After 10 years with Spokane Colleges, two serving as Chancellor, Kevin Brockbank faces challenges following his diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease.
Brockbank was diagnosed with Parkinson’s on Dec. 1, 2021. While remaining hopeful, the looming debilitating symptoms of the condition have led Brockbank to come to terms with the limited time he has left to accomplish his goals.
During his time with Spokane Colleges, specifically as Chancellor, Brockbank hopes he can be remembered as a leader through some of the college’s most difficult times. He talked about persevering through the COVID-19 pandemic and the college’s website renovations.
He said he hopes that even through the current national funding and budget cuts, he can serve as a leader to his staff, students, and community.
Dr. Alisha Epps is a professor with Whitworth University’s neuroscience department.
“Parkinson’s disease is predominantly known as a movement disorder, but it does include a number of symptoms beyond that,” Epps said. “Parkinson’s is often described as putting your motions in park, in the sense that somebody knows the movement they want to make, but the messages to the brain to the muscles just aren’t cooperating for them to make the action.”
Brockbank talked about the initial impact the diagnosis had on him and its emotional toll.
“Most of my life I identified myself with some sort of physical activity,” Brockbank said. “I was a skier, whitewater kayaker, and raft guide. Learning I had a disease that would ultimately take away my mobility was crushing.”
He goes on to discuss his process in coming to terms with the disease.
“There’s hardly a thing that happens in this world that you can’t pick the silver lining out of and I did that,” Brockbank said.
He extended discussions about having a visibly progressing disease as a public figure.
“I was president of Spokane Community College at the time, and I announced it five days later in a video to the campus,” he said. “I did that mostly because it’s a disease that becomes public and I didn’t want people making guesses.”
Brockbank said his decision to be public and open about the disease was also meant to be an example to those facing their own struggles.
“At the time I was diagnosed I knew we had some employees at Spokane Community College going through far greater medical challenges than I was,” Brockbank said. “Every single person who walks through our doors every day, whether it’s a student or employee or visitor has a thing,”
Brockbank said that even with his current setbacks he still feels fortunate.
“People will ask me, ‘how are you doing?’,” he said. “It’s like, look, I’m better than 80 percent of the people in this room.”
Brockbank’s sentiment of determination and finding a positive outlook in hardships are mirrored in his advice. Referencing his life’s journey, he talked about the unexpected turns it has taken.
“Don’t make a plan so rigid that it doesn’t give you opportunities to explore,” Brockbank said. “I was 40-something when I said I wanted to be a college president.
“I think in society today we have this idea that when you’re looking at social media you’re looking at a bunch of other perfect lives and yours is not perfect. That’s categorically untrue. Nobody has (a perfect) life. Nobody.”
For any questions or comments on this story, please contact Eli Kinder or Alex Cover at sfcc.eli.kinder@gmail.com and sfcc.alexander.cover@gmail.com.
