Staff & Board

In May 2024, KEDC welcomed Katherine Kirkpatrick as its new Marketing and Business Development Lead.

She is responsible for expanding awareness of Kilgore as an ideal site for manufacturing operations, and also works as a liaison with local businesses to optimize their success.

Kirkpatrick brings extensive corporate marketing experience and a fervor for East Texas economic growth to her role. She attained her Business Retention and Expansion Coordinator certification from Business Retention and Expansion International during her first week.

Prior to joining KEDC, Kirkpatrick served as Vice President of Marketing for Ag Research Management, a Fort Worth-based ag lender with 25 offices in 18 states. While in that position, she received the National Association of Agricultural Marketing’s Best of NAMA Award for Public Relations. She also won regional awards in the categories of advertising and sales collateral. Kirkpatrick was Chief Marketing Officer for New Alternative Green Energy and also held Vice President of Marketing and Public Relations roles for Quadrem and Allegiance Capital. She spent most of her 20+ year career in the Dallas area.

Kirkpatrick recently selected East Texas for her home and can attest to the draw Kilgore and the surrounding areas offer to businesses and residents alike.

She and her husband James raise Missouri Fox Trotting Horses and travel to horse shows as time allows.

Stephanie Moore brings 17 years of experience as an apartment manager to KEDC, where she is responsible for office management and staff support services.

During the last ten years in the apartment industry, she worked with Dial Equities Inc., where her properties consistently won awards for best net operating income and best renewal program, among others. Before her career in the apartment industry, Moore worked in the plastics industry with quality control at Southern Plastics in Kilgore.

She attended Kilgore College and is a graduate of The University of Oklahoma Economic Development Institute and the Texas Economic Development Council's Basic Economic Development Course. She is also a graduate of Leadership Kilgore through the Kilgore Area Chamber of Commerce, and a member of both the Northeast Texas Economic Developers Roundtable and the Texas Economic Development Council.

Alan Pollard is vice president of Satcom Antenna Products for Communications & Power Industries LLC (CPI).

A lifelong resident of East Texas, Pollard attended the University of Texas at Austin, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering. He returned home after graduation in 1998 and started his career with CPI as an RF systems engineer when the company was known in Kilgore as Vertex Communication Corporation. In this role, he was responsible for designing, configuring, testing, and commissioning satellite communication systems for both commercial and military applications.

He later became the manager of technical services and then director of programs for the commercial and government business teams. Pollard served for many years as the site manager for the Kilgore, TX, and Torrance, CA, facilities, as well as the business manager for Antennas and RF Components for ground terminals and space systems.

Throughout his 24-year career, Pollard has traveled all over the world, earning over 2 million actual airline miles. He has led several local Community Investment Programs for CPI and has been involved in partnership projects to improve the retention of high-tech and skilled labor in the East Texas area.

He is the Pastor at Bethany Word of Life Tabernacle in Tyler, and he has spent his entire 22 years in the ministry working to assist communities all over East Texas. Pollard is also a musician and enjoys playing saxophone, bass guitar and drums. He and his wife, Tanya, have been married more than 20 years, and they have four children and four grandchildren.

Pamela DeCeault, a long-term resident of Kilgore, has dedicated her life to volunteerism and the support of philanthropic organizations. She is president of the Roy H. Laird Memorial Hospital Foundation Inc., which was instrumental in establishing Kilgore's state-of-the-art Roy H. Laird Health Science Center. The 75,000-square-foot facility includes the Kilgore College Torrence Health Science Education Center and the CHRISTUS Good Shepard Healthpark-Kilgore hospital, each located adjacent to the CHRISTUS Good Shepherd Emergency Center. It's the first community college teaching facility of its kind. She is a past president of Kilgore Rotary Club, was named Kilgore Citizen of the Year in 2011 and First Lady of Kilgore in 2015. DeCeault served on the Gregg County Appraisal Review Board for six years, three of those as chair.

DeCeault's lifetime of philanthropic and community work bolsters a career in finance. She was an organizing director for Kilgore National Bank in 2000, and served as executive vice president until the bank was sold in 2016. She remained as executive officer of Vera Bank (formerly Citizens National Bank) until her retirement in 2021. In 2008, she was one of two statewide Bankers Who Make a Difference selected by the Independent Bankers Association of Texas.

She attended University of North Texas, holds an Associate's Degree from East Texas Baptist University and graduated, with distinction, from Southern Methodist University's 1991 Graduate School of Banking.

Will Adamson has been the CEO of Sabine Pipe, a leading distributor of tubular goods for the U.S. oil and gas industry, since 2004. Sabine Pipe, a third-generation family business, was founded in Kilgore in 1945 and has thrived in the ever-changing energy industry. 

In addition to his role at Sabine Pipe, Adamson is the managing member of Twenty-Nine Ventures, WTX Development, and AIP, LLC, which manage commercial and residential real estate. He has also served on the Board of Directors of BTH Bank from 2008 to 2022 and was a trustee for the Pine Tree ISD School Board for three years.

Adamson is a 1990 graduate of Baylor University, where he received a BBA in business. 

He and his wife Ann reside on Lake Cherokee. They have two adult children, Andrew 28 and Caroline 25. 

Tommy Vaughan serves as director of manufacturing for Revolution Sustainable Solutions, LLC, overseeing operations in both Kilgore, Texas, and Vernon, California. A results-driven leader with more than two decades at the company, he is known for strengthening organizations through process improvements, cost reduction, and team development while advancing a culture of safety, quality, and productivity.

Since joining the company in 2002, which was then Pak-Sher, Vaughan has held key roles including director of manufacturing, plant manager, and purchasing/quality manager. In these positions, he managed multi-department operations, directed P&L performance, implemented KPIs and standardized processes, and led high-performance teams across extrusion, printing, converting, maintenance, supply chain, and scheduling. His hands-on leadership and commitment to continuous improvement have made a lasting impact on both facilities.

Before his tenure in Kilgore, Vaughan worked for International Paper in Kentucky as operations manager, where he oversaw daily plant operations, budgeting, regulatory compliance, supply chain performance, and customer service.

Vaughan is a graduate of Texas A&M University–Commerce, where he earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in Operations Management.

Tyler Esters oversees operations at Closure Systems International’s Kilgore facility, where he’s built a reputation for production excellence, innovation, efficiency, and workforce development at the global packaging manufacturer. 

Having risen through the ranks while advancing his education, Esters exemplifies the spirit of success in East Texas. Over the past five years, he has held various positions in maintenance, engineering, and production management at CSI before becoming the plant manager. He holds a Master of Engineering in Technical Management from Texas A&M University, a bachelor's degree in Business Occupations from the University of Texas at Tyler, and an Associate of Applied Science in Power Plant Technology from Tyler Junior College. He also earned a technical certificate in Industrial Electronics and PLC from the Cleveland Institute of Electronics.

Esters and his wife, Cortland, have two children, Rayde and Copeland.