Virginia Western Community College president named

Laura Treanor will be the fifth president of Roanoke‘s Virginia Western Community College, succeeding Robert Sandel, the school’s leader since 2001.

Treanor, who earned a doctorate in education at Virginia Tech, was selected from 61 candidates, according to a Tuesday afternoon announcement from the Virginia Community College System. She will assume the role on July 1.

Currently, Treanor works as provost, senior vice president for instructional services and dean of faculty at Vincennes University in Indiana. She’s worked there since 2018.

At Baker College in Michigan, Treanor held several roles, including system associate vice president for institutional effectiveness.

“Dr. Treanor is an experienced educational leader well-equipped to take the college to new heights in regional workforce development through academic, training and credentialing excellence,” Todd Putney, chair of the local advisory board for Virginia Western Community College, said in a statement.

In March, two finalists in addition to Treanor were named for the position: Daryl L. Minus, vice president of enrollment management and student success at Southside Virginia Community College, and Jamonica Rolle, college provost and senior vice president of academic affairs and college operations at Broward College in Florida.

In Tuesday’s announcement, David Doré, chancellor of the Virginia Community College System, referenced the significant impact Sandel had at VWCC.

“Succeeding Dr. Robert Sandel, who has led Virginia Western for more than two decades of transformative service, Dr. Treanor will have a hard act to follow,” he said in a statement, “but I am confident that she will build on VWCC’s outstanding history of serving its communities and its diverse student populations.”

Sandel previously served as president of Mountain Empire Community College in Big Stone Gap. Earlier this month, he received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Roanoke College. The citation for the honor called him an innovator and said, “Sandel has transformed higher education in the region, expanding access, promoting workforce and economic development, fostering community engagement and establishing regional partnerships.”