2026 Virginia C-Suite Awards: TOWUANNA PORTER BRANNON

When Brannon took the helm of Virginia Peninsula Community College on Jan. 1, 2021, she stepped into a pandemic-era campus facing steep enrollment losses, a $1.7 million operating deficit and ongoing workforce cuts. Drawing on decades in higher education work experience — including stints at the New York Institute of Technology and North Carolina’s Mitchell Community College — she moved quickly to reorganize operations and restore fiscal discipline.

Between fiscal years 2022 and 2024, total revenue grew by $5.8 million, and operating expenditures fell by $5.7 million, producing an $11 million swing in bottom-line performance. Enrollment also reversed course, and VPCC posted two consecutive years of growth across both credit and skilled trades programs.

The physical campus is being reinvented as well. VPCC has opened two new skilled trades centers in Toano and Newport News since 2023, launched a Center for Excellence in Early Childhood Development and reopened its rededicated Dr. Mary T. Christian Theatre. Meanwhile, the college has demolished its three original buildings to make way for a new instructional and student support center. A Fordham University doctorate holder, Brannon also co-leads Hampton Roads’ delegation to the United Kingdom, a group focused on international workforce and economic partnership development.

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