Community Support Organizations

KILLEEN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
KEDC is a nine member board appointed by the Killeen City Council, the Killeen Industrial Foundation and the Greater Killeen Chamber of Commerce. It is a non-profit organization whose purpose is to act on behalf of the City of Killeen to develop retail, commercial and industrial enterprises to provide employment opportunities and build the tax base of the community. KEDC receives an annual appropriation from the City of Killeen General Fund to support its activities. KEDC owns and operates the Killeen Business Park and is actively working on the acquisition and development of a new business park.

GREATER KILLEEN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
The Greater Killeen Chamber of Commerce is a non-profit organization whose membership consists of approximately 1300 businesses in the Fort Hood Region.  GKCC provides economic development services to the community under a contract with the City of Killeen. In addition, the professional staff at GKCC serves as the staff for the Killeen Economic Development Corporation.

HEART OF TEXAS DEFENSE ALLIANCE
HOTDA is a regional non-profit organization funded by economic development organizations and political subdivisions in the three county region surrounding Fort Hood. The principal funder is the Killeen Economic Development Corporation. The Executive Director is COL (Ret) Bill Parry, former Garrison Commander at Fort Hood.

HOTDA’s purpose is to:
• Serve as the community’s portal into Fort Hood;
• Recognize and respond to opportunities to maintain an authorized strength of 50,000 Soldiers at Fort Hood;
• Diversify and add to the mission at Fort Hood;
• Strengthen the “One Voice” approach to speak for and about Fort Hood and Central Texas; and,
• Formalize the local and national information collection process regarding future plans for Fort Hood.

CENTRAL TEXAS WORKFORCE SOLUTIONS
CTWS provides programs and services designed to place Texans in jobs for which they are qualified and to equip them with additional skills with which they can meet the growing needs of their employer. They provide quality education, training and labor market services to give Texas employers a competitive advantage. CTWC is governed by a local board consisting of representatives of local businesses, education and community-based organizations.

TEXAS A&M – CENTRAL TEXAS
The Killeen – Temple – Fort Hood MSA has a population of approximately 390,000. It is a more diverse, young and better educated population than the state average. It also has the largest population in the state without access to public, higher education. For that reason, Texas A&M – Central Texas is being built.

In addition to meeting academic demand, TAMU-CT will serve as a portal to the professional schools at the main campus in College Station. In that capacity, TAMU-CT can incubate two emerging technologies locally.
• Defense. Coupling the university with approximately 250 defense contractors operating in the region, the Operational Test Command, the Central Support Facility creates a powerful opportunity to practice research and development and, then, commercialization in the area.
• Bioscience & Medical. Coupling the university with Darnal Army Medical Center, the Texas Bioscience Institute, Scott and White Hospital, the Texas A&M Medical School and the Veterans Administration creates a powerful opportunity to practice research and development, especially in areas of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury.

CENTRAL TEXAS COLLEGE
Opened in 1967, CTC is a public, open-admission community college offering associate degrees and certificate programs in academic, professional and vocational/technical fields. With its main campus in Killeen, TX and over 100 other locations around the world, CTC serves over 50,000 students on military installations, in correctional facilities, in embassies and on ships at sea.
A leader in implementing instructional technology, CTC first began to offer broadcast telecourses to the citizens of Central Texas in 1970. College credit classes were first delivered by video conference in 1994. CTC taught its first online course in 1998. Entire associate degrees were available online for the first time in the spring of 2001.

OPERATIONAL TEST COMMAND
OTC is part of the Army Test and Evaluation Command. OTC is the Army’s only independent operations test organization. It plans, conducts, and reports operational tests, assessments, and experiments in order to provide essential information for the acquisition and fielding of war fighting systems.

The Operational Test Command is located on West Fort Hood in a secure location adjacent to Gray Army Airfield. Its work is done at Fort Hood and in deployment in theater and other Army installations.

CENTRAL TECHNICAL SUPPORT FACILITY
CTSF was organized at Fort Hood in 1996. CTSF was originally designed to provide a location for rapid integration, testing, and deployment of the Army Battle Command System (ABCS), which digitizes the Army’s battle command and control capability. CTSF’s mission has expanded to integrate and test more than 200 net-centric systems. This number is expected to grow as more and more Army systems become network enabled.

CTSF is populated by approximately 1,000 military, civilian, university and defense contracting employees on a campus covering more than 264,000 square feet. The CTSF test environment’s flexibility and scalability is not available anywhere else in the world.

CTSF is located in a secure area in the center of the main post. CTSF recently unveiled plans and funding to build a new campus on West Fort Hood in proximity to the new Texas A&M University campus.