New scholar-in-residence brings statewide experience in education reform
Kenyatta Lovett rounds out trifecta of real-world state leaders fueling Lipscomb’s leadership programs.
Janel Shoun-Smith |
This fall, Lipscomb’s College of Leadership & Public Service named Kenyatta Lovett, managing director of higher education at Educate Texas, as a scholar-in-residence, following the appointment of former Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC) executive director Mike Krause as the college’s first in-residence faculty.
Working together with Krause, leader-in-residence, and Tennessee legislator Rep. Mark White (R-District 83), who serves as director of leadership and public service in the college, Lovett makes the third leg in a three-legged stool designed to incorporate every aspect of leadership.
In his scholar-in-residence role, Lovett will focus on the scholarly research aspect of the three-legged stool, including coordinating a symposium for scholars around the nation interested in state leadership.
“I couldn’t be more excited to work alongside Rep. White and Mike Krause to add a new dimension of impact at the college,” said Lovett, “and I’m so thankful that Dean Steve Joiner has given me this opportunity.”
So far he has taught courses in public budgeting and applied finance, teaching students “how to creatively solve problems in a methodical way,” he said. He will work to expand scholarly publishing within the leadership college, especially in areas that lift up local and state leaders and shed a light on the needs and experiences of the next generation of local leaders.
At Educate Texas, Lovett serves as the primary leader of the higher education and workforce development portfolio, helping to lead Educate Texas forward in improving post-secondary education outcomes across the state. He came to that role after years working in higher education and workforce development in Tennessee.
Higher education has always been a central piece of Lovett’s life, as his father was a professor, first in Illinois and then at Nashville’s Tennessee State University. Lovett attended Whites Creek High School as a teen. He began his career as a graphic designer in Atlanta and then joined the higher education world himself as a web designer, creating the first website for Volunteer State Community College in Gallatin, Tennessee.
He moved up through the ranks at Vol State to eventually become the president’s chief of staff. When that president was tapped to help Tennessee implement the Complete College Tennessee Act of 2010, Lovett moved with him to the Tennessee Board of Regents to become assistant vice chancellor for community college initiatives, focusing on creating standardized business models across Tennessee's thirteen community colleges. That project produced system-wide strategies for efficiency and effectiveness.
Lovett became involved with Lipscomb around this time as a participant in the Leadership Tennessee program, while he was leading the nation’s first statewide advocacy organization focused on increasing postsecondary access and completion in the state, Complete Tennessee. Lovett was invited to design courses and be an adjunct professor in Lipscomb’s leadership college in 2019.
Lovett rounded out his career in Tennessee as the assistant commissioner for workforce services.
He holds an eclectic mix of degrees: a bachelor of fine arts from Howard University, an MBA in supply chain management from TSU and a Ph.D. in policy and administration from TSU.
“The creative skills that allowed me to conceptualize ideas and solve problems (in graphic design) are the same skills I use today,” he said of his career. “For instance, supply chain is all about systems, and that is how I think about education as well: creating viable pathways to success, making sure policies are functioning the way that they should. There’s no blueprint, a lot of times you have to work from a blank slate.”
Now at Educate Texas, Lovett applies those skills to help Texas attain its enrollment and degree attainment goals, embodied in the 60X30TX plan.
“I work best in an environmental where I can craft new initiatives, bring people together and make initiatives that function better long-term,” he said.