Dr. Robert Stafford ’89 is a tireless advocate for rural education. Throughout his long and impressive career, he’s served Kentucky’s students in many ways—as a teacher, a principal, a school district superintendent and more. Today, he seeks to advance the cause of learning through his work in the College of Education at Georgetown College and advocacy with the Kentucky Rural Education Association (KREA).
Dr. Stafford’s educational journey began in earnest at Berea College, where he transferred from Morehead State University in 1986. “Somewhere around the fall of my [first] year, I had a friend who went to Berea College,” Stafford said. “I came down over a weekend and they had an open house.”
The opportunity to experience Berea convinced him this was where he wanted to get his college education. “I just fell in love with the place and all that was going on, and so I put my application in,” he said.
Stafford graduated from Berea in 1989 with a bachelor’s degree in economics. The summer before graduation, he completed an internship with the court systems, which hired him as a pre-trial officer in the far western part of the state after he graduated. Through this job, he developed a true personal connection with the state of Kentucky and its many towns and counties. “I got great experience traveling from county to county and courthouse to courthouse,” he said.
It was also because of this job that he first considered a career in education. His supervisor was a school board member, and discussions with him sparked Stafford’s interest. He discovered that the University of Kentucky had just started offering a master’s in education with initial certification and decided to pursue it. As soon as he earned his degree, he began teaching in Owen County, where he’s been for more than 35 years.
Today, Stafford advocates for Kentucky’s students through KREA. The genesis of this organization goes back to when he was still working on his doctoral degree. At the time, KREA did not exist. “I kept coming across research from the Rural Educator, the research journal for the National Rural Education Association (NREA),” he said. “I decided to look into what the NREA was and found they were having their national conference in Columbus, Ohio.”
He was very interested in their work, so he decided to attend. Stafford was surprised he was the only school superintendent from Kentucky at the conference. “I thought, ‘Well, what is this, that Kentucky, a rural state, doesn’t have an association for rural educators?’”
That question spurred him into action. He started gathering like-minded educators and began organizing what would become the Kentucky Rural Education Association. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020 just as members started discussing how to launch the KREA. It wasn’t until several years later that Stafford and his associates revisited their plans.
My intent over this next year is to spread the word about all the great things that are going on in our rural schools that sometimes get overlooked. We find we have really bright and talented young people in our schools and with the right opportunity, the right access, they can really achieve.
Dr. Robert Stafford ’89
Now that the KREA has been established, Stafford and his colleagues have turned their attention to making it grow. “My intent over this next year is to spread the word about all the great things that are going on in our rural schools that sometimes get overlooked,” he said. “We find we have really bright and talented young people in our schools and with the right opportunity, the right access, they can really achieve.”
Stafford and the KREA have a lot of exciting and ambitious plans for what they’d like to see the organization do. “We want to recognize a Teacher of the Year who would represent rural Kentucky at the National Rural Education Association conference each year,” Stafford said. “The other thing we’re making plans for is a teacher institute that would look at place-based education and help middle school teachers develop curriculum.”
Ultimately, it all comes down to advocating for and supporting the teachers and students of Kentucky. “Touching the classroom and supporting our rural educators is important for the KREA,” he said.
Stafford has found a great many allies in his work. “There is a tremendous amount of interest across the state, from educators to policymakers,” he said. “When you mention rural education, they really perk up. Many of our people are from rural communities. They understand the importance of what they learned growing up in rural Kentucky.”
Dr. Stafford has found that across the state, people have a deep interest in rural education and strong support for their local schools.
For Stafford, his Berea College education was foundational to his career as an educator and the advocacy he devotes himself to today. “Working with other people, getting to know other people from different backgrounds and really learning the interpersonal skills to be able to succeed in a career, I attribute all of that to Berea College laying that foundation for me,” he said.
Because of his dedication and the wonderful work being done by KREA, future generations of rural Kentucky students will have dynamic and compelling defenders championing their educational success.
