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Northwest Florida State College selects Kish to lead academic affairs

Dr. Deborah Kish will assume the role of Vice President of Teaching and Learning at Northwest Florida State College on August 1, 2019. She has 17 years of experience in higher education, with eight years in academic administration with expanding responsibilities.

Recognized for innovation and effective change management, Dr. Kish has been the Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for the National Division at Rio Salado College, a public community college in Arizona, since 2018. Previously, she served as the Vice President of Academic Affairs at Aims Community College in Colorado, where she progressed through the areas of responsibilities in Academic Affairs over her six-year tenure at the college. Her career also includes academic leadership and faculty positions at the University of Phoenix, Wyoming Campus, and Denver and Fort Collins, Colorado, and at Valencia College in Florida.

Prior to her career in higher education, Dr. Kish practiced primarily business and corporate law in Colorado and Florida.

Along with a Bachelor of Science degree from Florida State University, Dr. Kish holds a Juris Doctor degree and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Florida. Dr. Kish earned her Doctor of Education degree in Community College Leadership in 2016 from The Roueche Graduate Center of National American University in Texas. Her dissertation was titled “Understanding Excellence through an Examination of Vision, Leadership, Strategic Planning, and the Use of Data at Three Award-Winning Institutions,” which focused on identifying organizational conditions and leadership behaviors that cultivated excellence at three award-winning Achieving the Dream institutions.