Patricia Moulton was interviewed by Northeast Public Radio’s Pat Bradley about being the first female president of Vermont Tech.
[Listen to the full interview on WAMC Northeast Public Radio.]
At the end of March, the Vermont State Colleges System Board of Trustees appointed Patricia Moulton President of Vermont Technical College. She had been the college’s interim president since September and immediately began her tenure as president when the trustees made the announcement. Moulton is the first woman to lead the college in its 150-year history. Moulton previously served in state government, most recently as Secretary of the Agency of Commerce and Community Development . She says she felt this was the perfect next step in her career.
“My career in economic development has been heavily based in workforce development and education. And as I’ve talked with employers in my work in economic development I hear continually concerns about finding employees with the right skills. They tell me they have lots of applicants but not necessarily people possessing the right skills. And that’s become fairly acute here in Vermont such that I felt that the move to Vermont Tech was a perfect fit because here at Vermont Technical College we excel at preparing students for the workforce, both traditional and non-traditional age, complete with a hundred percent placement rate last year for our graduates. And that’s always hovered around 95 percent. So I knew Vermont Tech has a great reputation for preparing students but also doing customized education and training for employers. So this to me was the natural next step.”
Vermont Technical College is part of the Vermont State College System. Now that Pat Moulton is president, three of the five presidents in the college system are women.