Behind the Billboard: Keela Vincent

Keela Vincent ’94 was driving westbound along Route 22, looked up, and saw herself. Larger than life. Literally. Vincent laughs about her first thought on being a billboard star: “Oh, that’s me, really big. I’m a ‘billboard baddie!’”  

As part of Northampton Community College (NCC)’s recent billboard campaign, Vincent is featured along with other successful NCC alumni. “From Spartan to President and CEO” celebrates Vincent’s impact on her own community through her work with Family Connection of Easton.  

Vincent is President and CEO of Family Connection, an organization that works within the Easton Area School District to support families and help children succeed in school.  

Community is important to Vincent, a lifelong Easton resident and proud graduate of Easton Area High School. As President and CEO, she meets with funders, administrators, other nonprofits, and even politicians to secure support, establish partnerships, and improve systems. Community is also why she stays involved in the day-to-day work, from meeting with a mother struggling to buy her kids sneakers to working the organization’s food pantry. 

Many organizations do similar work to that of Family Connection, but the difference, Vincent says, is that Family Connection is embedded right in the schools.  

For example, when a parent whose son was transitioning from elementary to middle school wanted to discuss that transition with her son’s new principal, she reached out to Vincent for help. An outside organization would have to do some research up front just to find the right person, but Family Connection already has relationships with school administrators. It’s an easy connection to make, like knowing someone in the family. 

“We’re the best kept secret in our area,” says Vincent. “We engage and connect with families to help them navigate systems that, in a lot of instances, are difficult or frustrating for families to navigate alone. That uniquely positions Family Connection to create the—yes, I’m going to use the word twice—connection, to really bring students to school whole and ready to learn.” 

When Easton students see Vincent walking down the hall, they don’t see just another administrator. They see a fellow Red Rover. They also see an example of someone who was just like them and is now dedicated to making Easton better for future generations. 

Vincent is chair of the Lehigh Valley Chamber African American Business Leaders Council, secretary of the board for the Easton Area Neighborhood Center, a member of the board for Community Action Lehigh Valley and the Volunteer Center of the Lehigh Valley, and a member of the Easton Lions Club. 

She was also named to The Morning Call’s inaugural “Lehigh Valley’s Most Influential List,” an honor she initially thought was spam.  

“I was like, ‘this can’t be real,’” Vincent says. “It’s not anything I expected. I know that my presence is meaningful in the work that I do, but to be considered most influential across the Lehigh Valley? There are some amazing people on that list. I feel blessed to be included with such great company, but also to get to do the work that I do and help the community I came from.” 

That community commitment extends to NCC, where Vincent serves as chair of the Alumni Association Board.  

Vincent did well in school and on her SATs but didn’t really have a college plan. When her father sat her down after graduation and told her it was time to either get a full-time job or go to college, Vincent decided to give college a try.  

NCC proved to be a solid training ground. Vincent majored in general studies and discovered she was good at writing—and liked it—which led her to transfer to Temple University to earn a bachelor’s degree in journalism. She later returned to Cedar Crest College to earn an MBA.  

At NCC, she learned to advocate for herself, use all the available college resources like the library (where she studied and worked), and seek out mentors. She connected to campus life through the Black Student Union. 

“We take for granted that NCC is what it is,” says Vincent. “The investment of our community is large compared to other places. If you’ve lived in other places like I have [Vincent’s family moved to Easton from West Virginia], community colleges are so much different, and the experience is nowhere near what ours is here in Northampton County.” 

Spoken like a true community advocate—and billboard baddie.