Troy Hammond, president of Naperville’s North Central College for the last decade, has resigned.
Hammond told the school’s board of trustees he believed “the time is right for me to let someone else guide this amazing institution,” a North Central news release said.
“Serving in this role has been the professional honor of a lifetime,” Hammond said. “I am grateful to the board of trustees for providing me this opportunity and for the diligent work of our leadership, faculty, and staff to make a difference in the lives of thousands of students during my time here.”
The board has accepted the resignation and expects to name an interim president in the coming weeks to serve during the upcoming academic year, the release said.
Hammond will transition from his role and become a board adviser.
“North Central College is a stronger institution because of President Hammond’s leadership and service over the past ten years,” board Chairman James A. McDermet said.
“Nearly every aspect of North Central has been transformed to help us prepare for the future. We completed the most successful capital campaign in our history to help modernize and expand our campus to support the addition of new academic programs and benefit generations of students to come.”
The board will form a search committee to seek its 11th president.
Hammond was president of BlueStar Energy Services in Chicago, a provider of energy efficiency services for commercial and industrial customers, before being hired by North Central. He also was an adjunct business professor at his alma mater, