In 1991, Bumphus became the fourth president of Brookhaven College, one of seven colleges of the Dallas County Community College District (Texas), the state’s largest higher education institution. There, he oversaw the construction of a state-of-the-art, 150,000-square-foot student services center. He was elected to the Board of Directors of the American Association of Community Colleges in 1993 and became board chair in 1996. He also worked in the private sector of education as the president of the Higher Education Division of Voyager Expanded Learning.