James_Sept-Oct_2025_web - Flipbook - Page 53
he first thing you
notice about Central
Georgia Technical
College President Ivan
Allen is how difficult
it is to find a lot about him. There
are not that many articles or web
pages with his biography or background. In this day and age, this
cannot happen by accident. He enjoys spending time with his family
and plays a little golf, but personal
information comes out reluctantly.
Almost certainly, this is because,
for him, the college is the story.
“I’ve been doing this job a long
time, and learned a long time ago
to not read your own press but to
understand this is about the people
you promise to help. As long as you
make it about the students and
the customers, you can survive
and stay focused,” said Allen. “The
mission that we are called upon
to do is germane to the success of
this state. And if you are reaching
everyday Americans and everyday
Georgians who just want to better
themselves or improve their skills,
we’re winning.”
Allen started out his career
in academia some 30 years ago
in the classroom as an English
teacher. Like many college presidents, his background is in the
humanities. Allen attributes this
phenomenon to a breadth of vision, English and History (another
common background for college
presidents) offer a background
that contextualizes the work of
such a president.
He even likens it to interpreting a poem. “People can read it
more than one way. But what that
does for me is it contextualize
situations for me and understand.
I get that when people are coming
here, be they students or team
members, they are bringing with
them all these life experiences,”
said Allen. “And like we see in the
humanities, if you can understand
another person’s life experiences,
at least to some degree, it might
help you help them. The more we
understand about each other, the
better we can make decisions to
help one another advance.”
Allen is a proud son of South
Georgia. “I’m this old country boy
that grew up in the mud here in
Georgia, and I am more blessed
than you’ll ever know to get a
chance to do this. I was really blessed to be able to come back and
be around family living in Central
Georgia. My wife and I settled here,
and this is where we plied our craft
and to grow our family and help
our community.”
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