June 11, 2024 | Erin Bluvas, bluvase@sc.edu

Kollette Clark and her husband, Derek, began a new chapter in their lives when she made the official move to Columbia in 2022. With their younger daughter, Ashley, graduating from high school and joining her sister, Brittany, at the University of Georgia, the empty nesters were open to new experiences.

Derek had been living in Columbia for four years during the work week and commuting back to Georgia on the weekends. Clark visited his apartment on Main Street from time to time, and her move afforded the opportunity to live downtown – appreciating the contrast from their previously rural residence.

“The Soda City Market, First Thursday, the Nickelodeon Theatre and all the great restaurants made the transition so enjoyable,” says Clark, who also loves the neighborhood where they eventually settled.

The couple met more than 25 years ago in Texas, where Clark grew up. An alumna of Texas A&M University (B.S. in Microbiology), Clark originally planned a career in dentistry. After some clinical experience helped her rule out that path, she opened her mind to other opportunities and ended up joining the executive management training program at General Motors.

“I was quickly whisked into the automotive finance industry and trained in sales, presentation skills, wholesale and all things finance,” she says. “Looking back, it was exactly what I needed at exactly the right time and probably when my true love of spreadsheets and data analysis began.”

Clark met Derek at GM, as he had already been working with the organization for five years. The move to Georgia was a job transfer for them both, but they decided she would stay home with Brittany, who was due just weeks after their move.

When the girls were five and three years old, Clark enrolled at UGA to complete a teaching certificate and a master’s in science education. For 15 years, her work teaching various high school sciences, as well as coaching basketball and volleyball, was the perfect fit for their family.

The move to Columbia offered an opportunity to consider a shift in her career and schedule/lifestyle. Clark narrowed her search down by prioritizing positions at USC.

“When I came across the Arnold School position, I shared the details with a few of my colleagues and friends, and their responses were centered around ‘that is the perfect job for you,’” she remembers. “After my interview with Dr. Lee Pearson and Dr. Delores Pluto, I was so excited about the role and the Arnold School. I still feel this way almost two years later!”

As Director of Evaluation and Academic Assessment for the school, Clark’s position is part of the Dean’s Office. Her main role is to lead evaluation activities, which includes the various methods used to approve, maintain, document, and evaluate supporting processes. 

“My work leads to me asking lots of questions, such as what is utilized, how is it implemented, why is this the approach, what is working and what could be modified for improvement?” she explains. “I love asking questions, understanding processes, and evaluating patterns with high volumes of detail.”

"Kollette's contributions to the Arnold School are both vital and impactful," says Pearson, Executive Director of Operations and Accreditation. "She has proven herself to be highly skilled, but her intuition and determination are the traits that have allowed her to quickly find her stride in the higher education environment. She sees every problem as an opportunity and one that she knows she can solve." 

Her current focus is the upcoming Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH) self-study and reaccreditation efforts in preparation for the October site visit. This colossal effort involves a steering committee, as well as other subcommittees and meetings with program directors, department chairs or other staff.

"I respect Kollette's confidence and abilities, but I am most grateful for her intense dedication in keeping our reaccreditation activities on track," Pearson says. "She has been a key leader in that important work, and her tireless efforts are truly appreciated."

Clark compiles and analyzes data related to mapping course outcomes for each degree and certificate program, performance metrics, post-graduation outcomes, applications, enrollment and much more. There are many opportunities on the evaluation list and the management of systems processes for collecting these quantities of data.

“Interacting with and serving people are the best parts,” Clark says of her job. “The staff, students and faculty of the Arnold School are incredible. I believe that each person in the Arnold School truly has the students’ and the school’s best interests at heart.”

This perspective helps ground Clark in her work – moving her purpose beyond crunching numbers to looking for ways to support instructors in their efforts to improve students’ educational experiences. She draws on her experiences as a teacher to think about the transition from middle school to high school to college and all the hopes, dreams and challenges that accompany this journey. 

“So many families make such significant sacrifices for their children to attend school, and if I play even a small role in supporting the excellence of education at the Arnold School, I feel incredibly honored to do so,” she says. “The amount of effort students devote to getting to their first year on a college campus is enormous. So even though I am no longer in the classroom, indirectly contributing to the students’ education is extremely rewarding.”

And, of course, she loves the technical challenges of her role.

“I enjoy being asked ‘I don’t know if you have this information, but could you find ABC and digging into the request – analyzing the data is just a bonus,” Clark says. “Anytime staff or faculty need information or data, and ask me for it, it provides another opportunity to learn about aspects of the Arnold School, as well as how that information is important to their roles.”

The Staff Spotlight Series is sponsored by the Arnold School's Office of Access and Collective Engagement.