Dr. Watts has 17 years of experience as a leader in higher education. She serves as a regional vice president of Western Governor’s University (WGU) where she leads university operations across a 12-state area from Virginia to Maine. She is a proud advocate for community colleges and always speaks proudly of her beginnings at LLCC. Watts is an innovator in education policy, educator preparation, post-secondary educational access, alignment across the P-16 continuum and concurrent enrollment.

Prior to WGU, Watts served as executive director for the University of Wyoming Trustees Education Initiative, a statewide effort to support Wyoming’s K-12 schools with innovative educator preparation. Additionally, she was the associate vice chancellor for P-16 Initiatives at the Ohio Department of Higher Education, where she led educator preparation program review and approval, college readiness efforts and STEM scholarship and college-access programs.

She is also an accomplished musician and pianist who began playing piano at the age of five. Our music students benefit from Watts’ generous heart as she and her spouse, Richard, give back through their LLCC Foundation scholarship, the Robert F. Klocke and Richard L. Branom Music Scholarship.