Employee Profile

Meet Yvette Brooks
Coaching and Recruitment Support Technician 

Where did you grow up, and what was it like? 

I grew up here in Richmond as an only child.  My mother who also work at Reynolds (Ms. Theresa Brooks) was a great mother and is still my role model to this day. 

What brought you to Reynolds - aside from your mother?  

I love what Reynolds stands for and what we do here. It is very satisfying to see the students we help move on to bigger and better things.

How long have you been with the college? What were you doing before you came to Reynolds? 

I started at Reynolds after high school. I received my Business Administration degree while working at Reynolds I have worked various positions. I started as a work-study student and moved to part-time and then on to my current job in Admissions and Recruitment.

Coaching and Recruitment is a busy area these days. Tell us about your work in the department. 

I am the Admission and Recruitment Support Specialist. I can say I do a little bit of everything. From answering phones to helping student with applications, and more. 

What do you like to do outside of work? 

I currently have little free time outside of work as I am working on my Forensic Accounting Degree, but whenever I can I enjoy reading and traveling.

What is your favorite book, movie, or TV series, and why? 

I don’t know that I have a favorite book, but I really enjoy mysteries. I enjoy trying to figure out the who, what, and why.

If you won $100 million in the lottery what would you do with the money? 

If I won the lottery I would complete my goal to visit all 50 states. So far I have marked off 14 states.

PTK

Reynolds PTK at work in the community: Finally in Person!

Since 2020, during covid times, PTK's community projects have all been virtual. Finally, on February 12th 2022, students were able to do their first in person - all outside - service project.

The long, cold day was spent at James River Park removing invasive plants from the trail around the Pumphouse Park area of the James River. 

Kim Hasley and Cara Luyster co-advise PTK, and shared these details about what PTK has been up to.

How did PTK get involved with the Park? How many students participated? And, how was the day?  

There were five of us all together.  We worked with James River Park services to remove invasive plant species from the trail. We ended up picking up a lot of trash too, even though that was not our main job. 

We used the “Hands On RVA” site to get in touch with the James River Parks.  They provided the equipment we needed to cut down the invasive plants choking out the trees. We were out there for several hours and were all tired when we were done.

HandsOn Greater Richmond, is a way to connect with the community. It’s easy. Just create a volunteer account and you can manage your own signups as part of this team. 

What virtual community projects have you been doing since 2020? 

Before 2020, we would do one service project a month—things like volunteering with BARK, Richmond Animal League, going to see kids in the hospital for a reverse Trick or Treat, and doing activities with residents at nursing homes. Approximately, 280 students have joined PTK every year since 2019. 

With covid we couldn’t get out into the community. We wanted to continue our project so, like everyone else, we learned how to be of service virtually.  Here are a few of the virtual projects we’ve been working on since 2020.

BeMyEyes. This is an app used to help the visually impaired. It is a remote service done through a secure portal. Students could sign up for the app, and when someone needed their help interpreting visual information they would get a notification.

Donate! All PTK members were encouraged to donate to a local charity. From clothes, canned food, and money, all are encouraged to lend a helping hand during these hard times!

Transcribing historical documents. This project challenged students to jump back into community service by transcribing historical documents! Not only is this a fun and easy way to earn a credit towards the 5-STAR ENHANCEMENT PLAN, but it also can be done from the comfort of home! Students could explore, choose their favorite topic, and start transcribing! 

Good Deeds Day. Students were directed to this website where they could choose a virtual service opportunity.

While there seemed to be no end to the service opportunities that sprang up from the turmoil of covid, the James River Park project was literally, and figuratively, a breath of fresh air. It was great to get back out in the community in person, besides it’s hard to beat the satisfaction of a day of productive hard work.

Employee Profile

Back Roads. Engine Lights. 10,000 Steps. Consider yourself lucky to meet Tonia Haney.

How many people do you know who are brave enough to crisscross the country on back roads? 

How many people do you know who have driven to, and through, every state in the lower 48? 

To be sure, anyone with the moxie to take annual back road car trips must know quite a bit about cars and car repairs.

If you meet one such adventurous soul in your lifetime, you would be lucky.

So consider yourself lucky. In March you will have the opportunity to meet just such a character in Reynolds new Automotive Program Head and Instructor, Tonia Haney. 

First a little background. Tonia grew up in a small town in the mid-west. “I actually did grow up in a garage,” Tonia said, “my grandfather owned and operated the only repair shop in the small town where I grew up. I got in to it [fixing cars] because I just liked hanging out with grandpa.”

