OTAN News

Thank You Joyce and Congratulations!

Thursday, December 20 is the last day of work for our OTAN Director, Joyce Hinkson, and the start of her retirement. We are sad to see Joyce leave but are excited for the new adventures she has planned in her post-OTAN life!

Joyce came to work at OTAN in October 2012 from the K-12 world. She previously worked as a classroom teacher, reading specialist, and administrator, spending some time at the California Department of Education (CDE). She had also worked at both the community college and university levels, teaching technology, reading methods, and literacy skills to adult learners. Her last position before joining OTAN was as the state lead for online education at CDE.

In her six years as the head of OTAN, Joyce has helped guide the organization through the myriad of tasks that lie at the heart of our contract, including the numerous face-to-face and online trainings that OTAN staff and trainers do around the state, the continuation of OTAN’s previous academies (TIMAC and OTAC) and their eventual merger into the current Digital Leadership Academy (DLAC), leadership of the OTAN Advisory Committee (OAC), the growth of our own annual Technology and Distance Learning Symposium (TDLS), and her collaboration with our other state adult ed leadership projects, CASAS and CALPRO. We have appreciated her deft negotiation skills and patience to guide OTAN through the contract monitoring and renewal processes. And, of course, her passion for helping educators across California acquire new and enhanced technology skills has always shone through.

One of Joyce’s first big adventures in 2019 will be a scuba diving excursion on the Great Barrier Reef. We wish her well and say a great big Thank You and Congratulations on her retirement!