Farmer Celebrates 30 years with BC
If you’ve ever spoken to a Bluefield College criminal justice student, you can almost guarantee they’ve told you about Dr. Kim Farmer, who recently celebrated 30 years of service as a CRJ professor at BC.
A native of Bluefield, WV, Dr. Farmer began her college student experience at Bluefield College when she enrolled in a BC math class while still a senior in high school. Instead of continuing her studies at Bluefield College after high school, she decided she wanted to branch out and try someplace new. She ended up attending West Virginia University, but only for a short time before her heart called her back home to Bluefield.
Dr. Farmer returned to Bluefield College where she began taking classes with the intent to earn a psychology degree. However, as she was sitting in class one day watching her professor lecture, she said it was as if God was telling her, “this is what you are meant to do” — not earn a psychology degree, but instead become a teacher.
Dr. Farmer ended up transferring back to WVU to complete the last two years of her undergraduate degree. Her father then asked her to consider a career in law. With some doubt, Dr. Farmer applied to law school and ended up getting in. This is where she found her love for criminal justice.
Although law school was a bit of a rocky start, Dr. Farmer enjoyed the last two years, simply because she could begin to focus on criminal law classes that she had chosen. After law school, she moved back to southern West Virginia to begin working for a prosecuting attorney in Princeton, WV.
However, this is not where she wanted to stay permanently as she knew she still had the desire to teach. Soon after, she learned about a job opening at Bluefield College. She left her resume on the desk of those leading the search, and not long after she received a call asking if she would be willing to teach two classes for students pursuing their behavioral science degree, since BC did not yet offer a criminal justice major..
After a successful first semester, Dr. Farmer began writing a draft curriculum for a new BC criminal justice major. The next fall, it was approved and in 1990 Bluefield College began offering a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice. That was some 30 years ago, and in addition to developing BC’s first CRJ major, Dr. Farmer has accomplished so much more during her three decades with the school. In fact, she designed BC’s first adult degree completion curriculum for criminal justice. She also crafted a key articulation agreement with the Appalachian School of Law that facilitates admission for Bluefield’s CRJ grads, and she is a pre-law advisor for students.
“I have been so richly blessed with the opportunity to teach at this place,” said Dr. Farmer about her career at BC, “and to be a part of so many people’s lives and educational journeys – students who have gone on to successful careers and who have continued to bless Bluefield College along the way. I am so very grateful.”
In addition to serving as chair of the Criminal Justice Department, Dr. Farmer has also served as chair of the online criminal justice program, the Division of Social Science, and the Faculty Committee. She has also served as president of the faculty.
“My most significant accomplishments have been the employment and career aspirations of my students,” Dr. Farmer said, “seeing them graduate with honors from police academies, gaining admission to prestigious law and grad schools, serving as chief investigators in serious criminal cases, becoming partners in law firms, judges, sheriffs, wardens, and superintendents of state police academies. I’m grateful for the privilege of being a part of their lives.”
Dr. Farmer added that her favorite memory from the past 30 years is being able to give her children their diplomas as they walked across the stage at graduation. She actually still has one more to give out. When asked what advice she most often gives students, Dr. Farmer said:
“You are truly going to take a mature and servant and Biblical attitude into a world of people in need. You’re going to have help to minister to those people in a very special way — being able to make a difference.”