Hazard Community and Technical College leader joins KET college discussion

Hazard Community and Technical College President and CEO Jennifer Lindon stepped onto KET’s Kentucky Tonight with a message that mattered well beyond Frankfort: what Kentucky’s community college system is doing for Perry County families, and what it still is not doing fast enough. The discussion, hosted by Renee Shaw and aired at 8 p.m., paired Lindon with Kentucky Community and Technical College System President Ryan Quarles and other leaders as KCTCS made its case for why the state’s workforce pipeline runs through its campuses.

For Perry County, the stakes are practical. HCTC says it serves more than 3,500 students each year through six campuses in eastern Kentucky and online classes, and its Fall 2024 enrollment reached 3,136 students. That total included 1,289 high school students in dual credit courses and 1,168 students in online learning, two numbers that show how deeply the college is tied to both local schools and working adults who cannot always get to class in person. HCTC also said 77% of credential-seeking students received some financial aid in Fall 2024, a key indicator in a county where tuition, transportation and childcare can decide whether a student enrolls or drops out.

Lindon’s appearance also put a spotlight on what HCTC is prepared to promise around job training. The college has recently emphasized workforce-oriented programs, including a planned nuclear medicine program that it said would be Kentucky’s only such program and would help meet employer demand in southeastern Kentucky. For Hazard, Perry County and nearby counties that have been battered by the long decline of coal and manufacturing jobs, the question is whether those programs lead to stable wages and whether students can actually reach them.

KCTCS used the broadcast to frame the wider system behind HCTC. Created by the 1997 Kentucky Postsecondary Education Improvement Act, the system now includes 16 community and technical colleges and 70 campuses. It says its centralized offices handle student financial aid, payroll, technology services, human resources and legal counsel, saving colleges from needing an estimated $50 million and hundreds of staff. Quarles, named president on Sept. 29, 2023 and who began Jan. 1, 2024, is the fourth KCTCS president and the first native Kentuckian to lead the system.

For HCTC, Lindon’s role carried extra weight. The college identifies her as its first female president, and she previously led the Technical Campus as chief campus administrator. She was later honored with the SOAR Appalachian Workforce Champion Award on Aug. 27, 2025, a nod to the kind of workforce agenda Perry County residents are watching closely: lower barriers, stronger training pipelines and a clearer path from Hazard classrooms to local paychecks.