Kalamazoo Valley Community College Appoints Two Interim Board Members

The Kalamazoo Valley Community College Board of Trustees has appointed two new provisional board members who will serve on the college's board for one year, from Jan. 1 through Dec. 31, 2024.

Kathy Purnell, Esq., Ph.D., has over two decades of combined professional experience as a lawyer, professor, and nonprofit administrator. She is a graduate of Harvard University (A.B.), Cornell University (Ph.D.) and the DePaul University College of Law (J.D.). She is a licensed attorney in the state of Michigan (since 2008) and is the pro bono chair of the Michigan Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. Her current legal practice is focused at the intersection of civil and human rights. She has also used her advanced training in political philosophy, law, and ethics to teach students at seven different universities including Western Michigan University, DePaul University and Kalamazoo College. Her deep commitments to educational access and equity were also cultivated through her work as an academic administrator for five years at the University of Chicago and then seven years at Western Michigan University in the areas of academic program development, foundation relations, service-learning and research contracting. Her many current community commitments include membership on the Advisory Board for the Western Michigan University Center for the Study of Ethics in Society and on Michigan's Black Leadership Advisory Council (BLAC), a nonpartisan council that advises the Governor on racial equity issues. She is married to William R. Craft, Jr., a local filmmaker, poet and devoted IT professional for the local nonprofit educational sector and is a guardian of Calpurnia, a boisterous, infinitely curious calico.

Sherry Thomas-Cloud earned both a B.S. and M.S.W. degree from Western Michigan University. From the 1990s-2013 she taught as a part-time faculty in the college of Health and Human Services and served as field instructor to social work students. She has worked in many leadership positions in the human services, including Child Development Program Manager at Kalamazoo County Health and Community Services; Executive Director of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence of Michigan, a public education and advocacy state-wide agency; and Executive Director of Kalamazoo County Department of Health and Human Services. She has a long history of community involvement and collaboration with numerous community partners to expand services or create new programing in the areas of housing, mental health, education, youth enrichment, employment and food insecurity. From 2013-2016 Thomas-Cloud served as the Executive Director for the Douglass Community Association and from 2016-2023 she served as CEO of Family & Children Services. She has received national, state and local awards that include: YWCA - Woman of Achievement, El Concilio- Warrior Award, Local Initiatives Corporation- Door Award, Southwest Goodwill Partner of the Year, WMU's Inaugural Outstanding Alumni Award, State Department of Human Services - Star Award, National Food Assistance Champion Award, National Association of Social Work- Michigan Chapter- Lifetime Achievement Award, and Intrepid professional Woman Network-Humanitarian Award. She is married to Tim Cloud and has two daughters: Jasmine and India and three grandchildren: Isabella, Brielle and Gianni.

Purnell and Thomas-Cloud have been appointed to replace board members Susan L. Miller and Patrick A. Farmer, who each resigned for personal reasons.