Kyla Waters is the Director of the Center for Workforce for Arkansas Community Colleges, Arkansas’ statewide community college association, and has been on staff for 11 years. She brings a combined 21 years of public service working for the Commissioner of State Lands and the Arkansas House of Representatives.  In her early career, she spent several years in customer service, consumer relations, and public affairs at Tyson Foods, Inc. in Springdale, Arkansas. Kyla strives to advance policies and opportunities that empower the 22-member community colleges to meet the education and training needs of students, local industry partners, and communities. She collaborates with the state’s government agencies, industry associations, chambers of commerce, and other workforce stakeholders to develop a robust state economy supported by a highly skilled workforce.

Kyla graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science in Biology and a minor in History, from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She is a graduate of the Talent Pipeline Management Career Readiness Academy and serves on the Broadband Nation Advisory Board. In her work at ACC, Kyla oversees several grant projects that support workforce development at the campus level including serving as the project manager of the Arkansas Fiber Academy.

What do you hope to learn from the CCGE Fellows program?

The development of short-term credentials that stack into longer degree or non-degree programs and provide opportunities for Arkansans to gain progressively higher skill levels to move along a career pathway.