June 7, 2006

Allen departs Cowley having left mark on college

Having helped Cowley College’s web site grow from a handful of text pages to thousands of files, Mia Allen is resigning as the college’s Webmaster after spending the past seven years at the school.

Allen is leaving Cowley to become part of the Technology Team at Heartspring in Wichita. However, she will deeply miss working at Cowley.

“I have nothing but respect and admiration for the people I work with and for, and can appreciate the vision and risk-taking by the administration,” Allen said. “Because I was allowed to create a web site production class, develop a web design degree, and train others to help maintain our site, the people I have worked with have allowed me to take some unique qualifications to make a difference in another type of learning environment.”

Allen was originally hired in 1999 as the lead computer instructor at Cowley’s Southside Education Center in Wichita. She became the web manager in 2000 and has overseen the web site’s tremendous growth.

During Allen’s time at Cowley, an Intranet was developed, a faculty access site emerged, and hundreds of online classes have been offered. She taught her first HTML class nearly six years ago and has taught several classes at the college.

“The quality of Cowley's website is entirely due to Mia's efforts,” Cowley Dean of Research and Technology Charles McKown said. “She has been the creative force behind its development and has constantly looked for ways to improve it. She will be sorely missed.”

At Heartspring, Allen will be a part of the Technology Team, which looks specifically at how to bring new, emergent, and helpful technologies to Heartspring students.

Heartspring's mission, in partnership with parents and professionals, is to help children with special needs grow and learn on a path to a more independent life - and technology can be a big part of such growth and learning.