Ms. Ina “Cookie” Hays has received the Missouri Community College Association’s Senior Service Award at the association’s forty-eighth annual convention in Kansas City. The award was presented in recognition of Ms. Hays’s service to East Central College and to the mission of community colleges throughout the state.

Ms. Hays has been at East Central since 1971, when she was a student at what used to be called East Central Junior College. After she received her associate degree from the college in 1973, she started working as a secretary in the media services department. She was quickly promoted and ultimately became an academic advisor, then the director of counseling and career services. For the past 11 years, she has been the college’s chief student affairs officer.

The Missouri Community College Association is a statewide organization through which Missouri’s community colleges work together to advance common agendas. MCCA provides advocacy, education, information, and networking opportunities in service of the state’s 5,700 community college faculty, staff, administrators, and trustees.