Reading, PA – October 9, 2018, Reading Area Community College inaugurated Dr. Susan D. Looney as its sixth president during a 90-minute installation ceremony in the Miller Center for the Arts on the RACC campus. A reception was held immediately afterward in Schmidt Training and Technology Center, also on the RACC campus.
“Today is a historic day for Reading Area Community College,” says Guido Pichini, Chair, RACC Board of Trustees. “Last October as our search committee embarked on a journey to identify our next president, we sought a leader with a passion for student success and an administrator who champions the role of the college in serving our communities,” he continues. “We are thrilled to have found those qualities in Dr. Looney.”
Although the RACC search committee conducted a nationwide search to replace longtime president Dr. Anna D. Weitz, who retired in June, 2018, the committee members didn’t have to look farther that Dr. Looney. She came to RACC in 2014 as the dean of instruction and was promoted to senior vice president of academic affairs/provost in 2015.
Although Dr. Looney assumed the role of president on July 1, 2018, the inauguration ceremony officially installed the president on Monday.
“I’m a proud product of a community college,” Looney said. “I understand personally the needs of our students and our community. From early on in my educational career, I knew I wanted to work in a community college because of its mission. The mission of access, opportunity, excellence and hope, which is so important to what we do.”
“I feel so fortunate I get to do something I love every day and have a small impact in making someone’s life better,” she says.
Monday’s installation was the capstone of a week-long inaugural celebration on and around the RACC campus. RACC faculty and staff incorporated World Smile Day activities during the week of October first, ending with a two-mile Family Fun Run on Saturday morning to support student scholarships through the Foundation for RACC. Also on Saturday was a special presentation of Catapult Shadow Dance Show at the Miller Center for the Arts. Sunday followed with a reception at the Berkshire Country Club Ballroom.
In her twenty years as a full-time community college educator, eight as a faculty member and twelve years as a senior administrator, Dr. Looney has worked in diverse roles including: Assistant to the Campus Director and Director of Corporate and Community Programs at Delaware Technical Community College; Interim Assistant Vice President of Academic Affairs, Arts and Sciences at Colorado Mountain College.
After completing her AA at Brookdale Community College, Dr. Looney went on to earn her BS and MBA in business administration from Monmouth University, JD from Widener University School of Law, and ultimately an Ed.D. in higher education leadership from Nova Southeastern University.
Dr. Looney resides in Wyomissing, and enjoys beginning her day with early morning strength workout at Etchfit in West Reading.
