PERSON: Ryan Quarles

Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS)

CEO & President

Ryan Francis Quarles (born October 20, 1983) is an academic administrator and American politician who was the Agriculture Commissioner of Kentucky from 2016 to 2024 and a member of the Kentucky House of Representatives from 2011 to 2016. He has served as president of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System since 2024.

Quarles is a native of Georgetown, Kentucky. He attended Scott County High School and was the valedictorian of the class of 2002. While working on the Quarles family farm, he was an undergraduate triple major (Agriculture Economics, Public Service And Leadership, and Political Science, B.S., ‘05) and earned masters in Agricultural Economics and in Diplomacy And International Relations (‘06) from the nearby University of Kentucky. He graduated summa cum laude with honors. Quarles received a Truman Scholarship, Udall Scholarship, and a scholarship from Toyota. As a Zuckerman Fellow, he was awarded a full-ride scholarship to Harvard University (M.Ed., ‘09). He also attended the University of Kentucky College of Law (J.D., ‘10).

Republican Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher appointed Quarles to two consecutive terms as a Student Council Member on the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education.

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