Virginia Community College System has a new chancellor, despite the request of Gov. Glenn Youngkin for the board to appoint an interim and restart the hiring process.
Russell A. Kavalhuna, current president of Henry Ford College.
Russell A. Kavalhuna, the current president of Henry Ford College in Dearborn, Michigan, will take over the role from Dr. Glenn Dubois, who will retire at the end of June.
Youngkin raised concerns that the board had not been transparent in its hiring process and was neglecting the workforce needs of the Virginia, where the pandemic reduced the number of available jobs in the state by 200,000. An additional 300,000 jobs remain unfilled, and Virginia is ranked 43 in job recovery nationally.
Youngkin said that the board failed to include a member of his office in the hiring process and demanded that at least one business leader be admitted onto the hiring committee.
The board named Kavalhuna the new chancellor anyway. Representatives said they did not need to restart the hiring process because they had addressed and met all of Youngkin’s concerns.
