Dr. Renée Okafor-Bennett became the ninth president of Palmetto Ridge Junior College in 2018. The daughter of a Nigerian engineer and a Charleston schoolteacher, she was the first in her family to earn a doctorate, and she leads with the conviction that a community college can change the trajectory of an entire family in a single generation.
Under her leadership, Palmetto Ridge opened the LEED-Gold Ridgeview Campus, launched the Hawks Promise Scholarship, and reached record enrollment. She still teaches one section of first-year seminar every fall, holds open office hours in Ridgeview Commons on Thursday afternoons, and rarely misses a Hawks home game. She lives in Cypress Landing with her husband, two teenagers, and a very loud beagle named Biscuit.
Education
- Ed.D., Higher Education Leadership, Vanderbilt University
- M.A., Sociology, Howard University
- B.A., English, Spelman College