Jerda Garey Vickers named MPCC Distinguished Alumnus

Longtime McCook Junior College and McCook Community College educator Jerda Garey Vickers has been named the Mid-Plains Community College Distinguished Alumnus for 2026 and recognized at the recent Nebraska Community College Association (NCCA) annual meeting in Scottsbluff.

Garey Vickers is a pioneering force on the MCC landscape on many levels and in several areas, including vocational programming, leadership, and making child care a part of the college.

The 1959 McCook Junior College graduate received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Nebraska. After teaching vocational high school in Crete and Bartley, she returned to McCook in 1973 where she taught sociology and consumer science-related courses for five years before becoming MCC’s first female division chair for Vocational Arts from 1978-1991.

In 1986 she was named the Nebraska Vocational Teacher of the Year.

As an instructor, she developed a part-time position into a department with more than 42 courses and two full-time instructors. She worked with four-year colleges to make sure the MCC classes transferred. Over her tenure, she served as a student advisor, sponsor of student senate and the home economics club as well as a member of several accreditation teams and faculty committees for evaluation, curriculum and administrative council.

As Vocational Arts Division chair, she authored grants to develop MCC’s day care center for single parents, licensed to serve 75 children. She helped guide the implementation of the college’s paramedic training and full-time service program for EMTA’s and was a part of the development of nine vocational and technical programs.

She received her doctorate in education from Nova University in 1993 and served as MCC Dean of Community Services from 1994-1996 where she supervised extended campus coordinators, adjunct faculty as well as being Small Business Assistance Director. Garey Vickers developed a community network of business leaders to cooperate in in-service, business, industry and agriculture assessment and delivery which included teleconferences. She coordinated a nursing home advisory council to monitor geriatric aide course delivery to six area counties.

Professionally, she served as President of the Nebraska Home Economics Association and President of the National Postsecondary Vocational Teacher Association.

Outside her time with the college, she spent 45 years as a 4-H leader, served as president of the McCook Chamber of Commerce and Kiwanis Club as well as being a member of the George Norris Foundation Board, Rotary Board, Historical Society Board and various roles with her church.

In 1995 she moved to Iowa where she became the State Director of Career and Vocational/Technical Education, and Workforce Preparation for the Iowa Department of Education.

In 2002, she returned to McCook where her “retirement” included a stint as Mayor from 2002-2004, time back in the classroom as a vocational ag teacher, becoming “the oldest first-time ag teacher in Nebraska at age 70.” She researched and helped co-author two volumes of Mid Plains Community College History and an online history of the Red Willow County Fair. She also authored “Creating Visions, Meeting Challenges: A Historical View of the Republican Valley Conservation Association.” This was an organization her father served for 32 years as a response to the historic 1935 Republican Valley River flood.

“My agriculture background has always continued to guide my interests in underground water preservation,” she said.