Brightpoint Community College official elevates to its presidency early next year
CHESTER – The Virginia Community College System has found its next president for Brightpoint Community College, and he turns out to be home-grown talent.
Dr. Bill Fiege, currently Brightpoint’s vice president of learning and student success, will assume the college’s helm Jan. 2. Before coming to Brightpoint 11 years ago, the Longwood University alum was at Germanna Community College, where he started as a speech communications instructor, and later served as dean of Germanna’s Fredericksburg area campus and then Germanna’s professional and technical division.
Fiege’s appointment was announced Monday morning by VCCS chancellor Dr. David Doré, who said in a statement he was “excited” about hiring Fiege.
“I am confident he will build on the college’s outstanding history of serving its communities and its diverse student populations and will lead Brightpoint into a new era as Virginia’s Community Colleges embark on a system-wide transformation to serve more learners in new ways,” Doré said.
In that same statement, Fiege said he was “honored and humbled” to take over at Brightpoint.
“I appreciate the confidence bestowed upon me by Chancellor Doré and look forward to working with him and Brightpoint’s Boards, faculty, staff, students, and partners to continue the college’s positive momentum,” Fiege said. “We are and will continue to be trailblazers for the great communities we serve.”
Fiege officially succeeds Dr. Edward “Ted” Raspiller, who left last February to join the state as director of the access and affordability initiative at Virginia529, the savings program that allows people to put money away for their children's future college education. Raspiller had been president of the college for a decade.
Dr. Van Wilson, VCCS’ senior vice chancellor for academic and workforce programs, had served as Brightpoint’s interim between Raspiller’s departure and Fiege’s hiring.
The months-long nationwide search drew 74 applicants, VCCS said.
Prior to his community-college career, Fiege was assistant athletic director for development, assistant director of alumni relations, director of forensics, and speech instructor at Longwood. He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science at Longwood, a master’s degree in speech communication at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, and a doctorate in community college leadership at Old Dominion University in Norfolk.
Petersburg School Board chair Kenneth Pritchett, who also serves as president of Brightpoint’s Local Advisory Board, said in a statement, “We truly believe that Dr. Fiege will move our college forward. Under his leadership, Brightpoint will continue to be a place that changes lives, focuses on student success, and supports the needs of its communities.”
Germanna Community College has four campuses in Fredericksburg and the counties of Culpeper, Orange and Stafford in north-central Virginia.
While Fiege will be the eighth president in the college’s 56-year history, he theoretically will be the second president of Brightpoint.
Up until July 2021, the college with campuses in Chester and Midlothian was known as John Tyler Community College, named for the 10th president of the United States.
Tyler, of Charles City County, was the first vice president to assume the presidency upon the death of a chief executive. He was also one of the behind-the-scenes leaders of Virginia secession at the start of the Civil War and the only president officially declared a traitor by the U.S. government – which was rescinded at the beginning of the 20th century.
VCCS mandated the name change, telling its 23 affiliated institutions to study the names of not only their campuses but also any streets or buildings that might be reflective of racist histories. In all, Brightpoint changed not just its main name but also several buildings and streets on both its campuses.
The college’s service area is the cities of Colonial Heights, Hopewell and Petersburg; and the counties of Amelia, Charles City, Chesterfield, Dinwiddie, Prince George, Surry and Sussex.
Bill Atkinson (he/him/his) is an award-winning journalist who covers breaking news, government and politics. Reach him at batkinson@progress-index.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @BAtkinson_PI.
This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Brightpoint Community College official will be school's next president
