A former administrator from Delaware Technical Community College will become AACC’s first vice president of information technology on May 3, the college announced on Tuesday.

Dr. Richard Kralevich, who served as vice president for information and instructional technology at Delaware Tech from 2014-2019, told AACC faculty during a March open forum that he will home in on student and faculty needs.

“[My team] won’t be an [information technology] operation that you can pick up and … move to another college,” said Kralevich, who most recently served as academic program director and professor of information technology for the Delaware college. “We won’t be that. We will be an IT operation that specifically serves the needs of this community college, of our faculty, because your needs are unique.”

The vice president of information technology is a new position at AACC that replaces the chief technology officer role filled by Shirin Goodarzi, who resigned last summer.

Elevating IT to the vice president’s level will “help us achieve our strategic objectives,” Executive Director of Strategic Communications Dan Baum said. “The strategic priority of being a premier online learning institution in the state of Maryland, that’s a strategic objective.”

Baum added: “It’s … a recognition of how dependent we are on technology, and how much opportunity that technology presents to us as an institution for our students, for our faculty, for the way we work.”

Kralevich will be the college’s fourth vice president, joining officials who oversee learning, finances and learner support services.

AACC President Dawn Lindsay said adding a fourth vice president ultimately will save the college money as it will bring all of the school’s technical needs under a single division.

After Goodarzi resigned, Dr. Felicia Patterson, the vice president for learner support services, temporarily filled the position of chief technology officer.

Patterson said Kralevich’s experience teaching math and education helps qualify him for the position.

“[The] ability to kind of design and develop and consider what the needs are from all aspects of academic affairs and … how educational technology works is critical for that position,” Patterson said.

This story has been updated from the original version to correct Dr. Kralevich’s job title.