Delta Cultural Center picks LR teacher for new director

Kyle Miller, a teacher in the Little Rock School District and a former public relations officer for the Delta Cultural Center, will become the director of the center in HelenaWest Helena starting Oct. 24, Department of Arkansas Heritage Director Stacy Hurst said Monday.

“We are thrilled that Kyle is coming on board to lead the Delta Cultural Center as director,” Hurst said in a written statement. “His enthusiasm and experience in designing and implementing educational programming will be a great asset to DCC as it continues to tell the compelling story of the Arkansas Delta.”

The Delta Cultural Center is a museum and educational complex, and its mission is to preserve, interpret and present the cultural heritage of the 27- county area, according to its website. The center is an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage.

Miller was hired as the center’s director at an annual salary of $ 64,500, after the department received 42 applications for the post and two people were interviewed, department spokesman Melissa Whitfield said.

The center’s previous director, Katie Harrington, resigned July 7. She was paid an annual salary of $ 55,512, Whitfield said. Harrington hasn’t returned calls about her departure from the department.

Miller said he is a film and television teacher at the Metropolitan Career Technical Center in the Little Rock School District. He has worked for the school district since December 2012, according to his resume. He was executive director of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s Children International program from August 2011- November 2012, program director at Phillips Community College from October 2005- August 2011, and after- school programs director at the Helena- West Helena School District from September 2002- May 2005.

Miller has taught as an adjunct professor at the University of Phoenix in Little Rock and UALR since 2013 and at Phillips Community College from September 2007- May 2011. He was a teacher in the Helena- West Helena School District from September 2003May 2005, Miller’s resume shows.

He was the Delta Cultural Center’s part- time public relations officer from May 2000- October 2004, and was a television news assignment editor at WMC- TV in Memphis from November 1999- May 2000, according to his resume. He earned a doctoral degree in higher education administration from the University of Mississippi in 2011; a master’s degree in intercultural studies from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif., in 2001; a master’s degree in radio and television from Arkansas State University in 1995; and a bachelor’s degree in speech, theater and journalism at the University of Central Arkansas in 1992, according to his resume.