By Kathryn Reed

A familiar face has been hired to replace Susan Middleton, who after 24 years is retiring this summer as vice president of Academic Affairs and Student Services at Lake Tahoe Community College.

Tom Greene was once a counselor at the South Lake Tahoe two-year institution. He is currently associate vice president of Enrollment and Student Services at Sacramento City College.

Tom Greene

LTCC’s board, with Molly Blann absent, voted 4-0 Tuesday night to hire Greene. Ironically, Greene doesn’t know if he will be reporting to President Paul Killpatrick. Killpatrick was gone May 11 to interview for a job out of state. It was Middleton who sat in the president’s seat this particular night.

Greene did not attend the meeting.

Not only is Greene familiar with the campus, but also he is intimately knowledgeable about the faculty. He and English instructor Suzanne Roberts are engaged to be married this summer. An exact start date has not been set. He will be making more than $100,000.

Middleton will leave later in the summer, with the hopes of being able to train Greene before turning in her keys.

“The first thing I want to do is enjoy Tahoe,” Middleton said of her plans for retirement.

She started at LTCC as a counselor with the college when it was based out of a hotel on Highway 50. She was promoted to dean of Student Services. With Lori Gaskin leaving her post a year ago, the job of Student Services and Academic Affairs was blended into one position – the one Middleton has had this school year.

Moving to the campus off Al Tahoe Boulevard, watching it grow, seeing ideas become a reality like the Spanish Institute and the fire academy are the memories she will take with her.

It’s listening to students return to campus to praise their education at LTCC and talk about what they are doing now that Middleton will miss.

“I will miss the people without a doubt and the students,” Middleton said. “It will be hard to adjust to.”

Board members had praise for Middleton and her successor.

In closed session Tuesday the board deliberated over two finalists.

“He is a jewel,” board President Kerry David said of Greene after the meeting. “We are most fortunate to get him.”

Before Greene’s first stint at LTCC he was a TRIO counselor at Vermillion Community College in Ely, Minn. He left LTCC in 2003 to earn his doctorate from the University of Texas, Austin. He also has a master’s in education with an emphasis in counseling and a bachelor’s in finance.

He was the special assistant to the president at Valencia Community College in Orlando before taking the job in Sacramento. In Sacramento, he oversees a staff of more than 200 with an operational budget in excess of $10 million.

“The board and the committee believe he was the No. 1 candidate,” David said. Ten people were interviewed for the job.