Donna Trogdon: ‘What if you could not fail?’

“What would you do if you knew you could not fail?” This quote by an unknown author has been the testament to Donna Trogdon’s life journey from special investigator for the U.S. government to assistant professor, advisor and program coordinator for criminal justice at Pellissippi State Community College.

Growing up in a military environment, Trogdon had the experience of living around the world including attending high school in Germany when the wall infamously came down. She says, “This lifestyle instilled patriotism and a sense of service from my beginning. I knew I wanted to work law enforcement or investigations early on.”

It wasn’t until 9/11 that her path headed in that direction professionally. Her goal was redirected as a side effect of the attacks on 9/11 and opened doors into the national security arena. Upon graduation from Austin Peay State University, she was recruited to be a special investigator which she did for many years.

After leaving the investigator role, Trogdon transferred those skills into being a senior intelligence instructor, training military members both foreign and domestic. She says she found her passion while instructing and teaching so she sought out a higher education role as an adjunct professor which she has done since 2013.

Let’s back up in Trogdon’s journey to her college days at Austin Peay. While there, her husband was deployed in a war zone and the two had small children. Their situation made her challenges and perseverance different from her traditional classmates, but ones she viewed as learning experiences along with allowing her to forge lasting connections she continues to network with today.

She reflects on this experience:

“I completed my internship with the Homeland Security agency in TN and this led to great networking and practical application of what I had learned in the classroom. I still remain in contact with and have had those I met at Homeland Security come into my homeland security and intelligence classes as guest speakers.

“It was very full circle seeing my mentors now sharing their experiences with my PSCC students and watching them gain so much from these subject matter experts. One of the homeland security agents invited my CJ students to participate in a surveillance and detection exercise with local, state and federal agents. This was invaluable for them and provided them the experiences and understanding of the field to be great future practitioners.”

Trogdon’s knowledge and life experiences have provided a wealth of satisfying memories. She is especially fulfilled when her students become the professionals that they aspire to be. She relates one occasion of true gratification.

“A student had wanted to be an officer with Knoxville Police Department (KPD) her whole life, applied and was given an academy date. Due to unforeseen circumstances, she had to withdraw from that iteration. She stayed focused and re-applied with many hurdles, but we talked a lot during her academy, and I kept motivating her to stay focused and ‘cooperate and graduate,’ a favorite quote from one of my professors.

“KPD allows recruits to select the most impactful person in their life to place their badge on their chest for the first time at graduation. She invited me to do this and it was the biggest honor to be able to do so. I was and am so very proud of her and her accomplishments. As an aside, within her first year on the force, she was nominated for and won the inaugural Carol Scott Officer of the Year Award. Yay! This is but one example – there are so many success stories of my kiddos!”

Trogdon continues to serve the field in multiple ways. She applied for and hosted the HERricane Camp focused on getting more girls interested in the emergency management field. These young women were able to see/touch/learn from and experience female leaders in the emergency management field and understand how many people are involved in success during an emergency.

Donna Trogdom shares her story with her students because she feels it is an important point for her students to understand that often timing changes trajectories as much as anything else just as 9/11/2001 changed hers. Trogdon is the first in her family to go to college, grad school and study for a doctorate. She now has nieces, a sister and nephews who are either college graduates or in their college journey. She says this means a lot to her as she knows the feeling and can understand it when her PSCC students are in the same position. Having been a non-traditional student helps identify with them and understand real life hurdles they might face.

Trogdon would like to continue teaching criminal justice, working with area partners in the field, providing opportunities for her students to engage with professionals and pushing themselves to success. She would like to finish her doctoral dissertation and finally make it to Maine for Lobster Fest!

There is no doubt, she will continue to live her favorite quote: “Cooperate and graduate.”

: Emma Garner, Elizabeth Hamblen and Donna Trogdon participate in a 5-6 week Civilian Emergency Response Team (CERT) training and certification program through the Knoxville Emergency Management Agency.

: Domestic Violence symposium that Trogdon hosts each October. Masks represent the class perspective on Domestic Violence and are on display throughout campus. The student speaking is Emma Garner (now alum).

: Students pictured are Kloey Nipper, Graeson Campbell and Olivia Thawley, members of Criminal Justice team and Crime Scene Investigation team who won GOLD at the State competition for SkillsUSA in Chattanooga and are going to Atlanta in June (23-28) for the nationals.