The College of Coastal Georgia’s Camden Center offers quality higher education in Camden County.
“The Camden Center – close to home and affordable.”
The Camden Center is an off-campus instructional site of the College of Coastal Georgia, located just a few miles north of the Florida border, in Kingsland. The site provides a regular schedule of day, evening, and online classes for the convenience of students from Camden, Charlton, Brantley, and Nassau, Florida counties, who attend the College.
Classes span the core courses for business, education, the humanities and social sciences, math, natural sciences and health sciences.
The College of Coastal Georgia began offering classes in Camden County in 1983, initially on the Kings Bay military base. The 101,000 square-foot Camden Center opened in May 2004, featuring a beautiful rotunda, a 270-seat auditorium, classrooms, chemistry and biology laboratories, full-service library/learning center, a teaching kitchen, and demonstration dining room.
The Camden Center provides personal service to help all students start or continue their college career, especially those affiliated with the military, new freshmen – first generation students, as well as transfers, dual enrollment, and adult learners.
Joseph Lodmell is the Director of the Camden Center.
Accredited by the American Culinary Institute, the Culinary Arts program at the College of Coastal Georgia is the only ACF credited culinary arts program in Georgia.
The course work in the Culinary Arts program includes but is not limited to theory and skill development in food preparation, hospitality management, purchasing and receiving, menu planning/design, food and beverage management, and sanitation. Completion of this program along with work experiences will make the student eligible for ACF certification. The student will acquire skills in Culinary Arts as well as management.
Chef Steven L. Ingersoll, Assistant Professor of Culinary Arts, is a graduate of the New England Culinary Institute and was Camden County’s 2009 Chef of the Year.
The Camden Center has a veteran’s lounge located on the first floor of the north wing. It is open to all active duty, veterans, and military family members attending Coastal Georgia. The lounge is a place to relax between classes, get a free snack or drink, and socialize with other military-affiliated students. Feel free to make use of this facility while you are attending classes at Coastal Georgia.
We strive to engage all veterans in programs and activities that will enhance their college experience and all aspects of their educational goals. We commit ourselves to helping veterans build a solid foundation for their futures through a veteran-friendly environment.
Joshua Clark (MS in Biology) is an alumnus of the College of Coastal Georgia, graduating in 2004 with an Associates of Science. It was during this time that Mr. Clark collaborated with Georgia College of Milledgeville, Georgia to unearth Pleistocene-aged (20,000 years BCE) fossils at a site – later named Clark Quarry – within Brunswick, Georgia. This site contained the remains of giant bison, mammoths, and giant tortoises, among other ancient fauna. After graduating, he transferred to Georgia College in Milledgeville to continue his work in paleontology, where he obtained a Master’s degree in biology. His work focused mainly on the Pleistocene herpetofaunta (reptiles and amphibians) discovered at Clark Quarry, and an understanding of the Pleistocene climate of Coastal Georgia during the last Ice Age. Today, Mr. Clark has returned to his alma mater, the College of Coastal Georgia, where he currently teaches introductory courses within both biology and geology.
Dr. Jennifer Hatchel earned her Ph.D. in Microbiology from Miami University, Oxford, OH. Prior to that, she received her Masters in Biology from Austin Peay State University, Clarksville, TN, and her Bachelor’s in Biology at the University of Tennessee-Martin, where she graduated magna cum laude. Dr. Hatchel has taught Principles of Biology I and II with labs, Human Anatomy & Physiology I and II with labs, Foundations of Microbiology with lab, Pathophysiology, Immunology, Microbial Diversity, and Topics in Biological Sciences (Infectious Diseases, Environmental Microbiology). Her research interests include the antimicrobial properties of Manuka honey. She has supervised independent research with undergraduate students investigating the effects of Manuka honey on Salmonella enteritidis, and recently, a student started investigating the effects of Manuka honey combined with lemon and ethanol against Streptococcus pyogenes. Dr. Hatchel hopes to continue these experiments in the future. She is also interested in looking at microbial populations in local rivers and seeing how that affects water quality. One student was working on preliminary experiments at Crooked River State Park, but they were only able to collect a few sets of data. Dr. Hatchel hopes to continue this work in the future as well.
