Cat Gonzales
Photography & Social Media Editor
In the fall of 1998, Butler Community College adopted online learning for students. At that time, there were only 40 students and six staff members when Meg McGranaghan helped start the online program. She was hired on at Butler in 1996 as an instructional technologist on a title-three grant. Since then, she has worked in public education for 43 years.
When McGranaghan was younger, life was constantly moving as her father was a salesperson, starting out in St. Louis, Missouri, moving to Chicago, Illinois, Kansas City and later she remained in Wichita. As a fourth grader, she decided she wanted to be an educator.
McGranaghan began college at Kansas State University with a degree in business education, then earned her master’s degree in business organizational leadership at Newman University. Ever since, she has taught business and computer studies for 20 years at Mulvane High School.
Her joy did not stop there. McGranaghan also earned a second teaching degree in computer studies. She taught for approximately three more years at the high school level before getting involved with the start-up at the Butler Community College online program.
“Starting the online program will be on the top,” McGranaghan said. “It’s hard to beat something that literally being involved from the very first day to where we are today and to see the growth of the program. But I go back every single time. I’ve stayed at Butler because I love the people. I know every faculty member; I know mass majority of the adjunct members.”
She took the job as assistant director of the Online Program in 2001 and three years later, she moved to the position of director of the Online Program. In 2012, she continued to move to the position of associate dean of Learning Resource of Services and after two years, McGranahan is now an associate vice president of Academics. From her starting goal, she stayed strong throughout all the challenges.
“I always try to find a job that I find challenging and I also want a job where I find joy,” McGranaghan said. “You can get joy in any job in life. I don’t care what you care doing if you do it with pride and excellence, you get the joy out of the job you do. As opposed to maybe what the job is and so no matter what your job is, if you do it with excellence you find joy in it. I wanted to find a job where I was valued and appreciated by my peers and that’s important for all us I think. Then I want to find a job that is challenging, brings joy and I want to work with people.”
