Bermuda College’s interim president will begin a new chapter in her career at New York’s highest rated community college, it was announced yesterday.

Phyllis Curtis-Tweed will leave her post at the end of the month to become provost and vice-president of Queensborough Community College.

She will become the second senior figure to leave Bermuda College this year after Duranda Greene retired as president in the wake of a 16-year career at the institute.

Dr Curtis-Tweed said: “My experience at Bermuda College has been a highlight of my career.

“Much has been accomplished at the college under my tenure as vice-president of academic and student affairs.

“As a Bermudian, highly qualified in my field and committed to the success of Bermuda’s students, I am sad to leave my home — but at the same time, I look forward to developing a new chapter in my new role at QCC.

“I will miss my colleagues, friends and students, but I remain grateful for the opportunities that I have enjoyed while on island.”

Dr Curtis-Tweed will come with tenure as a full professor in psychology at the QCC’s department of social sciences.

As provost, she will serve as the chief academic officer and will be responsible for leading the academic curriculum and programmes and directing recruitment, retention and personal development.

Her position as interim president at Bermuda College will be taken up by Branwen Smith-King.

After leaving The Berkeley Institute six years ago, Dr Curtis-Tweed was instrumental in creating several partnerships and initiatives for the college’s programmes.

She created strategic models to strengthen the relationship between academic advisers and students as well as the relationships between departments.

Dr Curtis-Tweed also brought the dual-enrolment programme to private schools and created advisory boards for marine science, insurance and reinsurance to help streamline the pathways for students into the industries.

She worked alongside Dr Greene to strengthen the Bermuda College Foundation to help with the school’s funding and partnered with the Department of Education and LiteracyHow, a company in Connecticut, to improve reading scores for public school children.

Dr Curtis-Tweed expanded the Prior Learning Assessment initiative to help Bermudians receive their associate degrees faster by counting work-related life experiences as college credits.

Queensborough Community College has approximately 12,000 students enrolled, and 700 full-time and part-time faculty.