Meredith Rozanski receives KBE’s 2024 Kelly Award for Business and Education Partnership

FRANKFORT, Ky. – A local face of the Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce was presented with the Kentucky Board of Education’s Kelly Award for Business and Education Partnership.

At an Oct. 8 meeting, Meredith Rozanski, executive vice president of operations for the Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce, received this honor.

“I am honored to receive the Kelly Award for Business and Education Partnership,” Rozanski said. “I have been blessed with the opportunity to work closely with Bowling Green Independent Schools and Warren County Public Schools for over a decade. It’s inspiring to see such leadership and teamwork focused on providing exceptional opportunities for students, and I am excited to see our community partnership continue to grow.”

A release by the Kentucky Board of Education says Rozanski was nominated for the award by Bowling Green Independent School District superintendent Gary Fields and Warren County Public School district superintendent Rob Clayton.

The Kelly Award honors Joseph W. Kelly, who served as a member of KBE from 1989 until 1998 and served as its chair for seven years.

“Meredith’s exceptional leadership has made a lasting impact on the economic and educational landscape of southcentral Kentucky,” Fields said in his nomination letter.

The annual South Central Kentucky Learning About Unique and New Careers Here program, or SCK Launch, was developed by Rozanski, the release says. She continues to lead it today, paving a path for workforce recruitment.

Rozanski’s work supporting FranklinCovey Education’s Leader in Me program in area schools led to Warren County Schools recording Kentucky’s first Lighthouse School in 2014 and the first Legacy School in 2023, Clayton said.

Rozanski also has increased the number of chamber-led college and career learning experiences available to Bowling Green Independent and Warren County high school students, with 8,900 offered in the past year, the release says.

Each year, the release says the Kelly Award is given by the KBE to a businessperson or business in Kentucky that has made a partnership between a business and school or district that resulted in improved student outcomes.