Southeast Kentucky Community & Technical College, Lindsey Wilson University Celebrate Partnership

Two schools have worked together for the last 24 years to serve Southeast Kentucky's higher education needs.

by Duane Bonifer

CUMBERLAND, Ky. (09/01/2026) — Nearly a quarter-century of serving Southeast Kentucky through higher education was celebrated Monday, Aug. 31, at the Southeast Kentucky Community & Technical College Cumberland Campus.

During a morning ceremony at Falkenstein Hall, representatives from Southeast Kentucky Community & Technical College and Lindsey Wilson University came together to reflect on the impact the two schools' partnership has had on the region.

"Together, we're continuing to create the future of Southeast Kentucky," said Southeast Kentucky Community & Technical College Chancellor Lee Harrison. "We appreciate the more than two decades of partnership we have had to allow our students to learn, grow and continue to succeed while staying right here at home."

Started in 2002, the partnership allows Southeast Kentucky CTC graduates to seamlessly transfer into majors in Lindsey Wilson's Educational Outreach program.

Today, that includes bachelor's programs in business administration, communication, criminal justice, human services and counseling, and nursing; and graduate programs in applied machine learning and AI, business administration, counseling, cybersecurity management, data science and technology management. The academic programs in LWU Educational Outreach are offered in traditional, online and hybrid formats.

And in 2025, Lindsey Wilson started a partnership with the Southeast Kentucky CTC Middlesboro Campus.

'I always longed to finish my degree'

But when the partnership began in 2002, it only included counseling programs offered by what was then Lindsey Wilson College. (Lindsey Wilson College became Lindsey Wilson University on July 1, 2025.)

Tommie Saragas was among the students in the first cohort to enroll in Lindsey Wilson classes taught at the Southeast Kentucky CTC Cumberland Campus.

"I came to Harlan County as a stay-at-home mom but I always longed to finish my degree," said Saragas, who is now Lindsey Wilson associate vice president for educational outreach. "There just wasn't an option for me."

Saragas recalled hearing about the Lindsey Wilson-Southeast Kentucky CTC partnership while standing in a store's checkout line. At the first class meeting, she said she knew she had made the right decision to enroll.

"As soon as the instructor started talking, I said, 'This is my thing, this is my people, this is what I've been looking for,'" she said.

Lindsey Wilson Regional Academic Director Kimberly Brown, who was in the first cohort with Saragas, said a big reason so many students have discovered their people in the program is because Lindsey Wilson's faculty and staff "are dedicated, and we have that heart to give what's in us to our students."

None of that surprised W. Bruce Ayers, who was Southeast Kentucky CTC president when the two schools started their partnership.

Ayers, who submitted his remarks because he was unable to attend the celebration, said he was "impressed from the very beginning with (Lindsey Wilson's) vision of service and its drive to build the institution around a partnership mode, which began with Southeast."

"I was also impressed with the quality of its people and the programs that were offered here," said Ayers, a Southeast Kentucky CTC graduate who served as its president from 1987-2013. "I remember making the observation to the faculty at a pinning ceremony at the School House Inn in Benham that I wanted to pay them a high complement; that being that they approached teaching like I always wanted our community college faculty to approach it: with students at the heart of everything they did. I remember being pleased when they reacted well to that comment."

From out of a cardboard box

Saragas went on to become the enrollment coordinator for Lindsey Wilson's programs in Cumberland, succeeding Harlan County native Ryan Vitatoe, who started it. And then Brown, a fellow Harlan County resident, followed Saragas in the role.

Vitatoe, who is now Educational Outreach director of enrollment, said that when Lindsey Wilson started its partnership with Southeast Kentucky CTC and three other schools in what was then the five-year-old Kentucky Community and Technical College System, "I literally tried to figure it out out of a cardboard box."

Vitatoe said that when Lindsey Wilson decided to start the partnerships it was an example of how the school "has always been forward thinking."

"This was a forward-thinking project on how we would evolve to serve mental health needs for Appalachia," he said.

As Harrison pointed out, the day was much more than a celebration of two schools working together.

"We're not just celebrating two institutions," she said. "What we're really celebrating is what this means for the people in our region and for our students. It really presents an opportunity."

That opportunity is to provide Southeast Kentucky with more professionals who are equipped to serve and meet the region's needs.

"Our communities need educated professionals, and partnerships like this help provide that," said Harrison. "That is extremely important because we're creating a talent pipeline for the communities, businesses and agencies. That just strengthens the communities."

More professionals for region

Vitatoe pointed out that when the Lindsey Wilson-Southeast Kentucky CTC partnership started, Harlan County had a single licensed professional clinical counselor and a single licensed professional clinical counselor associate. Vitatoe was the licensed professional clinical counselor associate.

He said today, the county has 20 licensed professional clinical counselor supervisors, 30 licensed professional clinical counselor associates and 37 certified alcohol and drug counselors, an overwhelming majority of which are Lindsey Wilson alumni.

"I'm proud of the work that we've done in the last 24 years, and, more importantly, I'm excited about the work that is still to come," said Vitatoe.

And Jason Weaver, the current Lindsey Wilson enrollment coordinator at the Southeast Kentucky CTC Cumberland and Middlesboro campuses, said much remains to be done to help meet the region's higher education needs, especially in mental health.

"There is a much greater need for folks to be in this field, and we have so many students and graduates serving it," he said.

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