Fleming Brown to lead SCCC Board of Trustees

PHOTOGRAPHER: Haley Viccaro

The Schenectady County Community College Board of Trustees has a new chairwoman, one who already plays a leading role at another college in the city.

Ann Fleming Brown was named Monday as the new chair for a one-year renewable term. She has served on the board since 2009, and is also the director of admissions at Union College.

“Union has been very supportive of me participating on the board,” Fleming Brown said. “I bring knowledge and experience from my many years at the college, and the two complement each other well.”

The appointment comes a month after former chairwoman Denise Murphy McGraw decided not to serve another term. She led the board for seven years and chose to step down to spend more time at her firm, Hill, Gosdeck & McGraw LLC.

SCCC expanded rapidly under McGraw’s leadership. Fleming Brown said she is looking to build on that momentum.

During McGraw’s time at the college, SCCC spared its theater program, opened a new music building, built student housing, unveiled its City Center location in Schenectady and expanded into downtown Albany.

“We have to keep expanding and growing,” Fleming Brown said. “I want to build on that feeling of excitement about the college felt throughout the community. I meet so many people enriched by the college, so it is more than the sum of its economic impact.”

In addition to a new chairperson, the board also named William Levering as vice chairperson and Renee Bradley as secretary. Those positions are also one-year terms, with another vote slated for June 30.

The board recently welcomed two new members — Alton Brisport, a certified hand therapist and occupational therapist at Albany Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and Levering, a senior pastor at First Reformed Church in Schenectady.

Brisport’s term ends next year while Levering was tapped to serve on the board for nearly six years. Also, Christopher Suzanne, an SCCC student and veteran of the U.S. Army, started his one-year term July 1.

But the college is still left with one more big position to fill — its president.

The Board of Trustees is currently undergoing a national search for a replacement for former SCCC president Quintin Bullock. On Monday, the board passed a resolution to retain the services of Isaacson Miller as the executive search firm to help the college choose its next leader.