Page 27 - May/June HER 2020

27 MAY HER
HER Career
NPC’s VP of Workforce and Strategic Initiatives utilizes knowledge and expertise to forge lasting impact
Story by Rebeca Rector, photography
by Grace Brown
& submitted
The vice president for Work- force and Strategic Initiatives at National Park College is a position made up of numerous roles that re- quire various skills. For Kelli Embry, the diversity that comes with the job is what she “loves most” about the work she does.
Before spending the past nine years on the staff at National Park, the Hope native transitioned into education and led students on a much larger scale at a college in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex area. Her years spent in Texas provided gainful experiences that Embry em- phasized helped in honing her craft.
Since making the “purposeful” move of relocating to Hot Springs, different and exciting opportunities have presented themselves, as has the desire to reside in the Spa City indefinitely — a city she’s come to love.
“I was actually hired to come here and be the director of Work- force. So (as for) the vice president position, I’ve been in that role for about the last four and a half years,” Embry noted of her promotion. “But workforce is my passion; that’s what I’ve done since I left corpo- rate-America back in 2006 to go full-time into the education realm. I’ve always been on the noncredit workforce side of education. ... In my current role, for example, I work with our business and industry part- ners here in Garland County and the surrounding area, and we provide all sorts of customized training for them.
“The role that I have currently at the college is fairly diverse, which is what I love about it the most. My
HER MAGAZINE ¯ May/June 2020 27