Dr. Kim Dale Recognized for Leadership

Western Wyoming Community College’s President, Dr. Kim Dale was recognized as one of the 50 Top U.S. College and University Presidents by College Cliffs.

Dr. Dale was selected to lead the College by Western’s Board of Trustees 2019, after her role as Executive VP and Chief Academic Officer at Western Nebraska Community College. She began her college career with the Colorado Community College System as a business faculty, and then transitioned to the Dean of Instruction and Outreach position. Subsequently, she taught at the University of Colorado in Denver.

A College Cliff’s representative stated the following regarding the methodology for compiling the list, “We've picked schools and categorized them (public, private, community colleges, institutes, etc.) and selected those with meaningful contributions to their community as well as the significant academic developments/achievements initiated by the president and their administration. We wanted to feature schools and their administration from different categories and hope to provide relevant information to our target audience”.

Dr. Dale jumped straight in with community involvement upon arriving to Rock Springs, and is a part of the Sweetwater County Economic Development Coalition (SEDC). The SECD takes the initiatives and missions of the state’s Economically Needed Diversity Options for Wyoming (ENDOW) and focuses them to meet the needs of Sweetwater County.

Dr. Dale’s first year at Western has not been without its challenges as she inherited an institution with steadily declining enrollment coupled with the State of Wyoming’s economic struggle with the decline of the extraction industry. Then March rolled around and with it, COVID-19.

Despite these challenges, Dr. Dale has assembled teams and committees to create a strategic plan for Western, which will be launching in 2021. The COVID-19 Crisis Taskforce made decisions which allowed the College open for students to participate in in-person coursework. Under Dr. Dale’s leadership, Western hopes to continue to provide students and community members an institution where passion meets purpose.