Kevin Culler sets a plan for an active retirement

HFC Executive Director of Financial Services and Financial Aid Kevin Culler has announced that he will retire from the College on Tuesday, December 31, after 21½ years of service.

“I have been planning to retire during the 2024-25 fiscal year for quite some time now,” explained Culler. “While I had been targeting June 30, 2025 as my retirement date, I decided to move that date up to New Year’s Eve, following a very relaxing, two-week European vacation at the end of October. I have a long list of things I want to do, that I rarely have time to consider. I want to start pursuing those other interests while I am still ‘relatively young’ and physically able, so now is a great time to start that next stage in my life.”

Culler and his wife, Dr. Valerie Culler, plan to travel.

“Travel is No. 1 on my retirement list,” he said. “I am also interested in having time to develop a more robust exercise schedule, including lap swimming, walking, biking, tennis, pickleball, and possibly golf. Beyond that, I am looking most forward to spending time with my wife doing things locally that interest both of us, such as visiting zoos, local landmarks, theatre, movies, exploring new restaurants, and a host of other things.”

Career dream at age 14

The eldest of two sons, Culler was born in Westland and grew up in Redford. Culler lives with his wife in Dearborn. They have two adult daughters.

Culler graduated from Redford Union High School. An alumnus of Eastern Michigan University, he earned his bachelor’s degree in accounting with a minor in business computer systems. He earned his MBA with a concentration in taxation from Wayne State University. Culler is also a Certified Public Accountant (CPA).

“I fell in love with accounting when I was 14, after I took my first high school accounting class, and I never looked back,” he said. “Both of my parents and both of my maternal grandparents were K-12 teachers, so education was something I was aware of from a young age. At EMU, I worked as a resident advisor, a campus tour guide, and I was on student government, so I started learning about college administration at that time.”

Culler has worked in accounting for more than 38 years. He held accounting positions at the La-Z-Boy corporate headquarters in Monroe and at Guardian Industries in Carleton.

Culler began his career in higher education at Wayne State on June 30, 1988. For 15 years, he worked in Wayne State’s Financial Aid Office. He served as Interim Director of Financial Aid at Wayne State for four years.

“I knew the Director of Admissions at Wayne State and asked him in 1988 if they had any job openings for people with accounting and computer systems experience,” recalled Culler. “He let me know that Wayne State’s Financial Aid Office had 10 years of open federal audit citations, and that they were getting ready to install a new financial aid system. I was hired within the week.”

Finance -- and lots of interim roles along the way

Culler was hired at HFC (then Henry Ford Community College) on June 17, 2003. Initially, he was the Financial Aid Director before also assuming leadership over Student Accounts in early 2012. At the start of the 2014-15 fiscal year, he became the Executive Director of Financial Services and Financial Aid. He assumed leadership over Payroll in May 2020.

While Culler has remained the Financial Aid Director throughout his entire time at HFC, other positions has held at the College include:

• July 2005 to July 2007: Interim Vice President of Student Affairs
• March to September 2008: Interim Director of Admissions, Registration, and Records
• September to October 2011: Acting Vice President of Student Affairs
• February 2012 to September 2013: Director of Enrollment Services
• January to June 2018: Acting Vice President of Financial Services

“Currently, I oversee the Financial Aid Office, the Student Accounts Office, the Payroll Office, and I am also heavily involved with a variety of Financial Services functions,” he said. “The most challenging parts of my job are juggling all of the different hats I wear, working directly with multiple departments, and ever-changing federal and state programs, regulations, reporting, and compliance requirements.”

Culler reports to HFC Vice President of Financial, Facilities, IT, and Auxiliary Services John Satkowski.

“Kevin is a dedicated advocate for HFC who performed exceptionally in developing and putting in place Bad Debt Controls in 2013, which initiated the financial comeback of the College," said Satkowski. "Whenever I needed assistance, Kevin has always been willing to take on that additional duty, whether it was Payroll, Student Billing/Collections, and many others for the betterment of the College. Kevin has been a great colleague and friend during the 11-plus years we have worked together. Enjoy your retirement, Kevin!”

It’s the people, of course

While at Wayne State, Culler was interested in continuing his career at a large university but changed his mind after he learned about HFC.

“HFC’s size, location, and reputation were all key components of my decision to seek employment at the College,” he explained. “While HFC is smaller than Wayne State, it is one of the largest community colleges in Michigan, and it has a great reputation. While exploring other options, having young children (at the time), I was interested in remaining in the Metro Detroit area, and since I had moved to Dearborn in 2001, it wasn’t possible to get much closer to home than HFC.”

Culler will miss his colleagues.

“To me, the people I work with within Financial Services are the best part of working at HFC,” he said. “I have been blessed to have a great, knowledgeable, supportive, and long-serving group of people working with me. They help make the good times even better and the difficult times more manageable.”

Culler continued: “The only thing I would add is that I am grateful for the trust placed in me back in 2003 by then-President Dr. Andrew Mazzara, then-Vice President Dr. J. Michael Meade, and then-Human Resources Director Dr. Sally Barnett, as well as all the support they provided me. I am also extremely grateful for the opportunity I was given in 2013 to work with and get to know John Satkowski, who has been a tremendous advocate, an outstanding boss, and a wonderful friend.”

A retirement celebration for Kevin is being planned, and the date will be announced soon.

Photo: Kevin Culler with colleague Stephanie Latzke, assistant director of financial aid.