News and Features

What's going on in the Central Piedmont community and what Central Piedmont is doing in the community.

  • College Recognized as 2020 Tree Campus Higher Education Institution

    The Arbor Day Foundation has recognized Central Piedmont as a 2020 Tree Campus Higher Education institution. 

    Tree Campus Higher Education, a national program launched by the Arbor Day Foundation in 2008, honors colleges and universities and their leaders for promoting healthy trees and engaging students and staff in the spirit of conservation.

    To earn this distinction, Central Piedmont had to meet five core standards for effective campus forest management:

    • Establish a tree advisory committee
    • Show evidence of a campus tree-care plan
    • Show dedicated annual expenditures for its campus tree program
    • Observe Arbor Day
    • Sponsor student service-learning projects

    Congratulations to Central Piedmont’s Grounds and Site Coordinator Zachary Harris, and the college’s tree advisory committee, who have demonstrated the leadership and forethought needed to earn this national recognition. The college prides itself on using its tree canopies to not only keep its campuses cool, but also to create spaces that improve the physical and mental health of its many employees and students.

    Learn more about the Arbor Day Foundation. 

  • Dr. Tracie Clark Chosen for National Presidential Fellowship for Community College Leaders

    The Aspen Institute College Excellence Program today announced that Dr. Tracie Clark, vice president of strategy and organization excellence, at Central Piedmont Community College, is one of 40 leaders selected for the 2021-22 class of the Aspen Rising Presidents Fellowship, a highly selective leadership program preparing the next generation of community college presidents to transform institutions to achieve higher and more equitable levels of student success.

    The Rising Presidents Fellows will embark on the 10-month fellowship beginning in November 2021. Delivered in collaboration with the Stanford Educational Leadership Initiative, the fellows will be mentored by esteemed current and former community college presidents who have achieved exceptional outcomes for students throughout their careers, and will learn strategies to improve student outcomes in and after college, lead internal change, and create strong external partnerships with K-12 schools, four-year colleges, employers, and other partners.

    Clark has worked at Central Piedmont 21 years in a number of important leadership roles, including communications faculty member, chair of the inaugural Quality Enhancement Plan Development and Implementation Committee, special assistant to the president, chair of the Student Success Leadership Team, and currently as a vice president - strategy and organization excellence.

    “To become institutions that truly advance social mobility and talent development, community colleges must have presidents with a clear vision for equitable student success,” said Monica Clark, director of leadership initiatives at the College Excellence Program. “We have selected these fellows because they share that commitment and are well-positioned to become transformational leaders.”

    “I am excited and proud that Dr. Tracie Clark will be a 2021-22 Aspen Rising Presidents Fellow,” said Dr. Kandi Deitemeyer, Central Piedmont president. “Dr. Clark epitomizes all of the qualities the Aspen Rising Presidents Fellowship seeks. She has a been leader, motivator and chief strategist in Central Piedmont’s efforts to improve our student experience and achieve greater levels of student retention and success among all of our students.

    “Her leadership has been and will continue to be crucial as Central Piedmont endeavors to build more paths of opportunity and economic mobility for students beginning their higher education journey, seeking skills to build a family-sustaining career, or obtaining additional credentials for career growth,” Deitemeyer added.

    The Aspen Rising Presidents Fellowship responds to the growing need for a new generation of leaders well-equipped to meet the challenges of the future. Nationally, nearly 80 percent of sitting presidents plan to retire in the next decade. While the traditional pathway to the presidency has often excluded women and people of color, the incoming class of Aspen Rising Presidents Fellows is composed of 68 percent women and 70 percent people of color, and represents institutions of varying sizes and locations.

    Together, the 2021-22 fellows are leaders at colleges that collectively serve more than 400,000 students. As well, 67 Rising Presidents Fellowship alumni have become presidents of community colleges that collectively serve an additional 953,000 students nationwide.

  • CoARC Recognizes College's Respiratory Therapy Program

    The Commission on Accreditation for Respiratory Care (CoARC) has recognized Central Piedmont with its Distinguished RRT Credentialing Success Award. The award is presented as part of the CoARC's continued efforts to value the Registered Respiratory Therapist (RRT) credential as a standard of professional achievement.

