CCRC Advisory Board Member

Senior Policy Fellow, Corporation for a Skilled Workforce

Dr. Keith W. Bird currently serves as Senior Policy Fellow for Workforce and Postsecondary Education, Corporation for a Skilled Workforce (Ann Arbor, MI). After 10 years as the first Chancellor of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS), he was honored by the Board of Regents in June 2009 as KCTCS Chancellor-Emeritus.  Prior to Kentucky, he served as President of Central Carolina Technical College, SC, and New Hampshire Community Technical Colleges at Claremont and Nashua, NH. He also served in a statewide capacity as Deputy Commissioner of the New Hampshire Community Technical College System and Director of Operations and Training for the New Hampshire Job Training Council, Inc. (JTPA).

As Chancellor of KCTCS, Dr. Bird was responsible for system-wide direction of academic, student, and economic development/workforce initiatives including the offices of Research and Policy Analysis, Global Studies, Grants and Contracts, statewide Fire and Rescue Training, and Homeland Security.  Under his leadership, KCTCS successfully integrated technical and general education curricula and significantly expanded services to business and industry. He has also been instrumental in developing new initiatives in automotive manufacturing (funded by the USDOL and NSF), the Kentucky Information Technology Center (funded by NSF), and the Kentucky Coal Academy. He has initiated the use of virtual reality and simulation based learning across the curriculum and is a leader in modularizing instructional programs in both blended and e-learning. His work with P-16 councils and college/workforce readiness programs have greatly expanded H.S. dual credit enrollment and articulation programs as well as creating the first career readiness certificate in the nation endorsed by ACT.

Dr. Bird served as Director of Kentucky’s Ford Foundation “Bridges to Opportunity” project, which was designed to improve access and success of low-income adults by organizing workforce and education systems around long-term comprehensive career pathways that integrate academic, workforce training, student services, and developmental education programs.

Dr. Bird is a frequent speaker at international, national, and regional conferences on the involvement of community colleges in economic and workforce development, workforce and skill standards certifications, career pathways, secondary/postsecondary alignment and collaboration, and business/industry partnerships.  He also serves on a number of national advisory boards and councils.

Dr. Bird received his B.A. from Alma College and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Duke University.  In 1969-70 he studied as a Fulbright Scholar and Duke University Exchange Student at the Free University in Berlin and in 1975 as a fellow of the Military History Research Office in Freiburg, funded by the West German Government Academic Fellowship Program. He has written extensively in German military history.