Four chairs sit symmetrically around a round coffee table in the middle of the room. A large wooden desk rests in the back of the room by the window, looking out onto the lawn at the entrance of Reinhardt University. The midmorning sun is shining through, brightening up the room where Dr. Kina Mallard, Reinhardt University’s 20th–and first woman–President, offers me a seat with a soft smile as she begins to tell me about her life.
Mallard was born and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee, with an older brother and two loving parents–her mother a teacher and father an electrical engineer–having what she imagines was a “typical up-bringing” for a child of her generation.
Her very athletic and creative family was strong in their faith and loved one another tremendously.
They also had some memorable exper-iences. Once, her father ordered a pet monkey off the back of a comic book (before it was illegal). She remembers a large crate showing up in her living room. All she and her brother could hear was scratching. They had no idea what was inside the box. Once her father got home, they opened the box and saw that it was a spider monkey. Unfortunately, the pet monkey did not turn out to be a good experience for her or her family, and they ended up selling the monkey for $20.
Another fun fact about Mallard is that she was on the swim team in high school and competed against her now-husband of five years, Steve Dietz–even though they were unaware of each other at the time.
As a young college student at North Green-ville College in South Carolina, Mallard never saw herself devoting her life to higher edu-cation. To the contrary, she had plans to earn a theater degree in hopes of one day perfor-ming professionally. However, once Mallard began a graduate teaching assistantship at the University of Tennessee, she fell in love with college teaching and realized that teaching was her calling in life.
By Katelyn Wienbarg
New beginnings
67