Former candidate for KY governor, agriculture commissioner selected as KCTCS president
Ryan Quarles, Kentucky’s agriculture commissioner and former candidate for governor, has been named the next president of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System.
The president leads KCTCS, overseeing Kentucky’s 16 community and technical colleges. Paul Czarapata left the position in February. Larry Ferguson, president of Ashland Community and Technical College, has been serving as acting president since then.
Quarles was named one of three finalists for the position earlier this month. He ran as a Republican candidate for governor in 2023 and finished second in the primary behind Attorney General Daniel Cameron.
“I am both humbled and excited to further my public service towards the Commonwealth through KCTCS — our state’s most impactful higher education entity,” Quarles said in a news release. “For countless Kentuckians, our community and technical colleges change lives everyday as we not only fulfill career dreams, but also strengthen our state’s workforce needs. As a former community college student, I’m excited to get started.”
Quarles has a doctorate in higher education from Vanderbilt University and a juris doctor from the University of Kentucky. He also has a master’s degree in higher education from Harvard University.
His start date will be “no later than Jan. 1,” a KCTCS spokesperson said.
Quarles has been the state’s commissioner of agriculture since 2015. From 2011 to 2016, Quarles was a member of the Kentucky House of Representatives. As a college student he was the student representative for the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education, according to the release announcing his presidency.
“Dr. Quarles’ proven statewide leadership, his relationships across Kentucky and in Washington, D.C., as well as his outstanding educational background in higher education administration, make him the clear choice to move our system forward,” said KCTCS Board of Regents Chair Barry Martin.
The two other candidates were both community college leaders from outside Kentucky: Dean McCurdy, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana, and Beverly Walker-Griffea, president of Mott Community College in Michigan. Candidates visited the KCTCS offices in Versailles earlier this week for interviews and forums, with the board meeting Thursday to select the next president.
The presidential search began in June, using search firm AGB Search in the process, according to KCTCS.
“We are so excited to bring Dr. Quarles on board. He’ll be both a tireless advocate and strong communicator to advance our vision to be even more impactful for our students, faculty and staff, workforce partners, and communities,” Martin said. “We could not be more pleased.”
Last school year, there were more than 100,000 students enrolled across KCTCS, whose biggest schools are Jefferson Community and Technical College in Louisville and Bluegrass Community and Technical College in Lexington, according to KCTCS data.
