Dr. John Donnelly Retires from PVCC

PVCC’s Vice President for Instruction and Student Affairs, Dr. John Donnelly, will be retiring at the end of June. Donnelly has worked at PVCC for over 14 years, since February of 2010.

Prior to coming to PVCC, Donnelly worked at other community colleges. He started at Germanna Community College in Locust Grove, Virginia, where he worked as the dean of instruction and associate professor of history from 2001 to 2008. Donnelly then was vice president of academic and student affairs at Massachusetts Bay Community College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, from 2008 until 2010.

“I started off as a faculty member teaching history, and I just saw the potential to impact an institution by becoming an administrator more than teaching. So I decided to go into administration and became a dean, then a vice president. But I still teach history at prison locations,” said Donnelly.

For Donnelly, there were many changes from teaching history to being an administrator. He said, “It’s different because I miss directly interacting with students in the classroom, so when I became an administrator, I missed the direct impact of students in the classroom, but I have indirect impact on students outside of the classroom.”

Donnelly said that he has had good relationships with the PVCC presidents he has worked with during his career. Dr. Frank Friedman, the former president who retired in 2022, hired Donnelly as one of his vice presidents. Donnelly currently works under the new president, Dr. Jean Runyon, who was appointed after Friedman retired. He gets along well with both presidents and has enjoyed working with them. Donnelly considers them to be very good leaders.

On July 1, 2022, Donnelly was appointed to the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) Commission on Student Success. The AACC is the primary advocacy organization for American community colleges. According to a PVCC press release, Runyon said, “John’s appointment provides the opportunity to contribute to student completion endeavors at the national level as well as influence our own efforts as a student-ready college.”

Donnelly shared a variety of his favorite memories and times during his career at PVCC. He said, “For me, the best times every year are graduation ceremonies where you just see students who have completely met their goals and get recognized for it and they are completely happy. It’s a good time to celebrate students, and that’s what it’s all about.”

His favorite part of PVCC is the people. He said, “I think it’s interacting with students and faculty and seeing the magic that happens when students and faculty are engaged with each other both inside and outside the classrooms.”

As Donnelly approaches retirement, he is still working hard on lots of things that support student success and continues to do that at a good pace. “There’s no slowing down,” he said. Donnelly shared his post-retirement goals: “I’m going to rest; I’m going to travel and reinvent myself. I think it’ll be a natural and organic experience; I’ll find things that are interesting to me, but I don’t know what those are yet.”

Donnelly shared his advice to PVCC students: “I think this is a really good place to be a student. There’s excellent faculty; everyone here cares about students and helping them meet their goals. Everybody is dedicated to the students that come here, so take advantage of that.”