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Southwest wins prestigious national Bellwether Award

By Diana Fedinec

2021 Bellweather AwardBellwether Consortium officials during the virtual 27th Annual Community College Futures Assembly Jan. 26 recognized Southwest Tennessee Community College as the top college in its Planning, Governance & Finance category for the prestigious 2021 Bellwether Award.

The Bellwether Award is presented to community colleges that represent the nation’s best in leadership and trend-setting programming worthy of replication. Community College educators from across the nation judge the competition to bestow recognition that is tantamount to the Oscars of community college awards.

Southwest beat out nine other community colleges from across the nation in the category with Redesign, Reinvent, and Reset: Organizing for Large Scale Systemic Change. This winning submission provided a snapshot of the strategies, successes and lessons learned during the College’s Achieve the Dream work to transform the student experience through meaningful, systemic change.

President Tracy D. Hall delivered the great news via a video message. “We did it!” exclaimed Dr. Hall. “Working together, we redesigned, reinvented and reset the student experience at Southwest!” President Hall saluted the faculty, staff and students who helped make this extraordinary achievement possible. “To be recognized first as a finalist and now as a 2021 winner, that is something I am so proud of, I am proud of us and I am proud of you.”

Dr. Hall also thanked her fellow presenting team members, Vice President Jacqueline Faulkner, Dean of Faculty Jeremy Burnett and Special Assistant to the Vice President of Academic Affairs, Sindy Abadie; the Department of Communications, Marketing and Community Relations for their help in producing the video submission; as well as all those who dared to dream big and embrace the college’s Big Audacious Goal to Redesign, Reinvent and Reset the student experience. “We keep our students first, we believe in student success and we believe in teamwork,” Dr. Hall said. “We all have to keep working hard together, being on the same team together. That’s what we do. That’s how we are. This is the Southwest way!”

Other finalists in the Planning, Governance & Finance category were:

  • Northeast Wisconsin Technical College
  • Onondaga Community College
  • El Paso Community College
  • Blinn College District
  • Collin College
  • Pensacola State College
  • Broward College
  • Pima Community College
  • University of Arkansas Community College at Hope Texarkana

To hear Dr. Hall’s remarks to the college, click here:


To view the complete Southwest Bellwether award submission, click here: