[027] State higher-ed resource officer gets feedback during campus visit

The state’s Higher Education Resource Officer visited MTSU this week for the first of three campus visits as part of her efforts to serve as a conduit between employees with questions or issues and the people who can provide answers, either within an institution or at the governance level.

Nneka Norman-Gordon’s job was created July 1, 2013, under the Comptroller of the Treasury to help faculty, staff and other higher-education employees function more efficiently.

Norman-Gordon, who visited with staff and faculty at the Student Union Building on July 28, will return to MTSU for new faculty orientation on Aug. 18 in the Student Union. Tricia Farwell, incoming president of the MTSU Faculty Senate, also invited her to appear at a to-be-determined October meeting date for the Senate.

The officer also attended a meeting of the Murfreesboro Rotary Club during her July 28 visit.

Norman-Gordon can field inquiries not only from the higher education community but also from legislators and other individuals and agencies. She has used her contacts to explore how equipment grant funds were distributed, the criteria for those decisions and which programs were unfunded, among other items.

Norman-Gordon, a 2012 graduate of the Tennessee Government Management Institute, earned her bachelor’s degree from Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia, and her master’s degree in industrial/organizational psychology from Austin Peay State University.

She has worked for the comptroller’s office for about a decade. Before assuming her current position, she worked as a legislative research analyst for the state’s Offices of Research and Education Accountability.

For more information about the state’s Higher Education Resource Officer, call 1-855-440-HERO FREE (4376) or visit http://www.comptroller.tn.gov/HERO/.