Holt, the first African-American woman to lead a state college in Arkansas, led UAHT to three consecutive years of enrollment growth in fall semesters (up to 1,307 this past fall) and a 10.4 percent increase this past spring, the start of the Hempstead Guarantee, which provides tuition-free education to that county’s students, and the addition of programs for aspiring fiber optics technicians.
She also presided over the continued success of the Collegiate Academy which offers high school students from Hope and Texarkana the chance at no cost to earn certifications and associate’s degrees by the time they receive their high school diplomas. At the college’s 2025 commencement, 130 high schoolers accepted certificates or degrees, 20 percent of the state’s total of students taking part in spring graduations from collegiate academies.
We spoke with Holt Tuesday afternoon, first asking what she found when she assumed her role at UAHT in 2021 and what she saw she could exert efforts toward. She was following the long tenure of Chris Thomason, a Hope native and former state representative who was the leader at the Hope campus from 2008 to 2020. It helped that Holt’s doctoral dissertation was on the succession planning in higher education.
“It was great coming in behind him,” Holt said. “And then after he left, for a year we had an interim [chancellor], another long-serving employee of probably at that time two decades, and now close to three decades here at the institution. She knew a lot about the organization, and was very helpful in helping me to learn about the organization, because it was very important for me to really to get in, to know the identity of the college. I often tell people before I can go out and share, I really needed to spend some time and then do that inside the organization, to learn the people what their needs are, what their interests are, what are the pain points.” This long-serving employee was current Vice Chancellor for Academics Laura Clark, who will be again assuming interim chancellor duties when Holt leaves her position at the end of June.
As Holt went through a period of listening and learning about UAHT and the needs of its surrounding community, she said “one of the critical pieces was for us to listen to what employers were saying.” This was the context in which the idea to add a fiber optic technician program arose.
“It took a little bit of time to get all the players right,” Holt said. “But it came from one of our board members who said, ‘I'm in this industry, and I'm finding it hard to find talent, and these are good-paying, high-skilled jobs. What can you do to help?’ I was able to bring in our educational experts, and of course, that was Laura and our dean, and then we needed some funding, so [we were able] to bring in the state to be able to offer the funding, and then it was really important for us to find an instructor who really knew the industry. So we were able to hire an adjunct instructor who's doing a phenomenal job for us, and I want him to stay forever.”
Another issue she identified was the slide in enrollment from a 2018 peak and an even more drastic decrease during the COVID pandemic era. “We brought in some consultants to help us. I’m really proud of the fact that we've been able to grow in enrollment, about 100 students per year over the last three years. So I’m really proud of that the Collegiate Academy, again, which was my predecessor’s, but what we've been able to do over the last few years, leading the state and awarding two-year degrees to graduating high school students. It's just phenomenal.”
Part of that enrollment increase has come from the growing realization among area parents that UAHT offers students a way to acquire a valuable education at a much lower cost, even if their plans are to eventually attend a four-year college or graduate school.
“At first it was ‘Is this really real?’ Now parents are starting to see the return on investment. They understand what that means to be able to go here and then to transfer to [the University of Arkansas at] Fayetteville, or wherever the student desires to transfer to, and at the same tuition rate at Fayetteville … We're starting to see those students come back and share it,” Holt said. Then adding the Hempstead Guarantee to that means the students from the county can attend their first year at no cost.
Asked what experiences at UAHT she would be bringing with her to Fresno, Holt said, “I’ve been very fortunate to have a lot of really wonderful opportunities that helped shape me and my philosophy on education. But when I think about the people here and how supportive they are, it's very impressive, philanthropically, how supportive they are to the college and our students. That's real. Yeah, that's something that I will treasure and value.”
She sees a bright future for UAHT and the area because of a resource under the ground. “I'm excited about where things are going to go with lithium, the royalties, and where that's going to go, and the role that we're going to play in that in southwest Arkansas. I liken that to northeast Arkansas with the steel mills. I can see that can be a lift to our community. That is just exciting to me, and I will be rooting from afar, but I can see that happening, and we're going to be right there at the table,” Holt said.
The fact that UAHT is the only school in the vicinity with a construction technology training program, she said, means the school and its students are positioned to reap benefits from the lithium boom.
For the next leaders at UAHT, Holt said, “For me, it's just come in with three things in mind. One, to be competent, to have character. Character is just as important or more important than competence. And then lead with compassion and grace and know that there are wonderful people in this community. As I said, I go all over the state and beyond, and I'll meet someone, and maybe several people will come up to me and say, ‘I have a connection to Hope. I used to go and visit my grandparents every year, and it is truly a special place.’ Treat it like that,” she said.
Holt added that for the next permanent chancellor, “it's going to be a phenomenal time to come in, because we're celebrating our 60th anniversary along with the launch of the new strategic plan. So this is going to be a phenomenal opportunity. Lead with integrity, get to know the people. It's such a wonderful place, and then look for the opportunities. How can you broker that relationship with what the needs are in the community, what we can offer it? And look at new programming that will help us to launch us to another 60 years and beyond.”