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Becoming a part of Isothermal campus is decision Gold doesn’t regret

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Dr. Kim Gold never imagined she might someday follow in her father’s footsteps as executive vice president at Isothermal Community College. In fact, a career in education wasn’t something she thought she would even pursue - until one day she stepped into a classroom and fell in love with teaching others. 

Gold, who has been a part of the administrative team at Isothermal Community College for six years, was recently named executive vice president. In this new role, she will continue to oversee academic and student services and institutional assessment. 

A Rutherford County native, Gold has been an employee for 18 years, but her time at Isothermal is longer than just those she’s been on the payroll. 

“My dad started out at Isothermal as an English professor and retired as an administrator,” Gold said of her father, Dillard Morrow. “So I’d always known Isothermal and even took dual enrollment classes in high school before there was dual enrollment.” 

As an undergraduate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Gold didn’t plan to become a teacher. It was after she received her master’s degree at Western Carolina University that the opportunity to teach presented itself. 

“My grandmother taught kindergarten for 42 years and always told me I should grow up and become a teacher,” Gold explained. “So after I finished my master’s degree, I took a part time teaching position at Montreat College. It was terrifying but I just loved it. I thought ‘This is why my grandmother likes this - this connection to her students.’”

Helen Lowery offered Gold a position at Isothermal, where Gold was struck by how committed the faculty and staff were to helping students. 

“I went from no way I’d ever be a teacher to being a teacher,” she said. “It’s a decision I’ve never, ever regretted.” 

Her years in the classroom prepared her for being an administrator, Gold said.

“As a teacher, you guide a student from one point to another,” she said. “I take the same philosophy with the people I lead now. As a teacher, you teach a group of students and then the next semester, it’s a new group of students. As an administrator I get to build ongoing relationships and build on our learning environment. It’s a rewarding job.”

Growing up with Isothermal in her life, Gold said it wasn’t until she joined the faculty that she could see the tremendous impact the college has on the community.

“I’ve been lucky to be a part of Isothermal’s history at times when there have been important decisions,” she said, including being a part of the steering committee that created REaCH (Rutherford Early College High School). “I hope what we do here on campus every day puts our county in a better place.” 

Gold has been blessed to have had great mentors, she said, who have shaped who she is as an administrator and her service to the community. 

“I hope I can do the same thing for other people.” 

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