Dr. Tracy Tidwell Lloyd-Jones enrolled at UNA as a Cassical Voice major. However, she says an elective French class with then Department of Foreign Languages Chair Max Gartman changed the direction of her life. After taking the course with Gartman, Lloyd-Jones joined him for a study abroad opportunity. She visited Paris and Nice, as well as Italy and Spain. And she was hooked.

Lloyd-Jones says she inherited her mother’s wanderlust and desire for adventure. “Max’s enthusiasm and desire to show students the world fed into that,”she says. The trip opened her world to new possibilities and opportunities.

Lloyd-Jones graduated UNA with a B.A. in Commercial French, and the University of Alabama with a M.A. in French and a Ph.D. in Romance Languages. Lloyd-Jones has shared her view of the world and her love of languages with her students. She has taught at Tuscaloosa Academy; Jonesboro High School in Jonesboro, GA; University of Alabama; and now is the chair of the French Language Program at the prestigious Defense Language Institute in Monterey, CA.

At DLI Lloyd-Jones manages 18 French teachers whose origins include Africa, America, Canada, Belgium, and Haiti.  Their job is to teach members of Homeland Security, all ranks of the different groups of military, counterterrorism agents, and relief workers how to communicate in French. She and her colleagues use current events to share a better understanding of the languages they teach. Lloyd-Jones says,“ as the world changes, language changes to adapt to it.”

Incoming Department of Foreign Languages major Kate Darnell asked Lloyd-Jones for advice. She responded, “Don’t limit yourself. If you can imagine it, try it.”