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Faculty Spotlight: Kelly Posten

Kelly Posten is in his second year of teaching Business and Accounting at Highland Community College. His own educational journey began at a community college, and he wants his students to know that HCC is a great, affordable foundation that can take them anywhere. Kelly holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accounting from the University of Missouri – Kansas City (UMKC). Upon graduating from UMKC, he qualified as a certified public accountant in Missouri and began his career in public accounting. He eventually made the switch to providing private accounting services to several different companies in the Kansas City metropolitan area. He specialized in technical financial accounting for a large corporation for almost 15 years before he transitioned to academia.

He enjoys the relationships he makes with students and watching them develop. He also loves that this career requires people to continually learn and build on new knowledge. He wants students to remember that while he might have been a challenging instructor, he was always fair. He hopes they can look back and see the ways in which he helped prepare them for their future, wherever it may take them. The most helpful advice he ever received was that competing against yourself, not others, allows you to focus on your own definition of success.

Sharon Kibbe, Vice President of Academic Affairs, praises Posten for bringing “a wealth of industry experience to the classroom in Highland and online. He provides real-world insight and applications in accounting and business that are vital to preparing our students for success.”

Kelly has a passion for traveling; he even worked and lived in Africa for two years. While he does not travel as often now that he has two children, they have taught him to be more patient and enjoy all the moments. A fitting example of this would be watching his son play t-ball. Kelly feels there is nothing quite as interesting as taking in all the chaos and entertainment of watching youngsters play organized sports for the first time. His children have also impacted his music selections. His 10-month-old son is obsessed with Baby Shark and Kelly sings it in the car to help calm down. When he does have a chance to sit back and relax, he enjoys nonfiction books with Michael Lewis being one of his favorite authors.

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