Meet Regina Gililland, one of only two female groundskeepers at the university, whose unwavering determination and passion have earned her respect and admiration in this traditionally male-dominated field.
Regina, who grew up on a farm near New Deal, is the grounds maintenance leader for the roving crew. She is responsible for two to three crew members and addresses the needs of numerous satellite campuses in Lubbock County. These include Reese Center, the New Deal Farm, the east campus, the Preston Gott Observatory, the Innovation Hub at Research Park and remote Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center campuses.
Before she was promoted to a grounds leader, she solely maintained the most recognizable parts of central campus: the Administration building and Memorial Circle areas.
While Regina wasn’t the first woman ever to be a member of the grounds crew at Texas Tech, there haven’t been many before her – and her presence there was the impetus for the other current female worker, Joyce Rodriguez, to sign on. “I thought, ‘If another woman can do it, I can do it, too,’” recalls Joyce, a groundkeeper for the west campus crew.