But, cars and car repairs were not Tonia’s first choice of career. She started out studying Chemical Engineering. A bout with Calculus II made her realize she did, indeed, enjoy the challenges of diagnosing and fixing cars, so she changed her major and graduated with a degree in Automotive Technology.

Straight out of college Tonia went to work for General Motors in Detroit. A few years later, GM sent her to work in Portland. She worked for GM in Portland for the next four years, but when the company “recalled” her to Detroit, Tonia said no. She liked Portland and decided to stay. Portland became her home and for the next six years she ran a mobile repair business, then for the next eleven years she served as Automotive Program Head and Instructor for an established Toyota T-TEN program in a community college.

It was through a monthly conference call with Toyota that Tonia heard about Reynolds joining the T-TEN program, and that the college was looking for someone to get the ball rolling. A visit to the Reynolds website, an application, and an interview later, and Tonia was packing her bags for Virginia. “The job itself is awesome,” said Tonia, “but what attracted me most to Reynolds was that I could build the program from the ground up.” Life’s challenges are clearly what excite Tonia the most.

At Reynolds, as the Program Head, Tonia’s job involves building the course curriculum, recruiting the “right” students – ones looking for a real career in automotive technology, and building relationships with the local Toyota dealers. On the Instructor side, her job is all hands on. “It’s easy to get your 10,000 steps done in a day when you’re instructing. The days are very full, and very busy.” Her plan is to recruit 16 students for the first cohort. 16 students in hands on training? Sounds like more than 10,000 steps and 10,000 turns of a wrench.

Tonia emphasizes that automotive technology these days is much more than rotating tires and oil changes. Although students will learn those basic repair skills, their studies and practice will take them well into the realm of complex technology and computers. “Consider this,” Tonia says, “The check engine light on your car has been around since the 1970s. Back then, the light meant one of five things was going wrong. Today that same check engine light could mean one of 400 things is going wrong.”

Tonia is looking to the future. Not just to her move to Richmond where she says, “I’m looking forward to meeting the awesome people of Richmond and at Reynolds,” but to the future of automotive technology. Automobiles will only get more complex along with the challenges they will represent for those diagnosing and solving their problems. It’s like Chemical Engineering under the hood . . . just the kind of challenge that revs Tonia’s engine.

Tonia’s move to Virginia will be in two stages. In March she will come to campus for the first time and will stay for several weeks. She will complete her move in late June. She didn’t say so, but it’s easy to imagine her driving the backroads all the way from Portland to Richmond.

Reynolds is lucky to have found and hired this adventurous individual. Take the time to meet and greet her when you can.

Here is Tonia with some of her students in the "classroom" in Portland.

The Kitchens at Reynolds

A Pathway to The Kitchens 

Good things are cooking at The Kitchens these days. One of the best is a recruitment program to introduce high school students to culinary arts. Stacie Davis, Academic Dean, School of Business and Industrial Trades, and Chef Duane Brown recently sat down for a Q and A about the Reynolds Culinary Pathway program. 

Q:  Please tell us about the program and how it got started. 

A:  Stacie Davis: After learning about the Culinary program here at Reynolds and the needs of the industry, I worked with our Culinary faculty to determine the desires of the program - growth, outreach, community engagement, and meeting industry needs. These desires aligned with Reynolds’ Strategic Plan and were the foundation to build the new Reynolds student experience through the Culinary Pathway. This pathway starts with our high school Dual Enrollment students and will end with Reynolds Completers that are ready to fill industry gaps immediately! I knew the perfect person for the position was Chef Duane Brown, so I reached out to him on LinkedIn and the rest is history. He has engaged five different high school culinary classes in just a month and has helped us to initiated dual enrollment agreements with county vocational centers.

Q:  How does it work: do the students visit The Kitchens for a tour? 

A: Chef Duane Brown: An admission counselor and I visit culinary and baking programs at their location, we provide an overview of Reynolds, The Kitchens, and culinary careers beyond the kitchen and we wrap up with a demo and tasting.  The culinary students learn about emulsifiers and how to make aioli, the baking students learn how to make retail bakery items using basic ingredients and recipes 

Q: Is this a partnership with other outside groups? 

A: SD: No, we’re going to local high schools with culinary programs with the initial focus on programs that currently offer Reynolds Dual Enrollment classes and those that may be interested in starting DE with us.

Q:  What Reynolds staff are involved with the program? 

A: DB: Admissions and Adjunct Culinary Instructor

Q: What are their roles? 

