The new Prince George’s Community College president said she wants to increase graduation and transfer rates and expand partnerships with business and industry.
Charlene Dukes made the comments during a media briefing after formally meeting with the public on the Largo campus Thursday. “I feel just overwhelmed by the level of confidence that has been placed in me,” said Dukes, who had been PGCC’s vice president for student services since 1995. The college’s board of trustees announced last week that Dukes would replace Ronald Williams, who is joining the College Board testing service as a vice president.
“Being a college president has been a goal and an aspiration,” Dukes said.
Dukes also plans to have a “greater emphasis on professional development” for staff and look at how the college “infuses technology into the work” it does and “how satisfied employers are with [PGCC] students.”
Dukes said she will create a “president’s advisory council” that will include students and PGCC employees and a “community advisory committee” composed of people from outside the college. The board chose Dukes over Calvin Woodland, president of Capital Community College in Hartford, Conn. A third finalist, Edna Baehre, president of Harrisburg Area Community College in Harrisburg, Pa., withdrew her candidacy before on-campus interviews.
“The most important thing to us was to find the most capable individual we could find regardless of where they came from,” said John Steinecke, chairman of the board of trustees.
Steinecke chaired the search committee, which received approximately 30 resumes from around the country, and interviewed nine candidates before narrowing the field to three. Before joining PGCC, Dukes served as dean of students at the Community College of Allegheny County, Allegheny campus, for two years. She has a doctorate in administrative and policy studies from the University of Pittsburgh. Dukes will officially begin her presidency on July 1.
