This year Judson has welcomed two new staff members, as well as two new professors in business and English, respectively. Dr. Kem King is the college’s new business professor, and she has high hopes for her time here. King got her undergrad degree at Mississippi State in Business Management with a focus on human resources. She later went to East Tennessee State for her MBA in Management and pursued a PhD at the University of Alabama in three areas: organizational behavior, strategy, and administration.
While she has always seemed to return to Birmingham periodically during her life, King considers Gulfport, Mississippi, to be her home and where she grew up. Much like many Judson girls, King was drawn to Judson once she found out it existed. In fact, one of her favorite memories was finding the college while living in Greensboro with her daughter. “Chandler and I lived in Greensboro for a year . . . Every day we’d get out and go exploring . . . We went out into Marion and found Judson, and I thought wouldn’t it be so cool to teach here?” Dr. King fondly recalled finding Judson and making the decision to teach here. She remarked, “I have been a twenty-year-old female in this world . . . I think I have something to say to these women.”
Dr. King enjoys reading, antiquing, and thrift shopping in her spare time. “I [just] pick up a book and read it,” she explained, referring to her willingness to read nearly anything that crosses her path. During her time at Judson, she hopes to accomplish many things that make people either want to be a business major or be proud of being one. She is currently working toward starting a store where students of any major can work at or buy from, and she aspires to take some Judson students on world trips to expose them to the beauty and wonder that can be found outside of Marion, Alabama.
Senior Business major Victoria Douglas recognizes her sentiments and her heart for her students. “I first met Dr. King at her student-interview session in the spring of 2016. Her professional manner was made especially impressive by her warm, open personality–I could tell that she was genuinely passionate about teaching and would care about both the students and their progress in and out of the classroom,” she explained, fondly recalling her meeting with the then business candidate. “I was thrilled to hear about her acceptance as a professor of business here at Judson College: she was the professor of business candidate who seemed to be the missing piece to the Judson puzzle. Without her, the Business Department would not be the same. . . . All in all, we are so thankful that she has joined Judson College as a faculty member, and we hope her experience here as been just as good for her as it has been for us.”