After 10 years leading the largest technical college in the state, Vicki J. Martin, president of Milwaukee Area Technical College announced Wednesday that she will be retiring on June 30 of next year.
Martin provided formal notice to the MATC District Board and will remain fully engaged throughout the 2023-2024 academic year in service to students, employees, and college partners, a MATC press release states.
Board chairperson Mark Foley will lead the District Board to select the next president of MATC.
“The entire board and I congratulate Dr. Martin on all that she has accomplished,” Foley said. “Her visionary leadership has advanced the college’s mission of transforming lives, industry, and community. The board will lead a national search. A request for proposals for an external search firm will be developed in the coming weeks.”
The board anticipates finalizing and announcing the selection of a new president during the spring so that the new leader can take the helm effective July 1, 2024, Foley added.
Serving students
During her time as president – a role she assumed in July 2014 – Martin has focused much of her work on developing student support systems, including new scholarship programs and collaborative efforts to boost retention, and close graduation gaps among Black and Hispanic students.
“This month, I celebrated my 35th year at Milwaukee Area Technical College, and it has been an honor to serve this college in many ways over that time. During my first week of employment, I knew that I had come to the right place,” Martin said. “My professional goals and the college’s mission were perfectly aligned around students and their success. My pride is fueled by the remarkable accomplishments we have achieved together, and the value we provide to students, employers, and the community we serve.”
In 2015, Martin helped create Wisconsin’s first free tuition Promise program, and expanded it to become one of the nation’s first Promise programs to serve working adults. Martin also established the college as the state’s first to offer Second Chance Pell funds for currently or previously incarcerated students, and cofounded M-Cubed with leaders at Milwaukee Public Schools and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to ensure more Milwaukee area students finish high school and move onto to the workforce or some post-secondary education or training. Her efforts to close graduation gaps include her involvement in the Moon Shot for Equity program as well as the launch of the Ellen and Joe Checota MATC Scholarship Program – a full-ride scholarship that has helped dozens of students receive short-term degrees and certificates.
Expanding scholarships
Through launching the MATC Promise, the Checota MATC Scholarship Program, the $6 million Froedtert Memorial Hospital Scholarship and more, Martin also helped the college dramatically expand student scholarships supported by the college’s philanthropic partner, the MATC Foundation.
Since its launch, the Promise programs have graduated more than 600 students and in its first year alone, the Checota MATC Scholarship Program has graduated nearly 200 students.
What’s next
As Martin prepares for life in retirement, she’ll be looking forward to spending more time traveling, learning new skills, and painting – a hobby the one-time art student recently rediscovered.
She’s also looking forward to putting her love, and knack for, project management and mentoring to continue to serve help her hometown.
Martin chairs the Bradley Tech Commission and Higher Education Regional Alliance (HERA) and also serves on the City Year Board and said she will continue to serve in those community roles until her terms are up.
“I am looking forward to meaningful forms of engagements,” the Milwaukee native said. “I want to learn some more things and go apply that. I am 70. I think maybe people don’t realize that I had other jobs before this, and you get to this stage, and there are lot of things still to do in life. I love MATC but it’s a lot of long hours and commitment, and my husband is retired, and he’s been asking.”
She added that MATC has made a lot of hires recently, and she feels that staff are well positioned to continue to move the college forward as they prepare to hand over the reins to a new president next year.
