic alliances across industries, educational institutions, community organizations and economic development agencies to assess needs, identify opportunities and work towards solving the region's current and future workforce requirements.

Prior to this, Brackin worked at Southwest for two years as Corporate Training and Continuing Education director. Much of this time was spent working intensively with Hershey Memphis representatives to design the College's Advanced Integrated Industrial Technology (AIIT) curriculum that is a non-credit to credit technical skill program that is a valuable addition to Southwest's Technologies division. She collaborated with Southwest administrators and faculty to author the TBR New Academic Program Proposal for the AIIT Associate in Applied Science degree and identify and source the corresponding laboratory equipment. She also recruited such corporations as Nike, FedEx Maintenance and Riviana to participate.

Brackin is pursuing the Doctor of Education in Adult and Lifelong Learning from the University of Arkansas. She holds a Master of Science in Operations Management and a Master of Education in Workforce Development from the University of Arkansas, a Certified Financial Planner degree from the College for Financial Planning and a Bachelor of Science in Public Relations from Arkansas State University.

When not working (and in the absence of any of their children living close by), Brackin and her husband, Joe, enjoy spending time with their two horses, two Great Pyrenees dogs and three lovable barn cats.