Dr. Kaycee Bills, who has autism, fought hard for her PhD against the voices of her disbelievers. Now, armed with her doctorate and a brand-new assistant professorship, she has become a voice of encouragement for those like her.
Her journey began when she first sent her college application even after she was told not to.
Bills earned a bachelor’s degree in social work from the University of Saint Francis, choosing the subject because she wanted to become an advocate for those with disabilities.
In 2014, she left home and flew over 4,000 miles to Hawaiʻi Pacific University to pursue a master’s degree in social work.
Bills’s professors soon realized her potential as a research assistant at the Hawaiʻi Pacific University. For the first time in her life, a PhD seemed possible. “I was told that I was intelligent and good at academic work,” she recalled. “I was told that I should apply for PhD programs, so I did.”
However, Bills was rejected from a number of PhD programs before finding the perfect fit in 2016. The University of Tennessee (UT) in Knoxville offered Bills a full scholarship.
Bills, who calls herself an “accidental academic,” joked that she sees the irony in a once-timid student who was scared to sit in big classrooms now leading college classes of her own. But her goal overrides her fear.
Bills believes that schools should never discourage students from achieving what they really want to.
“No student should ever be told that something is out of reach for them,” she affirmed.