Aces of Trades: Former OUC student returns as an associate professor

CHILLICOTHE – She grew up with a desire to teach.

“My English teachers in high school were so great,” recalled Debra Nickles. “They encouraged us to write poetry, to take Latin, art, and theater. Even diagramming sentences was fun.”

“After high school,” she continued, “I married and started a family early, working in the business office of a medical center. It was nice, but not what I felt passionate about. I had always wanted to be a teacher, so I started taking classes in the evenings at OUC, while, like many students still today, working full-time and raising my daughter.”

When she started at OUC, Nickles wanted to be a high school English teacher like her mentors.

“But as I took more and more courses,” she noted, “I realized I was also in love with being a student myself, with learning new things, keeping the ideas rolling. My professors urged me to go to graduate school. By that time, I had unexpectedly delivered healthy twin boys, so three children were in tote. So I applied for graduate school in Athens and commuted.”

“After graduating with my master’s degree in English,” she added, “OU Chillicothe learned I had graduated, so I found myself invited back to where I began.”

Today, Nickles is associate professor of English at Ohio University Chillicothe.

Debra “Deb” Nickles first grew up in Cleveland, but her parents moved to the village of Greenfield when she was in first grade. She graduated from McClain HS in 1991, then earned her undergrad and master’s degrees at Ohio University in 2002 and 2004. She started teaching on the Athens campus in 2004 and OUC in 2007.

“I wear a few different hats and have a couple of titles, as many of us at OUC do,” she said. “But most importantly, I like to think I work to identify the needs of students and find creative ways to inspire them along to their next step.”

In 2007, Nickles was asked to coordinate the school’s writing center on top of teaching English and women’s studies.

“When I recommended Deb for promotion several years ago, I described her as Wonder Woman,” assessed Dr. Kathleen Davies, retired assistant professor of English and women’s and gender studies at OUC. “That is not an exaggeration. She does the work of two or even three people, and she does it exceptionally well.”

“Deb is a person of impeccable character and generosity, with deep compassion for others,” Davies added, “And I have found her to be remarkably perceptive and insightful. She is an indispensable member of the OUC community.”

“The faculty at OUC are all trying to create and deliver a relevant, quality education,” responded Nickles. “I’m lucky my own personal goals match with OUC’s mission.”

“I just gave a mini talk at the public library about ‘poetic disruptions in the multiverse,’” she continued. “People across time and space have always been bemused with the ‘what if’ questions. What if we had made different choices—what different types of lives could we have lived?”

“At the moment,” she concluded, “I’m very pleased with and grateful for this particular thread in the multiverse, this timeline, that has allowed me to meet, work and create with so many talented people at OUC.”

For more information about Ohio University Chillicothe, log on www.ohio.edu/chillicothe.

About the Series

Aces of Trades is a weekly series focusing on people and their jobs – whether they’re unusual jobs, fun jobs or people who take ordinary jobs and make them extraordinary. If you have a suggestion for a future profile, let us know at gaznews@nncogannett.com or 740-349-1110.

This article originally appeared on Chillicothe Gazette: Aces of Trades: Former OUC student returns as an associate professor