Sherry Franklin of Jackson, former Tech Prep coordinator at Hinds Community College, has joined the HCC Rankin Campus staff as director of the Pearl-Rankin Career Center.

Franklin has been with the college since November 2004. She holds her undergraduate and graduate degrees in business education from Jackson State University. Before coming to Hinds she taught business and computer technology at the Jackson Career Development Center and then worked with the State Department of Education as program coordinator for business and computer technology.

Her success with the HCC Tech Prep program  was most recently highlighted this past spring when an HCC Tech Prep site, Northwest Rankin High School, was recognized as the 2006-2007 Tech Prep Exemplary Site by the Mississippi Manufacturers' Association and the Mississippi Department of Education, Office of Workforce Development and Vocational Education.

Dr. Sue Powell, HCC Rankin Campus vice president, said that Franklin is uniquely suited to her new position, not only by her background in Tech Prep, but also because of her extensive knowledge of the high school redesign program instituted by state Superintendent of Education Dr. Hank Bounds. The Pearl-Rankin Career center will be one of the sites this fall for five redesign career pathway pilot programs, Powell said.