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By JENN ROWELL
Former businessman Russell James has been appointed as director of the Germanna Center for Advanced Technology in Culpeper.
With more than 30 years of business experience and nine years running his own company, James is switching gears to share that knowledge with the Germanna community.
"I came from business and so I'm having to learn a whole new way of doing things," he said.
James said he considers that the biggest personal challenge of the new job. The biggest professional challenge will be informing the community of the programs available at the new facility.
One new feature includes computer-certification programs.
Before, those programs were available only at the Fredericksburg campus.
There are also a number of courses open to the public that people might not be aware of, James said, such as pet first-aid and Spanish for the workplace.
He said he's also hoping to establish collaborations between local businesses and schools in an effort "to coordinate programs between our facilities and their programs so the kids can transition into a four-year college or a well-paying job somewhere in Virginia."
At the Culpeper facility, James oversees adjunct professors and instructors, two event planners who manage the conference center, and four staffers coordinating the certification and noncredit programs.
James has lived in Virginia since 1973 and makes his home in Madison County with his wife, Brenda Tanner.
He has a degree in industrial engineering from Auburn University and a master's in business administration from Lynchburg College.
His work selling pharmaceutical-packaging products had him traveling up and down the East Coast, but he's ready for a break.
"That's one of the things I'm looking forward to in this job. I won't be traveling as much as I was," he said.
And he's not going anywhere any time soon.
"This is the area that I live in, and I plan to stay here for quite a while," he said. "This is home."
To reach JENN ROWELL:
Email: jrowell@freelancestar.com
