News
Winter Commencement Set
December 11, 2023
Central Community College will honor all its December graduate candidates during winter commencement at 2 p.m. on Dec. 15 in the Raider Fieldhouse at the Columbus Campus.
The keynote speaker will be Kellie Pickett, vice president for college access and success at the Susan T. Buffett Foundation and board member of the National Scholarship Providers Association.
She is a native Nebraskan who received her bachelor’s degree in Spanish from Ball State University in Muncie, Ind.; a master’s degree in college student personnel from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio; and a doctorate in educational studies from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Pickett has dedicated her career to working with college students and supporting them as they strive to reach their educational goals.
Over the past 20 years, she has worked at such higher education institutions as Duke University, Georgia Southern University and the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO). She held various roles in such areas as admissions, orientation, learning communities, and leadership and civic engagement. At UNO, she served as director of the Thompson Learning Community where she worked with and taught students who received the Susan T. Buffett Scholarship. She also was an adjunct faculty member in UNO’s College of Education, teaching graduate students interested in working in student services on college campuses.
In her current role, Pickett works with people and communities across the state to ensure Nebraskans have clear pathways into higher education as well as the resources and support they need to reach their college goals.