News
March 1, 2017Four New Hires at Director/Dean Level at Hudson Valley Community College
Hudson Valley Community College recently announced the hiring of four new employees.
Alycia Courter
Alycia Courter, who has served the college’s Faculty Student Association (FSA) for nearly 20 years has been named the new FSA Executive Director.
Courter started working at the FSA as a part-time student worker and has held positions with increasing responsibility, including, most recently, several years as associate director. Prior to that, she was assistant director, assistant for financial analysis and administrative assistant. The FSA is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) corporation that runs auxiliary services on the Hudson Valley campus. The FSA oversees the following departments: Viking’s Cove Bookstore, Cultural Affairs, Viking Child Care Center, Food Service, Intercollegiate Athletics and Student Activities.
Karen Paquette
Karen Paquette, a human resources and operations professional, has been hired as the new Director of Human Resources for Hudson Valley Community College. Paquette has expertise in a wide range of areas related to employee relations; recruitment/retention and performance; contract negotiations; and staff development. Most recently, she was employed as a senior operations manager at General Electric’s Wind Turbine Division in Schenectady where she managed more than 100 employees in Schenectady and at 23 remote locations in the United States and Canada. She was charged with directing recruitment, hiring, coaching and training as well as performance for all staff. Prior to that, she was employed in human resources leadership for 15 years at Durham School Services.
Ainsley Thomas
Ainsley Thomas has been named the Chief Diversity Officer at Hudson Valley Community College. Thomas comes to the college from Albany County, where he has served as Director of Affirmative Action since 2013 and oversaw the county-wide development, implementation and monitoring of anti-discrimination, equal employment opportunity, sexual harassment and ADA compliance policies. Thomas’ duties on campus will be similar to his position at the county. He will oversee the college’s efforts to help diversify its workforce and its student body through recruitment and retention. He also will be charged with helping to build and maintain programs and policies to support diversity, combat harassment and discrimination. This is a newly-created position at the college, which complies with the SUNY directive to create a chief diversity officer at each State University campus.
Fabian Vega
Dr. Fabian Vega has been named the new Dean of the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Hudson Valley Community College. Dr. Vega’s expertise includes undergraduate and graduate-level teaching, administrative and managerial experience, and several years of teaching in community colleges, four-year public and private colleges, and universities, as well as supervisory experience in the educational community and mental health field and experience in business. At Hudson Valley, Dr. Vega will be responsible for providing operational leadership, direction and management to the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences. He will also be responsible for developing new programs, certificates, and courses of study, as well as developing external relations and initiatives to continue to increase enrollment and diversity.
Founded in 1953, Hudson Valley Community College offers more than 80 associate degree and certificate programs in four schools: Business; Engineering and Industrial Technologies; Health Sciences; and Liberal Arts and Sciences; and an Educational Opportunity Center for academic and career training. One of 30 community colleges in the State University of New York system, it has an enrollment of nearly 11,500 students, and is known as a leader in distance learning initiatives and workforce training. Hudson Valley has 80,000 alumni.
