Building student and community resiliency in Southeast Kentucky

This post is the first installment in a blog series that celebrates the work of seven rural colleges that participated in ATD’s Building Resiliency in Rural Communities for the Future of Work initiative, first launched in 2020. Through coaching, tools, and peer learning opportunities, the initiative aimed to strengthen institutional capacity, foster a culture of evidence, advance equitable student success, align programs with workforce needs, and prepare students for careers in the digital economy.

Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College (SKCTC) serves a rural corner of the state, close to both the Virginia and Tennessee borders. Each of the four counties SKCTC serves experiences significantly higher poverty rates than the state average. So, when the college joined the ATD Network in 2021 as part of the Building Resiliency in Rural Communities for the Future of Work initiative, helping students meet their financial needs was top of mind for college leaders.

Over the next three years, a team of staff and faculty worked with ATD coaches and other community partners to reduce financial barriers for the college’s students. With evidence-based rigor, committed leadership, and a culture of caring, SKCTC is working to transform not just its six campuses, but the entire community it serves.

Connecting students to supports

SKCTC has provided financial support for its students in the past, but the extent of learners’ nonacademic barriers to success was put into sharp focus during the COVID-19 pandemic. The college surveyed students about their needs and, starting in 2021, reviewed institutional data with ATD coaches to identify the greatest opportunities to support learners.

“When we pulled the data and we saw that there were so many nonacademic barriers, like child care, we formed a resource page,” said Rebecca Johnson, vice president of student affairs.

Known as the Chit Chat Page, the resource page provides a single hub where students can learn about and access support services ranging from mental health and substance use to child care and housing. Students can also submit personalized assistance requests, which Johnson reviews and then communicates to the campus or department best suited to help. Johnson makes sure to share the link to this page with all new students at the start of the semester so that they’re aware of the support available to them.

Through multiple community partnerships, SKCTC has also been building capacity to support students financially, from an emergency fund for smaller expenses like food and gas to a grant that enabled the college to research child care needs on campus.

Progress and momentum

The numbers show that SKCTC’s focused efforts on student support have impacted student success outcomes: Fall enrollment has steadily increased since the 2022–23 academic year. The graduation rate has also risen from 44% (2022–23) to 50.4% (2024–25). And in the 2024–25 academic year, SKCTC awarded granted the highest number of credentials in the institution’s history.

“We have a culture of caring,” said Rick Mason, dean of institutional effectiveness. Pointing to qualitative data gleaned through extensive student surveys, he said, “In the area of support for learners — how well students feel we support them — we always rate very highly. Really, we’re among the highest rated colleges in the country in that particular benchmark.”

While SKCTC already had a strong track record of data-informed decision-making, the college has worked to strengthen its data capacity and build a culture of excellence throughout the Rural Resiliency Initiative.

“We were pretty good at getting aggregate data,” Mason said, “but to see where the achievement gaps lie, you have to really disaggregate your data. So ATD pushed us to get the in-depth data that we needed.”

That in-depth, disaggregated data has provided a stronger foundation for college leaders to understand students’ needs and meet them. It also played a role in SKCTC being recognized as an ATD Leader College in 2025.

A team of leaders

Committed leadership, one of the key conditions for success identified among Rural Resiliency cohort colleges in a new report published by ATD and Education Northwest, has been vital to SKCTC’s continued transformation.

Having recently gone through a period of interim leadership, the college appointed Dr. Andrea “Lee” Harrison as president in July of 2025. Dr. Harrison was previously the college’s chief advancement officer and executive director of the Southeast Education Foundation. She comes from the community and has strong ties to SKCTC’s service area, a fact that Johnson and Mason both believe will strengthen the college’s partnerships and its role as a hub in the community.

“Just in the few months she’s been president, she’s been trying to go to the communities, to get information about all six campuses and meet the departments,” Johnson said.

But strong leadership is a group effort. Even during a period of transition, institutional teams worked together and delivered results for students.

“We’ve been through a lot of change here in the last couple of years,” Mason noted about the leadership transitions of the college. “But the fact that we’ve been able to still meet our goals and our expectations points to strong leadership, not just from the president, but in every position throughout the institution.”

An essential role in the community

One of the most significant outcomes of this shared leadership mindset was the continued growth and advancement of the college’s community partnerships. In addition to its work with Achieving the Dream, SKCTC collaborates with Complete College America and various local agencies to eliminate barriers for learners.

The college also has a significant partner in the Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program (EKCEP), which provides funding for students to return to school and earn credentials that propel them into family-sustaining careers. The college’s sixth campus was developed in partnership with EKCEP: A former nursing home in Knox county is now a 37,000 square-foot facility that offers training opportunities and accelerated certificates in high-demand industrial fields such as computerized manufacturing and welding technology.

“We’re always looking to build and strengthen our community partnerships even more,” Mason said. He explained that the college’s connections to the community are generative: By acting as a hub for students to engage with local agencies and organizations, SKCTC helps to strengthen a system that works to lift up all learners — and, by extension, transforms the community.

Reflecting on her team’s work with ATD coaches, Johnson said the unique value that SKCTC provides to the region was uplifted and strengthened throughout the Rural Resiliency initiative.

“They never tried to make us look at our community differently, like we needed to be somebody else,” Johnson said. Referencing a comment from ATD coach Dr. Nancy Ramsey, she added, “It was refreshing to be told, you don’t have to be someone in, say, Washington State. Just be proud of who you are and continue the good work. Focus on the programs you have here and on what can grow.”

SKCTC performs a specific, vital role in the region that it serves — a role that will keep growing stronger as its faculty, staff, and leaders continue the work of supporting students, their families, and their community.