Currently completing his 40th year at Columbia State Community College, Barry Gidcomb is a Professor of History and Dean for the Division of Humanities & Social Sciences. Highlights of his career include serving three terms as Faculty Senate President, terms as the Faculty Regent on the Tennessee Board of Regents and as the Columbia State representative to the TBR Faculty Sub-council, and nine years as a faculty advisor for Beta Kappa Theta, the college's Phi Theta Kappa chapter. He also led two dozen student field trips to Natchez, Mississippi, along the Natchez Trace Parkway from 1999 to 2016. For the past five years, Barry has served on the Core Committee for the revision of the TBR General Education program outcomes. Officially launching statewide on TBR's thirteen community colleges in Fall 2025, the courses in the TBR General Education Core will focus on developing seven Core Competencies: Communication, Creative & Artistic Expression, Critical Thinking, Ethical Reasoning, Global & Cultural Awareness, Information Literacy, and Scientific Inquiry & Mathematical Reasoning.