The name of Kennebec Valley Community College’s new president is scheduled to be released Wednesday.

Three finalists were identified during a national search, the third undertaken by the Maine Community College System in an effort to find a successor for Barbara Woodlee, who has held the position for 28 years.

Woodlee first announced plans to retire in 2010, but two searches failed to find a successor, prompting her to delay her retirement.

John Fitzsimmons, president of the Maine Community College System, will make a recommendation to the board of trustees at its regularly scheduled meeting in Presque Isle.

The finalists were announced in October.

Charles Collins, of Portland, is a Thomas College graduate and state director of the community college system’s Early College for ME program. The program helps to transition high school students to college through scholarships, advising and early college courses.

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Richard Hopper, of Westport Island, is a senior education specialist for the World Bank, an international organization dedicated to combating global poverty.

William A. Nevious, of Derry, N.H., was president of Chester College of New England, a Chester, N.H., liberal arts college that closed in May.

Woodlee’s most recent accomplishment as president has been a dramatic campus expansion that began early this year, when the college purchased 700 acres from Good Will-Hinckley on U.S. Route 201. Good Will-Hinckley, a residential school founded in 1889, closed in 2009 for financial reasons. It opened the Maine Academy of Natural Sciences in September 2011.

Matt Hongoltz-Hetling — 861-9287
mhhetling@centralmaine.com


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