Ousley Heads Business and Entrepreneurship Program

LaDora Ousley is the new Program Manager for Hocking College’s Business Management and Entrepreneurship Program!

Ousley was born in Vinton County and raised in Stark County, where she attended Tuslaw High School in Massillon, Ohio.

She graduated from Ohio University, where she majored in psychology and minored in business. Afterward, she earned a master’s degree in business administration with a marketing concentration from Capella University in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Her work history ranges from higher education positions to jobs in sales, endeavors into entrepreneurship, and helping students with developmental and intellectual disabilities achieve their academic aspirations.

Ousley was also the owner and CEO of Etta’s General Store & Lunchbox Café in New Plymouth, Ohio, from 2000-11. This venture became a nationally acclaimed museum and café that featured 200 years of American pop culture through a historical timeline of the lunchbox.

However, driven by what she calls her “passion for learning and joy in the knowledge that enhances the experience of life,” Ousley found herself drawn to teaching.

She worked as a substitute teacher for schools in Vinton and Hocking counties. And as a tutor for the second- and third-grade students at Zaleski Elementary School in Vinton county. Her objective was to successfully raise the student body’s level of proficiency in math.

Ousley also worked with Daymar College in Columbus, Ohio, for two years, teaching what she describes as “almost every course in their business curriculum.”

Before becoming a staff member at Hocking College, Ousley was the regional manager for Franklin University’s Community College Alliance from 1998-2002.

Her many visits to Hocking College helped shape her perception of the school as a unique institution that offers students the hands-on experience and selection of appropriate majors they would need to succeed in the real world.

In the short-term Ousley, wants the Business Management and Entrepreneurship program to include more “real-world experience to the Business major through useful and productive consulting teams projects that will also assist the college with its entrepreneurial ventures.”

Her long term goals consist of creating more entrepreneurial ventures for individual students in the program to run on campus.

For more information on Hocking College’s Business Management and Entrepreneurship program, contact Program Manager LaDora Ousley at one of the following:

• ousleyl@hocking.edu
• 740-753-7062