Education
The PSC Board of Trustees unanimously approved Kelly as its next president Monday, succeeding Ed Meadows, who is retiring after nearly 20 years at the helm. Kelly will take office by Oct. 19.
Kelly, the Florida secretary of commerce, emerged as the lone finalist after a national search attracted 107 applicants. The search committee, comprised only of trustees, interviewed four candidates in person before recommending Kelly.
- Now the president-elect is preparing to trade Tallahassee for Pensacola—and a state agency for a college campus where he says his first priority will be listening.
“I want to make sure I’m in a listening posture, not prejudging that, but moving quickly at the same time,” Kelly told students, faculty and staff during a Monday morning meet-and-greet at the PSC Jean and Paul Amos Performance Studio. “There are always pain points. There are always things, whether it’s students or faculty, who think things could be better.”
Kelly said his approach will be to identify those problems without arriving with a predetermined list of solutions. He said one lesson he has carried through his career came from a mentor: “Clear is kind.”
- “I think everyone has a voice,” Kelly said. “It’s important to have a work environment, to have an educational environment, where people feel heard.”
For Kelly, that culture matters, particularly with students watching how faculty and staff handle disagreement, leadership and difficult conversations.
- “They’re watching how we engage in discourse,” he said. “If we do that in a hands-on, professional way, I think they’re learning the best values there.”
Not a traditional academic: Kelly is not a traditional academic like his predecessor, Meadows. He has led the Florida Department of Commerce since 2023, overseeing economic development, workforce and community development programs. Before that, he served as deputy chief of staff in the governor’s office and chief of staff to then-Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran.
- Leadership positions with the Foundation for Excellence in Education
- The Florida Department of Juvenile Justice
- The Florida Legislature, where he served as chief analyst for the House Select Policy Council on Strategic and Economic Planning
Workforce focus: That background could prove useful at PSC, the region’s epicenter of workforce development. Since Meadows became president in 2008, the college has added an astounding 61 career and technical certificates.
Kelly sees an opportunity to capitalize on what makes Northwest Florida unique from other parts of the state. He said health care, life sciences, aerospace, aviation, maritime and the military all position PSC to be a statewide brand.
- “President Meadows, the team here has created such a great platform to build on and to add to,” Kelly said.
That platform, Kelly said, already connects PSC to some of the region’s most important institutions and industries.
- “This school has a profound effect on the veterans community, on the hospitals here and many important job sectors,” he said.
The challenge for Kelly is finding ways to strengthen those connections while ensuring PSC prioritizes its nearly 9,000 students.
That means keeping an ongoing dialogue with students, not simply meeting them during the honeymoon period of a new presidency. He said, “We have to continue to make the college a place where all students feel welcome, all students feel that dignity and respect on campus.”
Looking ahead: PSC is a new frontier for Kelly, but he suggested that he intends to make Pensacola more than the next stop on his résumé.
“I really want to be here for quite a long time,” he said. “This is a community for both my wife and me, and we look at this as hopefully the final step in our professional journey.”
- The trustees honored Meadows on Monday by unanimously approving a motion to bestow him the title of president emeritus. They further approved a motion to pause long-term contracts and “certain personnel decisions” until Kelly takes office.