Anita K. Brackin, who has more than 19 years of experience in coordinating customized credit and non-credit industrial training, has joined the staff of Mid-South Community College as Director of Business and Industry Services.
Brackin comes to MSCC from Arkansas Northeastern College in Blytheville where she spent nearly two decades identifying, developing, and implementing training activities relative to the needs of regional businesses and industries.
“Anita has compiled an impressive and comprehensive track record of meeting the diverse training needs of business and industry, and Mid-South Community College is fortunate that she agreed to bring her talents to Crittenden County,” said Dr. Glen Fenter, MSCC president.
“Her experience, energy, and enthusiasm will help us establish an educational model that will take us to the next level. Anita previously served as an integral part of The Solutions Group which has been the largest two-year college provider of customized training in the state for a number of years, so she knows how to make things happen.”
Brackin said she welcomes the opportunity and the challenge. “I’m back home, and I’m really excited to be here,” said Brackin, a native of West Memphis who graduated from Marion High School. “I love working with companies, employees, and students, and I see a great deal of potential here in the workforce development area.”
“Not many colleges in the region provide the type and depth of training we plan to do, so the market is wide open. The college has wonderful facilities and personnel, and I am looking forward to creating job-relevant training opportunities for the people of Crittenden County as well as the entire region.”
A member of the American Society of Training and Development, Brackin said her focus will be to create and sustain programs that will help companies thrive and grow.
“It all goes back to my customer service background and the principles I learned early in my professional career,” she said. “I have found that the most important question to ask is, ‘What do you need?’ When I hear the answer, it’s my job to figure out what we can do to meet that need.”
Brackin graduated from Arkansas State University with a bachelor’s degree in Journalism with a Public Relations emphasis. She landed her first job as Marketing Officer at the Bank of Bentonville and handled high-balance customer accounts. She worked extensively with the Sam Walton family during her six years in Northwest Arkansas. “It was an incredible experience,” Brackin said.
While expecting her first child, she and her husband relocated to Jonesboro. Brackin looked at job opportunities at her alma mater and eventually accepted a job as Associate Director/Alumni Development at ASU.
After the birth of her second child, Brackin moved to Blytheville and hadn’t been there long when Dr. Robin Myers, who later became president at Mississippi County Community College (now Arkansas Northeastern College), recruited her to work in business and industry training.
“I didn’t have any background in business and industry, but he knew I had a marketing background and had worked at a college,” she explained. “At that time, business and industry training was a brand new service, and as we developed it, I became more knowledgeable about what business and industries do and what some of their needs are.”
In 2005, with Brackin making one of the presentations, ANC’s Solutions Group won a prestigious Bellwether Award for its innovative efforts. The following year, she served as a Bellwether judge.
As part of her duties at ANC, Brackin administered daily activities of the Harry L. Crisp Training Center, supervising seven people and coordinating training schedules of full-time, half-time, and adjunct training faculty. She earned ANC’s Outstanding Staff Award in 2003.
In addition to her bachelor’s degree from ASU, she holds a master’s in Workforce Development Education from the University of Arkansas. Brackin is working toward a second master’s degree (in Operations Management) from U of A and expects to complete requirements in August.
“I love what education is able to do, and I always encourage people of any age to continue learning,” Brackin said. “When I worked at ANC, they called it the ‘Anita Brackin brainwash career plan,’ but I just pointed out the opportunities available. I watched plenty of students start and finish a degree, and that was very rewarding.”
For information about business and industry training, contact Brackin at (870) 733-6012. Her office is located in MSCC Workforce Technology Center on the North Campus.
Brackin’s family includes her husband, Joe, who has served as plant manager at West Memphis Steel since May 2011; a daughter, Laura, who lives in North Carolina and works in marketing; a son, Will, who is a freshman at the University of Arkansas, and a son, Ben, who is a senior in high school. Her mother, Lois Cain, who worked as a medical records administrator at Crittenden Regional Hospital for more than 43 years, is a resident at the Broadway Nursing Home in West Memphis.
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