Connecticut’s Board of Regents has appointed new campus chief executive officers to oversee day-to-day operations at five state community colleges.
Officials with Connecticut State Colleges and Universities said they conducted a national search to fill the roles. Four of the five appointees currently serve as interim chief executive officers at the colleges where they will now be permanent CEOs.
Michelle Coach serves as interim campus chief executive at Asnuntuck Community College in Enfield, and will take on the permanent CEO role there. Coach previously worked as interim dean of academic affairs at Asnuntuck and during her tenure as a faculty member chaired the natural, behavioral, and social sciences department there.
Darryl Reome will go from interim to permanent campus CEO at Tunxis Community College in Farmington. Reome formerly held the roles of director of admissions at Middlesex Community College in Middletown and associate dean of student affairs and enrollment management at Northwestern Connecticut Community College in Winsted.
Lisa Dresdner has been selected to lead day-to-day operations at Naugatuck Valley Community College in Waterbury and Danbury. Dresdner currently holds the interim CEO role at Naugatuck. She worked as an English professor at Norwalk Community College starting in 2000 and joined the Naugatuck staff in 2015 as associate dean of liberal arts and behavioral and social sciences.
Cheryl DeVonish will become campus chief executive at Norwalk Community College, where she has been interim campus CEO since 2019. DeVonish previously served as chief operating officer at Norwalk, which included the portfolio of dean of admissions and director of human services.
Karen Hynick is the only appointee new to the CSCU system. She has served as vice president of academic affairs at North Shore Community College in Danvers, Massachusetts, since 2014 and will now join the administration at Quinebaug Valley Community College in Danielson.
The five are expected to start their new jobs on June 4.
All campus CEOs have an annualized salary of $155,250, officials said.
The Board of Regents is in the process of reorganizing Connecticut’s 12 independent community colleges into a single accredited institution, to be known as Connecticut State Community College, by 2023.
CSCU Interim President Jane Gates said the leadership of the new campus chief executives will be critical to the consolidation effort.
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