In September 2022, Advance CTE and ECMC Foundation announced the second cohort of The Postsecondary State Career Technical Education (CTE) Leaders Fellowship at Advance CTE—Sponsored by ECMC Foundation. The Advance CTE — ECMCF Fellows include representation across multiple demographic categories reflecting the Fellowship’s goal of intentionally building a postsecondary leadership pipeline for underserved populations in Career Technical Education (CTE) that closes racial representation gaps and removes equity barriers to postsecondary leadership advancement. For this blog in the ECMCF Fellow Feature series, we interviewed ECMCF Fellow Dr. Luv’Tesha Robertson (KY), who is already using the momentum of the Fellowship to make a positive impact in her role at the Office of Adult Education (OAE) at the Kentucky Education and Labor Cabinet (KELC).
“When our passion fuels our purpose, we will always blossom where we have been planted and do great work as servant leaders.”
As a lifelong learner, Dr. Robertson always embraced the opportunity to work in spaces where she believed that her skills and talents would have the greatest impact. She discovered her talent for large-scale project work when she worked as a senior associate with the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education. In this position, Dr. Robertson played a key role in advancing strategic priorities to improve Kentucky’s cradle-to-career initiatives by collaborating with teams across state education agencies and post-secondary institutions. Within six months, this work was rewarded when she was promoted to Director of Program Administration and Accountability with the Office of Adult Education.
“In my current role, I believe that I truly have the best of both worlds. Not only am I able to provide technical assistance to Kentucky’s 26 adult education providers, but I also have the opportunity to dive deeper into local, state, and federal policy and fully utilize my doctorate.”
Dr. Robertson had the opportunity to learn more about the world of career and technical education (CTE) by serving as an academic program manager with the Kentucky Department of Education. Understanding the important role that plays as the nexus of education and the workforce led her to participate in the 2021 Advance CTE Spring meeting.
“This Fellowship was the perfect opportunity to leverage my experience working across different levels of state policy. I realized that the resources and training afforded through this Fellowship would allow me to become the change I wanted to see and make a difference for CTE in Kentucky.”
Dr. Robertson credits the Fellowship with helping her grow as an equity-minded leader and find her voice in this space. In her current position as the Deputy Executive Director with the Office of Adult Education, she has the power and confidence to discuss the challenges that learners face, and the skills in conducting needs assessments to identify and address gaps in processes, programming, and policy.
As a result, Dr. Robertson felt prepared to apply the skills she’s gained through the Fellowship when asked to lead the state’s integrated education and training and workplace literacy initiative. By aligning the cabinet’s work with Advance CTE’s Vision Framework, Dr. Robertson is strategic in how she plans to increase state education outcomes for the Commonwealth as a whole.
If you have any questions, contact Dr. Luv’Tesha Robertson by email at [email protected]
Amy Hodge, Policy Associate
