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Wentworth, (Ed.D. ’09) is president of Southwest Georgia Technical College.

Craig Wentworth, (Ed.D. ’09), president of Southwest Georgia Technical College in Thomasville and an alumnus of the University of Georgia College of Education, recently received the Delta Pi Epsilon Doctoral Research Award.

Wentworth, who became president of the college in November 2010, won the award for his dissertation titled, “The Role of Collegiate Sports Participation in Preparing Women for Executive Leadership.”

Wentworth earned his doctorate in occupational studies in a hybrid online program that was part of the Community and Technical College Leadership Initiative, a collaboration between the University System of Georgia/Board of Regents and the Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG).

Wentworth, a Chicago native who has lived in Georgia for 34 years, said the extensive course work in leadership, particularly educational leadership, and higher education administration, with a particular orientation to two-year colleges, and specifically, two year technical colleges has been very valuable to him.

Wentworth said he picked UGA to pursue his doctorate because of the great reputation of the Occupational Studies program.  “I already knew some of the professors who had worked with our TCSG system,” he said. “It was reasonably priced tuition and fees, as well as the convenience of a hybrid program where one doesn’t have to attend face to face classes every week.

“I attended one weekend a month for each semester of regular coursework.  Our classes were typically Friday evenings from 4:30-9 p.m. and Saturday mornings from 8:30 a.m.–1 p.m.  The rest of the program was done online, including many online discussions,” said Wentworth.

It took three years and a semester of course work, and approximately a year and a half for Wentworth to do his doctoral research study and write his dissertation, for a total of just under five years.

Before becoming president at Southwest Georgia Technical College, Wentworth was Vice President for Academic Affairs at Central Georgia Technical College in Macon from 2003-10. He was responsible for overall planning and implementation of 63 new associate degree, diploma, and/or technical certificate programs of study. He was chosen by his VPAA peers as the recipient of the TCSG Vice President for Academic Affairs 2009 Leadership Award.

He served as director of instruction at Central Georgia Technical College from 1990 to 2003.

Wanda Stitt-Gohdes, professor and associate head of the Department of Workforce Education, Leadership and Social Foundations in the College of Education was his major professor.