In two months, Wittenberg University will celebrate with the class of 2019 during a graduation ceremony steeped in tradition in beautiful Commencement Hollow. Joining the class this year will be P. Kay Carl, a 1959 graduate of Wittenberg and an innovative educational leader, who will receive an honorary doctorate of humane letters and share a few words with the graduates on May 11.

“We are excited to welcome P. Kay Carl back to her alma mater for this momentous occasion,” said Wittenberg President Michael L. Frandsen. “Kay embodies the mission of Wittenberg in her love of learning and commitment to service. She is most deserving of being recognized during our Commencement ceremony, and I am confident that her words will remind the class of 2019 of the power of the Wittenberg experience to transform lives for a lifetime.”

After earning her B.S. in education and religion, Carl spent most of her 35-year career in education working as a counselor, principal, and eventually assistant superintendent for the Clark County School District (CCSD) in Nevada during a period of phenomenal growth for the school district. As assistant superintendent for the elementary education division, she presided over 159 elementary schools and their principals and oversaw the opening of 68 new elementary schools. 

First arriving in Las Vegas in 1970, Carl was a counselor for Sunset High School, the first night high school in the United States. She was later named director of the school, making history as the first female high school principal in the CCSD.

Carl was instrumental in the formation of the Clark County Counselor’s Association and the Clark County Association of School Administrators. She also co-authored Education in the Neon Shadow: The First 50 Years of the Clark County School District (Stephens Press, 2009).

In recognition of Carl’s influence as an educator, the Kay Carl Elementary School in Las Vegas was dedicated in her honor in 2002. She received the Wittenberg Alumni Citation in 2001 for her exceptional accomplishments in education and was inducted into the CCSD Excellence in Education Hall of Fame in 1990.

Although Carl retired in 2000, she has remained active in the field of education by participating in activities at her namesake school, serving for four years as program manager of the literacy initiative Clark County Reads, volunteering with the United Way Education Committee, and serving as co-chair of the CCSD Archive Committee. She also worked as an adjunct instructor in the department of education at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV).

After earning a master’s degree in guidance and counseling from Case Western Reserve University, Carl was an assistant dean of women at Wittenberg from 1963-1965 before working as a high school counselor in New Jersey. She earned a doctorate in education administration from UNLV in 1984.

Born in Ashland, Ohio, Carl graduated in 1955 from Ashland High School, which named her a Distinguished Alumnus in 2007.

To learn more about Wittenberg’s 2019 Commencement and related events, click here.