MORNING NEWSBREAK | Trident Technical College on Tuesday named Vicky Wood as its sixth president. She will succeed longtime President Mary Thornley, who is retiring in June after 50 years of service at the college.
“In accepting the presidency of Trident Technical College, I am honored for this opportunity to lead this highly valued, high-impact institution into the future,” Wood said in a statement. “I look forward to working with the Area Commission, TTC Foundation, and the college’s dedicated faculty and staff to increase student success, expand economic growth and prosperity, and advance Trident’s legacy of excellence.”
Wood has served as president of Washington State College in Marietta, Ohio, for the past seven years. She successfully lobbied to allow community colleges in Ohio to offer a bachelor’s degree, raised millions of dollars for facility and technology upgrades, and served on area economic development boards.
Thornley will step down June 1, as outlined in a City Paper story earlier this year in which local leaders praised her for saving the Charleston area’s culinary industry after the departure of Johnson & Wales University in 2002.
The college received more than 70 applications for TTC’s top position via a national search. A committee selected eight semifinalists and narrowed that list to four before selecting Wood, according to reports.
Under Thornley’s leadership, Trident Tech became the third-largest college among all of South Carolina’s two- and four-year schools in terms of undergraduate enrollment, reaching more than 14,000 last fall. It also grew from three campuses in 1991 to five campuses and two training sites today across the three-county area.
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