Cope joined Appalachian’s SLC in February 2018 as director of university tutorial services (UTS), bringing to the role several years of experience in coordinating academic student growth by promoting and improving peer tutoring, supplemental instruction and study skills support.

As director of UTS, Cope developed a peer leadership model that employs highly qualified undergraduate students as tutoring coordinators and assistant tutoring coordinators and also increased accessibility to tutorial services through technological advances. Cope has helped plan and presented at the Southeastern College Learning Center Association (SECLCA), of which he is currently vice president, and the National College Learning Center Association (NCLCA). He will serve as NCLCA president next year, bringing the regional conference to Appalachian in summer 2021.

“The Student Learning Center is open to collaborations and doing whatever we can as far as being a resource for faculty, staff and students,” Cope said. “I want to make this a meaningful experience for the students while they’re here — to engage them in learning and help them grow and be challenged but do so in a way that’s empowering for them as far as taking ownership of their own educational process.”

Among Cope’s goals for SLC is for the center to achieve NCLCA Learning Center of Excellence designation. By achieving this designation, Appalachian’s SLC would join seven other certified collegiate learning centers in the U.S. in exceeding high standards for enhancing student learning.

A native of McDowell County, Cope earned a B.A. in sociology and a B.A. in Spanish from Mars Hill College in 2004. He earned his Master of Liberal Arts degree from the University of North Carolina at Asheville in 2011 while researching sustainability through the lenses of environmental sociology and the sociology of religion.

Johnson has been working in higher education for almost 20 years and has an extensive background in career coaching and services. In 2017, she began serving as SLC’s assistant director of academic strategy instruction and, from this position, segued into academic support services, using her background in career development to help students transition to college by aiding them in strengthening skills such as time management, organization, effective reading and study methods.

In her new role as SLC’s interim director of university tutorial services, Johnson oversees four main SLC programs: Peer Academic Coaching, LEAD Chemistry Tutoring, Learning Labs and Small Group Tutoring.

One of Johnson’s primary goals in her new position is to “promote this idea of a continuum of services so that we can serve all students and meet them where they are,” she said. “Not everyone needs the same level of service. You could get as much help or as little help as you need, depending on where you are and what your needs are. We really want to help students be independent learners.”

“One of the things that I really enjoy about my job is helping students see how taking care of their whole self is actually beneficial to their ability to learn and be a successful college student,” she said. “Sometimes students feel so much pressure worrying about a grade that they’ve lost their love of learning. I try to remind them that they’re choosing to be here because they care about and want to invest in themselves.”

Johnson received both her Master of Education in counseling and guidance services (1998) and a Bachelor of Arts in history (1994) from Clemson University.

Erickson came to Appalachian in 2009, joining the BCHS faculty as a senior lecturer of exercise science. From 2016–20, he served as an academic adviser for students in the college’s exercise science and communication sciences and disorders degree programs.

As SLC’s director of auxiliary services, Erickson works to maintain the center’s infrastructure and tutoring software. He said his goal is “to support everyone who works in the Student Learning Center by providing them with easy access to tools to help serve our students.”

According to Erickson, SLC’s online tutoring services — offered this fall due to COVID-19 — not only help students succeed academically, but offer a social network and social support system.

“The SLC can create a community for students,” Erickson said. He added that learning labs, especially, allow students to interact with one another in a meaningful way due to their more informal setting.

He credits the center’s student workers for their leadership efforts in helping SLC provide thousands of hours of tutoring each year. “If it weren’t for our student workers, we wouldn’t have a Student Learning Center,” Erickson said.

Erickson holds a graduate degree in human performance and an undergraduate degree in exercise and sports science, both from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. He has worked as a personal trainer, strength coach, track and field coach, lecturer and academic adviser.