Interview with Martha C. Johnson, September 6, 2014

Interview Summary

The first Chair of the KCTCS Board of Regents, Johnson details her education and professional background; her business associations that led her to join the board of Ashland Community College, then under UK's governance; the relationship between UK and the college, and her feelings about the 1997 higher education reform efforts that established a statewide community and technical college system; her selection for the regents, and then her surprise selection as its first chair. She offers her memories of the early board and the small system staff; the first (failed) attempt to find a permanent president and her reasoning for starting a second, ultimately successful, search; praise for the work of Dr. James Ramsey and Dr. Jeff Hockaday for their interim leadership of the system; the hiring and early working relationship with Dr. Michael B. McCall; the complicated personnel system KCTCS established in transition; discussions on accreditation and consolidations of the technical and community colleges into districts; the emotional toll shared by the board during the system's creation' branding KCTCS; establishing its permanent headquarters in Versailles; reflections on her time on the regents, and on the system's success and its future.

Interview Keyword

accredidation Ashland Community and Technical College Board of Regents branding Branding (Marketing) chair governance Higher Education Reform interim leadership James Ramsey Jeff Hockaday Kentucky Community and Technical College System Michael McCall relationship staff transition Versailles (Ky.)

Interview LC Subject

Education, Higher--Kentucky

Interview Rights

All rights to the interviews, including but not restricted to legal title, copyrights and literary property rights, have been transferred to the University of Kentucky Libraries.

Interview Usage

Interviews may be reproduced with permission from Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, Special Collections, University of Kentucky Libraries.