DANVERS — North Shore Community College president Patricia A. Gentile has announced her retirement.
Gentile, who has served as president for seven years, will step down next July 6, according to a news release Wednesday.
“I have been honored to serve as president of North Shore Community College,” Gentile said. “Every day has been inspiring because I have served with very dedicated and passionate professionals who are deeply committed to the mission of the college.
“The work that we do together has been at times difficult because of the external trends impacting our sector,” she said. “Yet I am so grateful for the creativity, determination, good humor, and adaptability of the Trustees, faculty, staff and students that has positioned this college to remain an award-winning, student-centered institution and in a strong place to weather the challenges to come.”
Gentile added that when she arrived at North Shore, she vowed to do the best she could, and “like the lifelong Girl Scout I am, leave this organization in a better place than when I came. I believe I’ve accomplished that pledge and now that the college is entering into its next five-year strategic planning process, it is the right time to invite new leadership to take NSCC to its next level of academic success.”
As required by the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education, the Trustees of the NSCC Board will lead a national search to find the college’s fifth president with the hope of identifying a finalist by the fall 2020 semester, the release stated.
“During Dr. Gentile’s administration the college has been honored for its excellent leadership among public community colleges in the nation, having been selected in 2016 as 23rd in the nation serving adult learners by Washington Monthly Magazine, then rising to 13th in the nation and tops in the Commonwealth in 2019,” said Board of Trustees Chair Dr. J.D. LaRock. “Thanks to her leadership, NSCC is viewed as a strong, excellent and responsive college to the public it serves on the North Shore. This reputation will be an important asset as we continue to meet the challenges ahead.”
Dr. Gentile, who is currently serving as Chair of the Massachusetts Community Colleges President’s Council, oversaw the opening of a modern new wing on the Lynn campus, and the addition of a Lynn Veterans’ Center, a community Greenhouse and location of the MASSHire One Stop Career Center on the Lynn campus serving more than a thousand people annually, nearly 25 percent of whom are North Shore Community students.
She helped guide the school through periods of declining enrollment, coupled with decreased state funding, while maintaining staffing and budget reserves and attracting philanthropic and grant funding to the college, including the largest individual philanthropic gift to the college for its health care programs.
Major community partnerships thrived under the President, including her CommUniverCity at Lynn, early college programming to cut time and cost for a college credential for lower income, first generation students; shared services with Salem State University which offers residential housing options for NSCC students; a new Year Up partnership, and supports for students to address transportation, food and housing insecurity.
“Dr. Gentile has left us well positioned to develop a new strategic vision under the next president and continue into the future as a strong educational force in the Commonwealth.,” Dr. LaRock said.
While Dr. Gentile intends to return to New Jersey upon retirement, she noted, “My heart will remain in Danvers, Lynn, and Middleton.”
