After a nationwide presidential search, Prince George’s Community College’s board of trustees settled on a familiar face.
On Thursday, the board announced that Charlene Dukes, vice president for student services at Prince George’s Community College since 1995, will become the school’s new president.
Dukes replaces Ronald Williams, who is joining the College Board testing service as a vice president. He had been college president since 1999. The board chose Dukes over Calvin Woodland, president of Capital Community College in Hartford, Conn.
“I would say from a qualifications standpoint they are extremely similar,” John Steinecke, chairman of the board, said before the announcement. “They are both very different personalities and the hard thing in picking one is that you had to walk away from all the good things about the other.”
Steinecke said Dukes has “very strong professional credentials, very good local knowledge, very good knowledge of the institution and very strong professional maturity.”
He called Woodland a “very wise man” with “very strong judgment,” who is “very professional” and “very thoughtful.”
Before joining Prince George’s Community College, 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.
Woodland, a Charles County native, was vice president for Student Services at Bergen Community College in New Jersey for seven years before becoming Capital Community College president in 2005.
“I was honored to be considered for the position,” Woodland told The Examiner. “Of course I’m disappointed. But that’s the way it goes in this business. The board decides what they think is in the best interests of the institution.”
According to Steinecke, a search advisory committee received approximately 30 resumes and interviewed about nine candidates before narrowing the pool to three.
Edna Baehre, president of Harrisburg Area Community College in Harrisburg, Pa., withdrew her candidacy before on-campus interviews last week. Steinecke, who chaired the search advisory committee, said the search lasted about five months.