    To qualify for the award, Central Piedmont's respiratory therapy program had to meet the following criteria:

    • have three or more years of outcome data
    • hold accreditation without a progress report
    • document RRT credentialing success of 90% or above
    • meet or exceed CoARC thresholds for TMB high cut score and retention

    Congratulations to the program's faculty, students, and alumni on this accomplishment!

  • Students succeed at NY National Model UN Conference

    Eleven Central Piedmont students joined thousands of university students, more than half of which matriculated from outside the United States, in the National Model United Nations (MUN) New York 2021 Conference.

    Participating in this year’s conference were Central Piedmont students Aakriti Lakshmanan, Aiden Keith, Anthony Kabala, Ashley Braswell, Barbara Batista, Christelle Valentin, Davidson Valmyr, Gwen Thompson, Otisia Bryan, Richard Dougherty and Skyler McNeely.

    The MUN Club represented the delegation of The Republic of El Salvador and discussed current global issues in a real-world context. The team performed well,  receiving the “Distinguished Delegation” Award for its great committee participation, remaining in character, and proper use of rules of procedure. In addition to receiving team honors, Aakriti Lakshmanan received the “Outstanding Position Paper in a Committee” award, as well as the “Outstanding Delegate in a Committee” award.

    Central Piedmont’s Model UN Club is overseen by faculty advisors Teresa Hall and Camelia Taheri.

  • Students Place Second in Global Solutions Sustainability Challenge

    Congratulations to the following Central Piedmont students who joined a binational team of Iraqi students and placed second in the Global Solutions Sustainability Challenge, a project administered by IREX and funded by the Stevens Initiative, which is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State. They are:

    • John Dale Ardiosa
    • Nancy Guerrero
    • Aiden Keith
    • Aakriti Lakshmanan
    • Anny Leon
    • Jenna Louis
    • Devin McKillop
    • Eslam Shaalia
    • Gwen Thompson

    The Global Solutions Sustainability Challenge is a virtual exchange initiative that supports workforce development in the U.S., Iraq, and Jordan. Community college students from the U.S. and university students from Iraq and Jordan team up to solve global challenges facing the business sector across industries.

    The program improves global citizenship, strengthens problem-solving skills, and develops enduring connections, while enhancing students’ job skills through online collaboration.

    The Central Piedmont/Iraqi team created the mobile app "planet eARTh," which provides awareness of the impact environmental damage can have on Charlotte and Sulaimani through local artwork. Explore their video pitch and business concept.

    Kudos to Central Piedmont’s Camelia Taheri, discipline chair of Global Business, and Nadine Russell, director of Global Learning, who facilitated the team over the past eight weeks. 

    Learn more about the Global Solutions Sustainability Challenge.

    Learn more about global learning at Central Piedmont.

  • CODA 2021 Visit to Central Piedmont

    The dental assisting and dental hygiene programs at Central Piedmont Community College will undergo a comprehensive evaluation visit from Monday, April 5 through Wednesday, April 7, 2021 by a team representing the American Dental Association's Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA).

    CODA is nationally recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as the sole agency to accredit dental and dental-related education programs conducted at the post-secondary level.

    Submit Comments by Sat., Feb. 6

    Third parties, including faculty, students, program administrators, specialty and dental-related organizations, patients, and consumers are invited to submit comments. Signed or unsigned comments will be accepted. Names and/or signatures will be removed from comments prior to forwarding them to the program. All comments must pertain only to the standards relative to the particular program(s) being reviewed, or policies and procedures used in the accreditation process. A copy of the accreditation standards and/or the commission’s policy on third party comments may be obtained by contacting the commission at ada.org/en/coda.

    Public comments must be received by Saturday, February 6, 2021 and submitted to:

    Commission on Dental Accreditation
    211 East Chicago Avenue
    Chicago, IL 60611

  • Call for Papers: Fall and Winter 2020 Issues of Teaching American Literature: A Journal of Theory and Practice

    Teaching American Literature: A Journal of Theory and Practice (TALTP), a peer-reviewed journal published by Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, North Carolina, is aimed toward instructors of American literature courses in four- and two-year universities and colleges.

