From paratrooper to educator
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on September 4, 2018 5:50 AM
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News-Argus/PHYLLIS MOORE
Dr. Patty Pfeiffer, recently named chief of staff and vice president of institutional effectiveness and innovation at Wayne Community College, has worked at the college since 1994. Her career since graduating from there with an associate's degree in nursing has included a stint as a parachute rigger and paratrooper in the Army as well as labor and delivery nurse.
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At left, Dr. Patty Pfeiffer, recently named chief of staff and a vice president at Wayne Community College, was formerly a labor and delivery nurse. In this undated photo, Pfeiffer, center, discusses instructions with other nurses. Above, Pfeiffer was formerly a parachute rigger and paratrooper in the U.S. Army.
Patty Pfeiffer is passionate about Wayne Community College.
She had no idea when she attended as a student three decades ago that she would find herself in a newly created position as chief of staff and vice president of institutional effectiveness and innovation.
But she is a firm believer that things that happen in life contribute to the person you become -- and uses some of her own experiences to encourage students she meets.
Truth be told, she "kind of happened into education," she says.
"I was a pre-med major when I left high school but I went to a very large university and I got lost the first semester, and I ended up with some grades I'm not real proud of," she said recently. "But I often tell students that, you know, just because you get your first 'F' in college, in chemistry, doesn't define who you are."
At the end of that fateful first semester, she returned home to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania -- the hometown of legendary groundhog Punxsutawney Phil -- and took a job at a rest home.
She knew she wanted to do something in health care, she said, but something else also piqued her interest.
"When I was in college that one semester I took ROTC and had the opportunity to go to the drop zone and watch them jump out of planes, gather the 'chutes and bring them back," she said.
She spoke to a recruiter and changed her career path -- becoming a parachute rigger and paratrooper in the Army for six years.
During that time she also met her husband, Tim, who was serving in the Air Force.
Pfeiffer then returned to college, this time to WCC, earning an associate degree in nursing in 1988.
She worked as a staff nurse in labor and delivery, first at Lenoir Memorial Hospital then at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base before finding herself at a crossroads working in Raleigh. A job opening for a nursing instructor at WCC wound up redirecting the course of her career.
"I thought I really wanted to make a change," she said. "I had worked a 12-hour night shift, filled out the application during that night shift and drove it down here (to WCC) from Raleigh the day (the job posting) closed."'
At the time, she had a bachelor's degree in nursing and was asked if she would consider returning to school within three years to work toward a master's. She did.
"I was very fortunate to have been given the opportunity with a four-year degree and even more fortunate to have an institution that supported higher education," she said.
She began working at WCC in 1994, and in the years since has earned master's degrees in administration and nursing education and a doctorate of education, higher education and adult learning. Her roles at the college have included nursing faculty member, chairwoman of the nursing department and dean of allied health and public services.
For a first-generation college graduate in her own family, she has parlayed lessons learned to assist others struggling with similar challenges.
"Your background, the background of our students, doesn't have to define who they are and where they go in life," she said. "I've been in numerous roles, and I have seen throughout the 24 years that I've been here, that education can help better someone's life."
It has certainly done that within her own family.
Her husband attended WCC to retrain for another career after the military.
The couple's daughter, Holly Donovan, graduated from WCC and is a certified dental assistant in Selma, and Holly's husband, Kevin Donovan, is a graduate of the mechanical engineering program. They are parents of the Pfeiffers' two grandchildren, Alyssa, 6, and Ford, 2.
The Pfeiffers' other daughter, April, is the only one who did not graduate from WCC. A fourth-grade teacher at Tommy's Road Elementary School, she attended N.C. Wesleyan.
"WCC has been very good to our family," Pfeiffer said.
A self-proclaimed life-long learner who enjoys a challenge, Pfeiffer says the part of her job of administrator that she enjoys the most would be problem solving. But as a former instructor, it would be interacting with students.
"I just left the classroom as of February," Pfeiffer said. "I was in the classroom through the fall of last year; it hasn't even been a year since I was in the classroom," she said.
About her students she said, "We have the opportunity to provide them knowledge that they don't have -- what they need to know to become the nurse that we need in society."
When she started out in education, one of the blessings was that it afforded her to be home with her children.
"I always had the philosophy, family had to come first," she said. "Your commitment to the job is very important but your family has to come first.
"Time is short, our lives are very short."
Reflecting on her years of service, both in the military and the local community college, she said it has been a good transition and she takes pride in the respect she has been shown along the way.
Pfeiffer's objective in the new role is simply to be the best at whatever she is asked to do -- and hopefully make a difference while doing it.
"Sometimes you can't quantify what your impact is," she pointed out. "You just do it because it's the right thing to do."
Pfeiffer entered her career with the notion that she would dedicate 20 years and call it a day. Now, though, at 55, she has pushed the finish line and says she has no immediate plans to retire.
Her new administrative role may have plucked her from the classroom, but there is also a trade-off as it provides a bit more mobility.
"I don't have the day-to-day interaction with the faculty like I used to, but I do have the opportunity to roam campus and talk to everybody and see how registration's going, see how the day is going," Pfeiffer said "This job affords me that opportunity. Now I can interact with a much bigger set of people on this campus."