A: DB: Admissions talks about degree options, financial aid and the application process. I talk about my career journey, emerging career opportunities and the importance of getting a formal education to be a competitive candidate for higher paying food jobs.

Q: What schools are you visiting?

A: DB: Chesterfield Technical Center and Hermitage ACE Center. We have met with five high school culinary/baking classes in both Chesterfield and Henrico counties. We will continue to work with these high schools and others in our local area.

Q: How is it working out? Will you continue?

A: DB: The students respond very well and ask questions about how to choose a college and how to compare college options. 

A: SD: It's working out phenomenally! Not only will we continue, but we have the blueprint to reach potential Reynolds students, increase enrollment through these students using a clear and seamless pathway to create Reynolds completers with industry experience that are ready for the industry immediately, even before graduation! We are excited about the difference we can make in the culinary industry, Richmond community, and the lives of our students.

Student Services

Reynolds Community College offers 24/7 mental telehealth for students!

Reynolds Community College is excited to offer TimelyCare - a new telehealth program for students. The service will provide access to 24/7 mental virtual health care from anywhere in the United States, with no cost to visit!

Whether a student is anxious or overwhelmed, they will be able to talk to a licensed provider from a smartphone or any web-enabled device. Licensed providers are available to offer mental health support via phone or secure video visits. Here are the FAQs you as faculty and staff can share with students:

Q. How can students access TimelyCare?

Students can go to timelycare.com/vccs to register with their name and school email address. Students can then have visits from any web-enabled device – smartphone, laptop, or desktop. TimelyCare is available from anywhere in the United States.

Q. Who can use TimelyCare?

Any student at Reynolds Community College

Q. What services are available?

Three services are available:

• TalkNow: 24/7, on-demand access to a mental health professional to talk about anything at anytime,
  
  
• Scheduled Counseling: scheduled options to speak to a licensed counselor,
   
• Group Sessions: Weekly Guided Meditation and Yoga Group Sessions, plus specialized discussions throughout the year.

Q. How much does a visit cost?

Zip, zero, zilch! TimelyCare services are free to all Reynolds Community College students!

TimelyCare is for Reynolds students. It's Free. Please share this news so your students can get the help they need when they need it.

Employee Profile

Jessica Buchanan
Assistant Director of Marketing

Where did you grow up and 
what was it like?

I grew up in Stafford County, along the Potomac River, which at the time was very rural. On weekends I would play in the woods with my best friends Nutmeg the Great Dane, Bapbo the Basset Hound, Mickey the Chocolate Lab and Tucker the Orange Tabby Cat. My forest adventures would have made a grand children's book. 

If you didn't grow up in Richmond, what brought you to the area? And, what brought you to Reynolds? 

I am one of those people who keeps leaving Richmond and coming back. This is my third time living in the area. As for coming to Reynolds, it was just a great opportunity. 

What were you doing before coming to Reynolds?

I worked for VCU Residential Life and Housing for seven years as their marketing person. There I discovered if you need people to do something, get their moms to tell them to do it. 

Tell us about your work here at the college.

I am the Assistant Director of Marketing, so anything dealing with branding, marketing, social media, signage, design might fall within my realm. 

Were you always interested in design and marketing?

I was always an art kid, but not everyone appreciated my art. My little sister used to yell at me for ruining her coloring books when I would add on to the pictures and color outside of the lines. 

What is your favorite activity outside of work?

I love spending time with my dog Diablo Linus Bond. He came with the name Diablo, but he could not be more of an angel. However, he believes that snuggling is a full-contact sport.

What is your favorite book, movie, or TV show?

My favorite movie is The Birdcage. I watch this movie with my moms and brother every year, and we dance around to, "We are family. I've got all my sisters with me," which plays in the movie's last scene. 

If you won $100 million in the lottery, what would you do with the money?

Besides the adult things like paying off the house, car and school loans, I would take a trip to Montana. I know it sounds weird, but I met a professional photographer once that worked for National Geographic, and he said that Montana was the most beautiful place he had ever been. Ever since then, I have been so intrigued, and I really want to go.

Culinary Medicine at The Kitchens

You are what you eat.

Imagine how different healthcare would be if your doctor pulled out a grocery list instead of a prescription pad. Or, if your doctor began your annual checkup with a discussion of food and its influence on your health and wellbeing rather than a blood pressure cuff.

This healthcare vision is coming into focus through an innovative collaboration between VCU’s Culinary Medicine program and The Kitchens at Reynolds. 