    The journal is currently accepting submissions for our fall 2020 and winter 2020 issues:

    • Fall 2020 issue: Teaching Horror and the Weird in the American Literature Classroom, to be guest edited by Chris Brawley, author of "Nature and the Numinous in Mythopoeic Fantasy Literature."
    • Winter 2020 issue: Teaching Western and Native American Literature, to be guest edited by Susan M. Stone, author of works on 19th-century regionalism, gender, and Native American literature and culture.

    Learn more about Teaching American Literature: A Journal of Theory and Practice.

  • PBS Charlotte General Manager Publishes Book

    How do you go from just trying to get through life to fulfilling what you were born to do with your life?  WTVI PBS Charlotte General Manager Amy Burkett shares what she's learned over 30-plus years in leadership and broadcasting in her recently published book "The 7 D's to Your Destiny." 

    Inside its pages, readers will learn how to immerse themselves in the 7 D’s to destiny and hone their talents, moving from ordinary to extraordinary while fulfilling their life’s purpose.

    Burkett weaves her decades of learning and growing from New York Times Bestselling Author John Maxwell throughout the book’s pages, sharing the many tools readers will need to unlock their awesomeness and seize the destiny that is out there waiting on them.

    “The 7 D’s to Your Destiny” is available on Amazon.com.

  • College to use grant funds to organize food drives, help at-risk students

    Bridge Builders Charlotte, a joint effort between Belk Chapel at Queens University and Chicago-based Interfaith Youth Core, has awarded Central Piedmont a $25,000 grant to promote social justice and educational equity across the Charlotte region.

    Bridge Builders Charlotte aims to use campus-community partnerships to overcome social divides and make our community stronger – with a specific aim of strengthening the Charlotte community’s response to the COVID-19 crisis.

    The grant proposal was spearheaded by Chris Brawley, a religion professor in the Humanities Division at Central Piedmont. The funding will be used to hire three Central Piedmont student interns who will work in conjunction with Central Piedmont’s Student Life department and local nonprofit Loaves and Fishes, to sponsor two food drives during the fall semester that will address the food needs of various faith traditions.

    In addition to preparing specially made food boxes and participating in the food drives, interfaith cards will be included in the boxes, highlighting the common call of every religion to serve others. The food drives will be captured on film and distributed to the wider Charlotte community, showing how various faith traditions can work together (and learn from each other) during times of crisis.

    Central Piedmont’s project is being funded through the Gambrell Foundation. Collectively, the Gambrell-Foundation is not only helping fund Central Piedmont’s initiative, but also a variety of projects housed at more than 10 faith communities, five other area colleges and universities (Davidson College, Johnson C. Smith University, Queens University, UNC Charlotte and Wingate University), and six nonprofit organizations.

    “These projects will forge connections between Charlotte-area campuses, local nonprofit organizations and religiously diverse communities,” Brawley explains. “Central Piedmont is excited to be involved in this process, and an active participant in leveraging Charlotte’s potential to expand opportunity for those who are most vulnerable as result of the coronavirus crisis.”

  • Dr. Alain Miatudila Sr. Receives NCOSS Outstanding Alumnus of a Program Award

    Congratulations to Dr. Alain Miatudila Sr., division director for the engineering technologies division at Central Piedmont, for being awarded the North Carolina Organization for Student Success (NCOSS) Outstanding Alumnus of a Program award.

    This award recognizes a former student of a student success program associated with NCOSS who is a source of pride for the program.

    To qualify for the award, a candidate must complete a two- or four-year degree and participate in at least two student success program activities.

    After taking developmental reading classes and Academic Success Center/Foreign Language Learning Lab sessions at Central Piedmont, Dr. Miatudila went on to successfully complete an Associate in Applied Science in civil engineering technology in 2001. He later graduated from UNC Charlotte with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering technology, a master's degree in civil engineering, and a Ph.D. in infrastructure and environmental systems (civil engineering).

    Says Dr. Miatudila, "This award means everything to me because it is a testament to my hard work. It brings everything full circle because I began my college studies here at Central Piedmont Community College and now I work here. I am just so proud and honored to be recognized by my colleagues and friends."