Community colleges accomplish much on shoestring budgets
A flat tire can mean different things to different people. Maybe it’s a postponed appointment and a call to AAA. Or maybe you have to get a ride to work from your spouse. But for some folks, a flat tire can start a snowball effect. “For so many, that flat tire, that’s the end, right? It […]
Brightpoint promotes Fiege to president
William “Bill” Fiege will be the eighth president of Brightpoint Community College, the Virginia Community College System announced Monday. Fiege will begin his new role on Jan. 2, 2024. Van Wilson has led Brightpoint as interim president since February 2023, after former President Ted Raspiller stepped down from the role to take a job with […]
VCCS senior vice chancellor to retire
Sharon Morrissey, Virginia Community College System’s senior vice chancellor for academic and workforce programs, will retire at the end of 2023, VCCS announced Monday. Morrissey joined VCCS in 2014. She held leadership roles for multiple initiatives, including eliminating placement testing, providing expanded credit for prior learning for military veterans and creating the system’s Opportunit[...]
Education 2023: DAVID DORÉ
A newcomer to Virginia, Doré arrived in April as the Virginia Community College System’s new chancellor. It was quite the jump in scale from Doré’s previous role as president of campuses and executive vice chancellor for student experience and workforce development at Tucson, Arizona-based Pima Community College, which serves about 30,000 students. At VCCS, he […]
Top of the class
In April, David Doré started his new job as Virginia Community College System chancellor, stepping into the shoes of the retired Glenn DuBois, who held the position for 21 years. A Pennsylvania native who once considered becoming a Jesuit priest, Doré is a former high school teacher who once took his students to meet PBS […]
Money machine
In 2009, Donald Hart found himself in an enviable position. Leading up to his graduation from Ocean Lakes High School in Virginia Beach, Hart had been accepted to a slew of the state’s public, four-year universities: Virginia Tech, the University of Virginia, Old Dominion University, George Mason University and James Madison University. Attracted by the […]
Lynchburg transformer manufacturer to add 149 jobs
Industrial power equipment manufacturer Delta Star Inc. will invest $30.2 million to expand its manufacturing operation and headquarters in Lynchburg, creating an estimated 149 jobs, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Wednesday. The company will add 80,000 square feet of mobile power transformer manufacturing space to its 300,000-square-foot facility located at 3550 Mayflower Drive and will consolidate[...]
Civilian life
Paul Valentine is on a winding career path. After leaving the Army more than a decade ago, he got his commercial driver’s license at Blue Ridge Community College in Weyers Cave. He was taking classes to try to get an engineering degree as well but quit to take full-time work at trucking companies after his […]
Work it out
The Virginia Community College System is experiencing what one top official describes as a “tectonic shift.” Although transfer programs to four-year colleges still account for the largest enrollment demand in community colleges, fewer students are interested in academic programs that can provide transfer credits to a four-year institution, a traditional mission of community colleges. Instead, [...]
VCU, VCCS to receive $3.5M for transfer student program
The Mellon Foundation will award a combined $3.5 million to Virginia Commonwealth University and the Virginia Community College System, VCU announced Tuesday. “We are excited to continue our partnership on the Mellon Pathways Program and build upon the strong history of collaboration between VCU and the Virginia Community College System,” Deborah Noble-Triplett, senior vice provost […]
VFCCE names Ben Davenport chairman
Davenport Energy Inc. Chairman Ben Davenport is the next chairman of The Virginia Foundation for Community College Education, the Richmond-based foundation announced Tuesday. In 2016, Davenport and his wife, Betty, invested $1 million through VFCCE to create a pilot program with four community colleges that provided early childhood programs to 150 early childhood professionals. Those […]
Thomas Nelson Community College renamed Va. Peninsula
Thomas Nelson Community College, based in Hampton and James City County, will soon be called Virginia Peninsula Community College, the Virginia Community College System’s state board voted Thursday. In February, the college’s local advisory board voted unanimously to change the school’s name, bestowed to honor Thomas Nelson Jr., a signer of the Declaration of Independence [&helli[...]