Shaping tomorrow, redefining success one student at a time

Story by Joycelyne Fadojutimi
Photos by VizCre8ve Media

“I didn’t necessarily choose the mission of community colleges, but it certainly chose me,” she says. “It got into my DNA, and I have never looked back.”

Kilgore College President, Dr. Brenda S. Kays

Although Brenda S. Kays now serves excellently as president of Kilgore College, her career path has been a long and winding road to vocational success for herself and many others. She and husband, Dennis A. Kays, have just celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary and are still on their honeymoon. They are a very well-oiled machine when it comes to careers.
Still, she has had other prime examples.

While growing up in Wisconsin, she saw in her parents two magnificent influences on how to succeed and improve the lives of others. Her mother, Alice Mae Olsen Zahn, worked as a licensed vocational nurse and medical underwriter for a major insurance company. Her father, O. Thomas Zahn, was a parochial school teacher and principal who toiled summers as a finish carpenter and on autumn weekends parking cars at Lambeau Field. Both parents faithfully and successfully sought to make ends meet as they showed how a “side gig” can be the norm rather than the exception. She still lives by this splendid attitude.

“My mother and father taught me the value of hard work, resiliency, and self-sufficiency,” she says. “They challenged me to set high expectations for myself and my life.”

From the very beginning of her trek down the path to vocational success, she has excelled at everything she does, earning:

*Ed.D. from the University of North Texas at Denton
*Major in Applied Technology, Training and Development
*Minor in Computer Education & Cognitive Systems, Distance Learning Emphasis
*M.Ed. from Midwestern State University at Wichita Falls: Major: Counseling
*B.A. from Midwestern State University at Wichita Falls, Major: Psychology, Minor: Sociology.

Since 2016, Dr. Kays has served in exemplary fashion as president of Kilgore College, brilliantly overseeing this educational institution as it serves twenty independent school districts and four counties with their 224,369 residents. The college currently enrolls 2,625 full-time credit students with a 5,886-credit headcount and 2,128 non-credit students, a budget of $67.5 million, 146 full-time faculty, 152 adjunct faculty, 171 additional employees, and a geographical service area of 1,784 square miles.

From 2011-2016, she worked as president of North Carolina’s Stanly Community College, expertly supervising its service to the 60,000 residents of Stanly County and 1,587 full-time students with a 4,188-credit headcount and 5,525 non-credit headcount, a budget of $26.3 million, eighty-five full-time faculty and 200 adjunct faculty, 105 additional employees, and a 404-square-mile service area.

The years 2008-2011 saw her in the position of vice-president of student learning and success for Guilford Technical Community College in North Carolina, as well as its chief instructional and student services officer. She oversaw the third-largest community college in North Carolina, as it worked for the betterment of the county’s 506,610 residents, 11,602 full-time students with a 109,429-credit headcount and 45,000 non-credit, a whopping total budget of $85 million, 425 full-time and 820 adjunct faculty, 576 additional employees, and a service area of 658 square miles.

From 1985-2008, we find her filling the position of Dean of Instructional Services at Texas Vernon College, supervising its service to 186,218 residents in its twelve-county service area, 1000 full-time students with a 3000-credit headcount, and 6000 non-credit, overall budget of $22 million, eighty full-time faculty and seventy-five adjunct faculty, and 246 additional employees, and a service area of 10,454 square miles. From 2003-2008, she also worked as the school’s Chief Academic Officer.

But wait. That is not all.

Her teaching credentials are equally impressive. From 2013-2020, she was in charge of Ballantyne, North Carolina’s Program in Community College Leadership, Teaching/Learning, and Student Success and Student Services. In 2009-2011, she was in Jamestown, North Carolina, working in its Introduction to Human Service Technology. In 2008, she served a stint in Wichita Falls’ Midwestern State University’s program for Communication Skills for Human Resource Development. It goes on and on.

From 2003-2004 Kays was at the University of North Texas at Denton, working in Graduate and Undergraduate Curriculum Design, and Advanced Facilitation Strategies and Leadership. From 2003-2008 she was at Wayland Baptist University in Wichita Falls, serving in Graduate and Undergraduate-Educating Students from Diverse Backgrounds/Multicultural Education and Microcomputer Applications in Education.

There is more.

Back in 1999-2005, during her time at Vernon College, she also worked in EMT Train the Trainer. Also, during this period (starting in 1997), she was Program Coordinator and Faculty Substance Abuse counsellor, and from 1997-2000 was a Correctional Officer in Diversity Training. This past May 16 was her 40th anniversary as a community college educator. Her career path is one born of necessity that turned into a passion.

As a newlywed with empty pockets and a not-particularly-in-demand bachelor’s degree in psychology, she applied for a job at Vernon Regional Junior College’s Sheppard Air Force Base campus. She glowed with an air of competence and was immediately hired.

Community colleges are post-secondary institutions providing their students with second, third, fourth, and even fifth chances for successful higher education. Until recently, the only portion of the populace that usually sought post-secondary education was the uppermost classes. Nationwide, the emergence of community colleges provided a new and vital resource for those needing post-secondary studies. It serves as a great equalizer, providing access to vocational opportunities to many who otherwise would be condemned to blue-collar drudgery.

“Every day of my career, I’ve witnessed firsthand that we, as community college educators, change lives daily,” she says. “It is both a tremendous responsibility and an extraordinary privilege.”

Furthermore, she recommends that others seeking a sense of accomplishment in improving the lot of others would do better to not try and follow in her footsteps, but to walk beside her and let her guide and support them throughout their learning processes.

Moreover, her work in this field led her to launch and brilliantly direct Origins of Success as a career-coaching and consulting resource to help its customers learn to “love their Mondays” and to further advance the growth and nurturing of up-and-coming post-secondary teachers and advocates. Still, she never forgets to give credit where it is due.

“My faith is grounded in a personal relationship with God,” she says.

Dr. Brenda Kays’ incredible career as a community college educator in Texas and North Carolina is a forty-year testament to her love of providing scholarly training as a means for her endless list of students to achieve success and solvency. Prior to her being hired as Kilgore College president, she was the ninth president of Stanly College–the first woman to serve in those positions. She pulled down her doctorate in applied technology, training, and development from the University of North Texas.

Her shadow has successfully fallen on a seemingly endless procession of institutions of higher learning. She has a master’s degree in counseling from Midwestern State University and is even a licensed professional counselor. She is a member of the Board of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges Executive Council, board president for the Texas Association of Community Colleges, the National Center for Inquiry and Improvement, the Rural Leader Learning Community, is the board president for Arts!Longview, and is a member of Rotary International.

In the autumn of 2021, the Texas House of Representatives Speaker Dade Phelan appointed her to the Texas Commission on Community College Finance, leading directly to the passage of House Bill 8, which allocated more than $683 million in funding for an effective outcomes-based model for Texas community colleges.

Importantly, Dr. Kays is noted for her expertise as a vocational and technical educator. In 2023, this led to her serving as a special advisor to the Texas Commission of Higher Education’s project to create and implement a program for the implementation and supervision of workforce development opportunities and initiatives statewide.

In addition, her brilliance in coalition and partnership building led to her working in various capacities with the city of Kilgore, the Laird Foundation, and CHRISTUS Healthcare System, and with Kilgore College. Her collaboration with these entities resulted in $30 million in funding for the Health Science and Education Complex.

And Dr. Kays is not done. At least not yet.

Story by Joycelyne Fadojutimi. Photos by VizCre8ve Media