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Southwestern Michigan College CEO/President Dr. Klint Pleasant shared with the Greater Niles Chamber of Commerce “Lunch and Learn” Oct. 14 the “bright sadness” in his personal story that fortifies his leadership.

When he was 29 with a 3-month-old daughter, he almost lost his 26-year-old wife, Rachel, to a golf-ball-sized brain tumor.

That baby, Abbey, just graduated from Pepperdine University in Malibu, interned with Congressman John Moolenaar and is headed to law school. Their younger daughter, Julia, is a high school junior.

“Adversity has been my greatest teacher and shaped me as a leader,” Pleasant said. “I call it the bright sadness because I did not want this to happen, but at the same time there has been blessing out of it. There are two types of people — those who have dealt with adversity and those who are going to.

“Hard times can actually shape us and teach us. For example, to be courageous, you must first be scared. I aspire to be patient, but you can’t hone that skill until you’re put in a position that calls for it. Or another virtue, steadfastness. You first have to go through situations that are hard. So the very virtues that we aspire to are only possible because we first navigate adversity.”

“As a leader, adversity can become a blessing because it gives you an opportunity to learn things we say we want. It’s changed my default setting to be a little more gracious and patient,” Pleasant said.

Pleasant, a veteran of 29 years in higher education, became SMC’s ninth president in April. He lives six minutes from the Niles campus after buying a home in Cass County.

“I love higher ed because every single day you have an opportunity to impact young lives,” Pleasant told an audience that included Lake Michigan College President Dr. Ken Flowers and Niles Mayor Nick Shelton. “It’s the coolest job in the world.”

A middle child with an older sister and a younger brother, Pleasant attended Waterford Kettering High School in Waterford.

He played football for Abilene Christian University in Texas “with some of the original ‘Friday Night Lights’ guys the book was written about.”

Pleasant’s coaching career, which also shaped his leadership style, started at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn., serving as a basketball student assistant after transferring from Abilene, graduating in 1998.

After positions at Wayne State University in Detroit and the University of Tennessee-Martin, Pleasant found great success as an assistant with Kent State University’s Golden Flashes in Ohio.

“We went all the way to the NCAA Division I Elite Eight. We beat Oklahoma State in the first round, Alabama in the second and Pittsburgh in the third, losing to Indiana for the Final Four.

“Two players went on to the NBA. Another player on that team ended up going to the NFL. Last year (Antonio Gates, 16-year tight end for the San Diego/Los Angeles Chargers) was inducted into the Hall of Fame.”

When Pleasant returned to Michigan to raise his family, he served as senior vice president and men’s head basketball coach at Rochester Christian University.

His responsibilities combined institutional leadership with collegiate athletics, providing experience in both administration and student development.

During his coaching career, Pleasant led Rochester Christian to two national championships and was inducted into the Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan Hall of Fame in 2025, joining his father, Garth Pleasant, who was enshrined in 2008.

Pleasant completed his master’s degree in education in 1999 while coaching at UT-Martin and his doctorate from Lipscomb in 2019.