At the heart of the program is Assistant Professor at VCU Stony Point Women’s Health, Dr. Deborah Koehn.

Dr. Koehn (pictured left) pioneered the program three years ago in makeshift kitchen facilities at VCU. Her goal was to improve physician nutrition competency. “Many diseases, Dr. Koehn says, “can actually be prevented through lifestyle changes; however, nutrition education in medical school is minimal and our young providers are graduating with very little education to deal with the onslaught of this rising pandemic of chronic disease.”  

“However, just knowing about nutrition is not the same thing as learning to talk about food with your patients,” Koehn continues, “so the goal from the beginning was to develop an interdisciplinary program where we have the three components of good health at the table:  the physician, the dietician, and the chef. The physician may understand the chronic disease, but the dietician can help more with the counseling techniques and behavior modifications as well as guide the nutrition goals, and the chef can help to make the food delicious.”

The partnership is a perfect match for both VCU and Reynolds. During the four week class, Tuesdays are “Journal Club” where students review literature related to the topic of the week; Thursdays are for shopping where the students visit a different grocery store each week and discuss pricing, food content, and options. Fridays, when Reynolds culinary students are away from The Kitchens, the VCU students take over the ovens, the stove tops, and the counters, and learn about food preparation. 

“For some students, the class is the first time they learn to hold knife and cut a vegetable for others,” says Koehn. “This is an extension of a culinary journey they have already begun.  By practicing the basic cooking skills in the kitchen, they can better help guide their patients as to how to prepare foods, how to modify recipes in the hopes that we can change health one life at a time.”

“I'm delighted to have been chosen to assist with the class,” says Reynolds Culinary Arts student and Culinary Medicine intern, Anya Glessman. The program is also a perfect match for her: “I'm learning about culinary nutrition and assisting with a topic of my interest.” Chef Jesse Miller was aware that she wanted to pursue a career in this field, so when conversations began about bringing the Culinary Medicine program to The Kitchens, he reached out to her with the opportunity to assist.

Leading the Friday sessions at The Kitchens is Chef Jayson Leek, Chef at The Front Porch Café. “At the beginning of the class, says Anya Glessman, “Chef Leek gives a lecture on the class focus and does a demo on a task like how to chop garlic, cut an onion, or how to use different kinds of equipment like a food processor or a spice grinder. The students who are taking the class all seem very passionate to learn about the culinary side of dietetics and nutrition.”

New sessions of the program are coming to The Kitchens this spring, and Chef Leek and Anya Glessman will again be there to assist Dr. Koehn and her students as they work toward changing health one life at a time.

Watch this short video taken during a class session. 

 

The first mention of the phrase "you are what you eat" came from the 1826 work Physiologie du Gout, ou Medetations de Gastronomie Transcendante, in which French author Anthelme Brillat-Savarin wrote: “Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are.”

 

Reflection

A Reflection

By Hong Wu
Director of Library, Information Services, and Academic Support

Lunar New Year is celebrated by one sixth of the world’s population! This year, it will fall on February 1st, starting a year of the Tiger. The celebration will last for 15 days until Lantern Festival.

Lunar New Year always brings back fond memories from my childhood in China.

When I was a child, food was scarce and Lunar New Year meant food. It would be a disgrace or bad luck not to have enough food at the beginning of a year so every household started to save and prepare months ahead. Chicken and fish were rubbed with spices and air-dried for months. Craving for nuts or candies? Wait for the Lunar New Year! 

New Year meant I would see Dad. Dad was always dispatched to work away from home, but he would be home for the New Year. The sight of him wobbling home on a bike loaded with local treats was one of the happiest moments of my childhood!

New Year meant gifts. Visitors would show up unannounced with gifts at our doorstep and Mom would insist they stay for a meal. This would go on for days. We children always enjoyed the feasts with exuberance while Mom cooked all day in the kitchen. Most of the gifts would be re-gifted and we didn’t have the slightest notion of keeping them to ourselves. Giving was a matter of life. 

New Year meant “pocket money.” Children would bow to elders who would in return hand over “red envelopes” with money. If the amount was substantial, it would very likely be “confiscated” by parents to be “repurposed.” 

Today, New Year still means food, gifts, pocket money, reunion etc. and they are in abundant supply, but the memory of my childhood New Year is the best and sweetest of all. It was a memory of hope, resilience, bonding, giving, and being thankful. They are bricks for the human fortress!

I can’t wait to celebrate Lunar New Year!