The Delta Kappa Gamma Society International  For Key Women Educators

Kentucky - Epsilon
Member Spotlight

As a recently retired communications faculty member of Ashland Community and Technical College, Shirley taught basic public speaking and interpersonal communications. 

 Before joining the ACTC faculty she spent more than 20 in public relations and educational broadcasting in Kentucky, West Virginia, North Carolina and New York State. She is a graduate of the University of Kentucky. She received her Master’s Degree in Radio, Television and Motion Pictures from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

A native of the Ohio Valley, Shirley developed an interest in the Appalachian folklorist Jean Thomas (also known as the Traipsin' Woman).  Under the auspices of the Kentucky Humanities Council, she has lectured across the Commonwealth on Jean Thomas and currently is writing a biography of Ms. Thomas which will be published by the Jesse Stuart Foundation.

 An unrepentant bibliophile, she has had a life-long love of books. She was a co-founder of a Lexington-based book club which recently celebrated its 25^th anniversary and a founding member of the Friends of the Library for the Boyd County Public Library.

 She enjoys prowling through dusty antique/junk stores as well as surfing cyberspace in search of “treasures”, especially cat-shaped pitchers and teapots for her collection of more than 100.

 In addition to completing the Jean Thomas biography, her retirement plans include volunteer community work and some “serious beach time”.