| Portrait of a Servant Leader
Dr. Victoria L. Sitter
Associate Professor of Business Administration
From earning several degrees to working with numerous corporations, the achieved Dr. Sitter of Milligan College has accomplished more than most do in a lifetime.
Dr. Victoria Sitter is the Associate Professor of Business Administration at Milligan College. However, there is much more to this woman than her title implies.
Dr. Sitter grew up in Mountain City, Tennessee and when the time came to decide on a college, she went to nearby East Tennessee State University. It then took her thirteen years to graduate with a bachelor's degree! Dr. Sitter was not sitting idle throughout the years; however, she was taking full advantage of her college and work experience.
Dr. Sitter attended ETSU full-time for two years, and then traveled to Japan to experience life with a traditional Japanese family for six months. When she returned to her studies, she attended ETSU part-time and received a full-time working position. Dr. Sitter was hired by First Tennessee and Virginia Development District in Johnson City as the Executive Assistant to the Executive Director. For eight years, she acted as the liaison between the Executive Director of the Development District and the local mayors, judges, and municipalities.
Dr. Sitter then went on to become the Training Coordinator at Texas Instruments in 1979. Dr. Sitter worked with over 1800 employees and worked to ensure they received the appropriate training they needed for their jobs, working with employee schedules and course times. She also scheduled customers to receive product training when they requested to be trained on products they had bought.
Dr. Sitter was then promoted to the Senior Training Specialist position at Texas Instruments. She trained managers and supervisors at both local and corporate facilities in classes such as Basic Supervisory Skills, Human Resource Performance Appraisals, Equal Employment Opportunity and Sexual Harassment, Positive Negotiation, and Business Process Management.
Meanwhile, while Dr. Sitter was moving up in the corporate world, she was still attending ETSU. For many years, while she worked full-time during the day, she was a part-time student attending night classes. Finally, in 1985, thirteen years after her initial start at ETSU, Dr. Sitter graduated with majors in Health Care Administration and Business.
“I always excelled in my Business classes. My interpersonal interaction with others was a strength which helped me excel in Business. Business is where I was always happiest.”
Dr. Sitter then went on to pursue her master's degree in business from ETSU. However, after completing eighteen hours of coursework, she found it non-challenging and left the program. She went on to the University of Tennessee and completed her master's in Human Resource Management, driving to Knoxville twice a week to attend classes. During this time, in 1991, Dr. Sitter left Texas Instruments and became the Assistant Training Manager at Fingerhut in Piney Flats.
Fingerhut was a catalog distribution company with the Piney Flats office acting as a distribution center that fulfilled customer orders. Dr. Sitter worked with Fingerhut for four years, before becoming the Human Resource Manager at Hampton Print Works in Johnson City, where she remained for one year.
Shortly after leaving Hampton Print Works, Dr. Sitter ventured out and started her own business with a partner. Dr. Sitter's business, Management Recruiters International, is a professional recruiting organization that placed professionals with industries across America. She remained a partner for two years before selling her share of interest in 1998.
At this time in her life, the opportunity arose for Dr. Sitter to work with Milligan College as a member of the business faculty. While teaching full-time at Milligan, Dr. Sitter pursed her doctorate degree from Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia. She took online courses through a distant learning program, traveled to Regent University on occasional weekends, and attended extensive summer residencies. Three and a half years later, Dr. Sitter graduated with her doctorate degree in Organizational Leadership.
Today, Dr. Sitter specializes in teaching business classes such as Management, Human Resource Management, and Business Strategy. She is a tough but challenging teacher as she brings her real-world corporate experience to the classroom.
“My biggest passion is making sure students have the knowledge and skills they need to be successful. If I can help my students understand why it is important to have business knowledge and how to use it in life, then I am a success.”
During her time at Milligan, Dr. Sitter also started another business, Sitter and Associates, which is a management consulting group that works with companies throughout Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia, offering training in areas such as leadership, retention, and interviewing. Dr. Sitter teaches these training skills to a select number of companies as time permits between teaching and family.
Dr. Sitter has an extremely busy schedule, but she still has time to actively participate in many organizations. She is a member of the Society for Human Resource Management, the American Society for Training and Development, the Southern Management Association, Delta Kappa Gamma, National Business Educator's Society, and American Business Women's Association.
Dr. Sitter is also active in her church by singing in the choir, and she conveys her faith to her students in the classroom.
“I have the opportunity to speak openly of my faith. That is not something done at secular institutions. Having the freedom to speak of God and Christ and how they inform our lives is probably the most significant part of work for me at Milligan College.”
Most recently, Dr. Sitter traveled to Delhi, India as she was selected to present her dissertation research at the Integration of Spirituality and Organizational Leadership Conference. Dr. Sitter gave a presentation on the influence of a leader's emotional intelligence on engendering employee trust and employee organizational citizenship behaviors.
Dr. Sitter loves being part of the Milligan community and the enriching interaction she experiences with students and faculty.
“I receive ongoing feedback from students, both undergraduate and graduate, who tell me that something I did or said had an impact on them. That is what keeps me coming back day after day to Milligan. That is my reward.”
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