 Kendra Cotton Promoted to Associate Director
In January, Kendra Davenport Cotton was promoted to associate director of the Center after serving as assistant director for programs with the Center’s Program on Public Life since 2005. In her new role, Cotton will administer existing Center programs and develop new ones, while also seeking funding sources to support programs and initiatives.
Cotton is eager to build upon the Center’s established successes in the humanities. “I am also excited about developing and augmenting its work with the social sciences, specifically with regard to trends and public policies affecting North Carolina and the South,” she said. “This expansion of focus will lead to greater funding opportunities. Ultimately, I want us to position the Center—and by extension the University--as the first line of contact for anyone seeking knowledge about the southern region, be it past, present or future.”
Cotton has consistently pursued employment and research opportunities that have enabled her to gain insight into the social, political and policy environment of the American South. She is currently a doctoral candidate in political science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. While pursuing her degree, she worked as a research associate with Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago and for the Duke Endowment's Program for the Rural Carolinas. Before coming to the Center’s Program on Public Life, she also worked with various advocacy organizations within the state, including the North Carolina Rural Center, the Center for Teaching Quality and the North Carolina Center for Nonprofits.
“Kendra Cotton combines a deep understanding of the South with enormous energy, imagination and great ideas for the Center's future,” said Center director Harry Watson. “We are thrilled that she is taking up the challenge as associate director.”
A native Arkansan, Cotton is particularly interested in exploring the political and policy effects of the burgeoning Latinization of the American South. She holds a master’s degree in public administration from North Carolina State University and a bachelor’s degree in public administration from the University of Oklahoma.
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