Retired Altoona Area School District mathematics teacher Stephen Lightner recalled former student Kelly M. Miller as “a ninth-grade student who had it all — the leadership skills, the ability to talk to teachers as well as being popular with all students. She was every teacher’s dream.”

So, he wasn’t surprised to hear Miller now serves as president of Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.

“I wasn’t surprised when I heard that she’d earned a Ph.D. in communications,” Lightner said. “She was so well-rounded, even in ninth grade.”

Ever humble, Miller credited Lightner with making her a rarity among communications majors — she excelled in mathematics.

“I had him for all my math classes, from algebra onward,” she said by telephone from her Corpus Christi home. “He taught with such enthusiasm. I am extremely good in math and I did well because of the great foundation that he gave me because I can visualize the math. I really am a rarity among communications people.”

As president of the Altoona Area High School Class of 1986, Miller was voted “female most likely to succeed.” It’s a prophecy that’s come true and one that she wants all her students at Corpus Christi to achieve.

Ahmed Mahdy, vice president for research and innovation at the university, has known Miller for 15 years.

“Kelly’s commitment to every student’s success is inspirational. She puts the students first and foremost. It is a mission she carries and works every single day for. Her impact on me is magnified by how personable and friendly she is. Kelly promotes and celebrates the success of her team and colleagues. This speaks volume of who she is,” he said in an email.

“She’s quite a gal,” said Nancy Moore, 79, of Altoona, Miller’s former neighbor and retired guidance counselor. “She had a lot of potential and she’s used it well. She’s done quite well.”

Retired AASD teacher David Aboud of Altoona worked with Miller while she served as senior class president, and he also taught her in a sociology class where she quietly worked hard and was “friends with everybody.”

While Miller credits Aboud with developing her leadership skills, Aboud said he remembers her organizational and leadership skills while in high school. As an example, Aboud cited Miller’s successful oversight of the senior class prom. “As president of the senior class, it was her job to make sure everyone did their thing,” he explained. “She had a way of getting people to work together.”

Miller’s ability to lead, Mahdy said, is why she rose from department chair, to dean to provost and ultimately to university president. Under her leadership, the university has been recognized for its research activity, increasing the number of honors students by 300%, adding programs and expanding its presence into downtown Corpus Christi.

“Kelly is a concrete vision leader with a dynamic approach,” Mahdy said. “She knows when and how to navigate the ship to reach its destination. We work closely on many projects and initiatives and I do see this all the time. This has proven to be invaluable especially during the pandemic.”

Known as “the Island University,” this isn’t the first crisis Miller has navigated at TAMU-CC, which is a Hispanic-Serving Institution with 12,000 students from 47 states and 54 foreign nations. She leads 1,318 faculty and staff.

“On the day I was officially named president by the A&M System Board of Regents, I walked out of the board meeting and immediately made the call to shut down campus as Hurricane Harvey was headed our way.”

The storm didn’t directly hit campus, but parts of the surrounding community are still recovering, she said.

Miller has successfully raised the university’s stature as a research and doctoral-granting institution.

“We have a lot of research going, especially in marine and coastal research and we are one of only seven places in the nation that have an unmanned aircraft system test site with the FAA. We do a lot with drones from package delivery research to emergency management uses,” such as during Hurricane Harvey when drones were used for search and rescue operations and examining damage to distinguish if the damage was caused by rain, wind or storm surge and then using that information to adjust and improve building codes.

“Ironically, because we always prepare for hurricanes, we were able to quickly pivot to fully online learning last spring as the number of COVID cases increased across Texas. This fall semester, we did offer a mix of fully online, hybrid and face-to-face classes, trying to meet the needs and learning styles of all our students. Classes have all been reconfigured for social distancing, sanitation stations are everywhere, masks are required and technology has been provided to those that need additional support. It has certainly not been business as usual, but we successfully completed the semester with very few cases of COVID,” she said.

With many outside activities canceled, Miller took advantage of one positive COVID-19 offered — the opportunity to return to teaching, which she had done for 16 years prior to being an administrator.

As a professor, Miller taught courses in Teamwork and Leadership, Public Relations and Public Speaking. The 4th edition of her book with S.T. Wahl, “Business and Professional Excellence: Keys to Communicating in the Workplace,” won the 2020 Textbook Excellence Award from the Textbook and Academic Authors Association.

“I was thrilled because I really miss teaching,” Miller said. “It was a really hard decision to leave the classroom (for administration) but I had a unique opportunity. I’ve been very, very fortunate. It is really rare for someone to start at one institution as an assistant professor and then become president at that same institution.”

Typically, college administrators advance by leaving for a promotion at another institution. Miller’s rise happened when she was tapped to become an interim dean of her department.

“I was on the search committee for a new dean and had made it clear I didn’t want the position, but the search failed. So I was approached to stay,” she said. The scenario played out similarly twice more — first when the provost left for a promotion and again when the university president retired.

Ever humble, Miller doesn’t mention she’s the university’s first female president or that in February, she was honored as the “2020 Hometown Hero” by the Southside Rotary Club.

Instead, she’s forward focused and will strive to increase the port region’s economic opportunities to better retain students after graduation. So, she’s strengthening relationships between the city, the business community and the university.

Asked what advice she would give to her younger self, she said, “Don’t be afraid to fail. I took a lot of risks, but there were also risks that I didn’t take. When you’re young, that’s the best time to take a risk, because even if it doesn’t pan out, it takes you down a different path — and that’s the right path.”

Altoona Mirror Staff Writer Patt Keith is at 814-949-7030.

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The Miller file

Name: Kelly M. Miller

Age: 52

Hometown: Altoona

Residence: Corpus Christi, Texas

Family: Daughter, Logan, 17; mother, Barbara Miller; and brother, Scott, all in Corpus Christi; father, Richard “Peanut” Miller, formerly of Tyrone, now in Florida

Education: Altoona Area High School, 1986; BA in Communication from University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, 1989; MA and Ph.D. in Communication from Penn State University, 1994.

Position: President and CEO of Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi since August 2017; previously served as provost and vice president for academic affairs; Dean of the College of Liberal Arts; Director of the School of Arts, Media & Communication and Department Chair.

Awards/Honors: Numerous awards for teaching, advising, research and community service. Named Communicator of the Year by the Texas Speech Communication Association and an Outstanding Alumna by the Pennsylvania State University.

Community Service: Board member of the Corpus Christi Regional Economic Development Corporation, United Corpus Christi Chamber of Commerce, Christus Spohn Health System, the American Heart Association Circle of Red, Art Museum of South Texas, Texas State Aquarium, and the USS Lexington.