DiCroce to Lead Foundation Starting in 2012

Click here to read The Virginian-Pilot's lead Nov. 2, 2011 news story about Debbie DiCroce coming to head the Foundation. Click here to read the Nov. 5 Pilot editorial. See what columnist Roger Chesley had to say on the same day.

Dr. Deborah M. DiCroce, president of Tidewater Community College, has been named president and chief executive officer of the Hampton Roads Community Foundation – the region’s largest grant and scholarship provider.

The Chesapeake resident was selected from more than 100 applicants during a nationwide search conducted by the foundation’s board and Kittleman & Associates of Chicago, which specializes in nonprofit executive searches. She will assume her new position on March 1. The Foundation’s current president and CEO, Angelica D. Light, announced last December that she would retire after nearly 13 years at the helm of the Foundation.

“Debbie DiCroce has the experience and skills in working regionally that match our board’s vision of taking the foundation to the next level,” says Harry T. Lester, chair of the foundation’s board. “One of the most important qualities she possesses is passion.”

Under Dr. DiCroce’s leadership the past 13 years, Tidewater Community College has experienced 13 years of record enrollment growth and expansions in programs and facilities at its four Hampton Roads campuses. With 46,000 students, it is the largest provider of undergraduate education in Hampton Roads. Enrollment has nearly doubled under DiCroce’s leadership.

Dr. DiCroce began her career teaching English at TCC after earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Old Dominion University. In 1984 she earned a doctorate in higher education from The College of William & Mary. She served as dean and provost at TCC before becoming president of Piedmont Virginia Community College in Charlottesville. She returned to TCC as president in 1998.

Dr. DiCroce, who was born in Portsmouth and raised in Norfolk’s Ingleside neighborhood, recently was elected chair of the Hampton Roads Partnership. She also chairs the Urban League of Hampton Roads and serves on the Sentara Health System board. She chaired the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce in 2006 and led the 2002 United Way of South Hampton Roads campaign. She was the first community college president to lead the Virginia Council of Presidents, which includes the heads of Virginia colleges and universities. She was just announced as the 2011 recipient of the Darden Award for Regional Leadership from the CIVIC Leadership Institute.

Dr. DiCroce calls her new position “a great second act that will give me the opportunity to engage with the community and connect some dots regionally.”

During Angelica Light’s tenure, which started in 1999, the community foundation’s annual grants and scholarships have quadrupled to more than $12 million a year. Its assets have more than doubled to $244 million, and the community foundation has spearheaded initiatives such as Smart Beginnings South Hampton Roads and the Academy for Nonprofit Excellence. The academy is operated in partnership with TCC.

In 2010 The Norfolk Foundation merged with The Virginia Beach Foundation to form the Hampton Roads Community Foundation. In the past 60 years donors have enabled the community foundation to award more than $152 million in grants and scholarships to improve life in Hampton Roads.