Posted: 11:08 a.m. Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Former MUM dean joins Cincinnati State

By Rick McCrabb

Staff Writer

MIDDLETOWN — 

    Instead of a retire/rehire, Kelly Cowan is trying a retire/inspire.

    After 21 years at Miami University Middletown, including serving as dean, Cowan retired on Dec. 31, 2014 and now has joined Cincinnati State Middletown as special assistant to the president, Dr. O’Dell M. Owens. In 2013, Cowan earned $137,411 at Miami University, and this year at Cincinnati State, her salary for the part-time position is zero.

    Cowan, 53, has three grown children, and married Ted Light last year. She said she’s financially secure.

    It’s time to give back, she said.

    “This is about my faith,” Cowan said Monday afternoon while sitting on a couch in the lobby of Cincinnati State. “God has given me so much. I just want to do what I can to make this place the best that it can be. I think this place has the right mission, taking students who may not know what they want and giving them a chance.

    “This place gets it.”

    Just then, a young female student walked by, carrying her books, pushing a stroller.

    “There is huge potential here,” Cowan said. “Some of these students, well, you don’t know what they have been through. All they want is a chance.”

    Cowan talks from experience. She became a teen mother in high school, and at the time, never dreamed of earning an associate’s degree. Now she holds a PhD in microbiology from the University of Louisville School of Medicine. She has been a professor of microbiology since 1993 and has served numerous roles at MUM. She also served as the National    Chair for Undergraduate Education for the American Society of Microbiology.

    In 2009, she founded the Community Building Institute (CBI) in Middletown providing cradle-to-career programming for youth and creating the Parent Resource Center.

    To be successful, Cincinnati State must “rethink” the way it educates its students, Cowan said. For instance, non-traditional students can’t take 50-minute classes three times a week because of their work and home schedules. Instead, they need a block schedule where they attend class for three hours at a time. Transportation and childcare shouldn’t be obstacles to keep someone from attending college, said Cowan.

    Also, she said, Cincinnati State officials need to change their approach to recruiting students. Instead of attending college fairs and passing out free pens, they need to discuss career options with waitresses and waiters and those working minimum wage jobs. Show them a career path, she said.

    “We can’t use ‘college speak,’” she said. “We need to use ‘people speak.’”

    Cincinnati State Middletown offers 30 degrees and certificates taught entirely at the Middletown branch campus and more than 100 degree and certificate programs on the Clifton campus that students can take once they have completed their general education requirements in Middletown.

    Owens said the first time he met Cowan he noticed her “strong passion” to help Middletown residents who wanted to change their lives.

    Before she made the career move, she discussed it with her husband over dinner in Cincinnati. She gave him veto rights.

    “He’s very supportive,” she said. “He knows my heart.”