Anton Reece

2021-22 Aspen New Presidents Fellow
Dr. Anton R. Reece, president and CEO of West Kentucky Community and Technical College (WKCTC), has served nearly 30 years in higher education. He has extensive experience in communication, including public speaking, marketing, broadcasting news, television, and radio. Reece is an honors graduate with a B.A. in broadcasting news, an M.A. in counseling student personnel from Eastern Kentucky University, and a Ph.D. in educational psychology and research at the University of Tennessee - Knoxville.

In 2016, Reece achieved a historic appointment as the first African American and second president of West Kentucky Community and Technical College. Under his leadership, WKCTC has earned national distinction as a five-time finalist for the Bellwether Cnewestonsortium, and as a five-time Aspen Prize finalist, consistently ranked in the top 10 nationally among the nation’s 1,000 community and technical colleges. WKCTC received a historic $15 million gift in 2020 from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott for diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, the largest gift from an individual donor in the college's history.

Reece has 30 years of extensive student success, enrollment, retention, teaching and learning, and diversity, equity and inclusion expertise and has spoken to over 600 audiences, including corporations, colleges, high schools, youth organizations, churches, and prisons.

Reece sums up his leadership style: "empowering others to find their voice by achieving their education and career dreams with direction and purpose."