Dr. Billye Joyce (Vance) Fine received her undergraduate degree at Milligan and graduate degrees at the University of South Florida and Nova Southeastern University. While in Florida, Fine taught middle school for nine years and as principal for 31 years. In recognition for her work in Florida, she was recognized with the “St. Petersburg’s Distinguished Citizen Award,” “Milligan’s Distinguished Alumni Award,” “Kentucky Christian University’s President’s Award for Distinguished Service,” “Point University’s Leadership Award,” “Johnson University’s Hall of Fame for Teachers,” and “Standard Publishing’s Christian Educator of the Year Award.”
Since 2001, Fine has been a professor in Milligan’s Teacher Education Program. She also served as an adjunct professor at Johnson University, Moody Bible Institute, and Emmanuel Christian Seminary. She has published numerous articles, journals, concept books, manuals, and a book, titled Teachers are Made, Not Born. She has presented teaching workshops both nationally and internationally and presently serves on the Board of Trustees of Point University, Carter County Imagination Library Board, and Carter County/Elizabethton School System PreK Advisory Council. In addition, she is an officer of Johnson City’s Gamma Chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma and Johnson City’s Monday Club.
Fine enjoys teaching Sunday School and Wednesday Evening Bible Study at Downtown Christian Church, in Johnson City, where her husband, Dr. W. Edward “Eddie” Fine, an alumnus of Milligan, ministers. They are proud parents to son, Jeremy, CFO of Chicago Transit Authority, and his wife, Michelle, a clinical pharmacist at Northwestern Hospital.