FAIRMONT – The search for a new president of Pierpont Community and Technical College has officially begun.
Pierpont wants to have a new president in place by April 2026, the school announced.
Applications for the national search closed Monday, Pierpont officials said, with interviews for semi-finalists and then the finalists tentatively set for this coming February and March.
In recent years the school that is a sister institution to Fairmont State University has expanded its degree offerings while also increasing its presence in the community.
With avionics becoming a burgeoning industry across north-central West Virginia, the school has capitalized on the spinoff job trend – with a popular aviation technology program that puts certificated professionals to work on the engines and electronic systems that keep planes aloft.
Leading up to Thanksgiving, Pierpont’s culinary students worked with the Union Rescue Mission in Fairmont, preparing holiday meals for the city’s needy.
Anthony Hinton, who chairs Pierpont’s presidential search committee, touched on the latter as he discussed what the school might be looking for now, in terms of academic and community motivation among the field of applicants.
The search committee includes faculty members, classified and non-classified staff employees, and students, along with business leaders and others from the Fairmont community.
“We are committed to conducting a thorough and transparent process to ensure Pierpont’s next leader strengthens our mission and partnerships across the region,” he said.
Pierpont has been without a permanent leader since March. That was after Milan Hayward stepped down after two years on the job.
The school then named school provost Michael Wade as interim president. Wade, a licensed medical laboratory scientist, is also a tenured professor in Pierpont’s medical laboratory technology program.
Hayward’s hiring, meanwhile, came after a two-year search that also saw the appointment of two interim presidents during the vacancy.
During that period, state lawmakers were also pushing for a bill that would have merged the university and community college — but they later pulled back in that effort.
