Dr. David Doré (left) and VPCC faculty and staff participate in a simulated birth at one stop of the chancellor's visit Monday at the college.
Dr. David Doré, the new chancellor of the Virginia Community College System, continued his tour of those institutions by visiting Virginia Peninsula Community College on Monday morning.
Among his first tasks since taking over April 1 is to visit all 23 institutions he will be overseeing. He hopes to complete the visits by early May. He spent about four hours at VPCC, touring the Hampton campus and meeting with college leaders, students, faculty, staff, stakeholders and community members.
The highlight, by far, was his participation in a simulated birth coordinated by EMT, fire and rescue, and nursing faculty and students.
“That was one of the best experiences ever,” he said after he helped deliver a baby.
The simulation began with EMTs responding to a pregnant woman in distress. After assessing the situation, the EMTs decided to take her to the hospital, in this case a nursing simulation classroom in the Hampton III Building. Doré was there every step of the way and helped deliver the baby. The experience was lifelike for him.
“It was both real physically and emotionally,” he said. “I thought I was going to cry when this baby came out.”
He also toured Workforce Development and the electrical engineering technology classrooms and labs, where he saw student-led demonstrations in welding, CNC machining, cybersecurity and information technology. His visit ended with about a 30-minute question-and-answer session.
Doré’s goals of the visits are to learn about the colleges’ strengths, weaknesses and needs to be able to better support each one. He visited Tidewater Community College on Monday afternoon.
“I want to see and hear what are the specific needs of each college,” he said.
Dr. Towuanna Porter Brannon, VPCC’s president, said since each college serves a different area and is driven by different industries, those visits can be crucial to Doré.
“I think it’s important for him to learn how unique we are, but I also think it’s important to learn what are the common themes,” she said. “I think that will help guide him in figuring out where does he need to start at the system level.”
Doré, who has spent 27 years at community colleges, was named the 10th chancellor of the VCCS in January. Prior to his appointment with the VCCS, he worked at Pima Community College in Tucson, Arizona, as the President of Campuses and Executive Vice Chancellor for Student Experience and Workforce Development.
Glenn Dubois was the VCCS chancellor from July 2001 to June 30, 2022. Sharon Morrissey served as the interim chancellor from July 2022 until Dore took over.
For more about Doré’s visit, go to www.vpcc.edu.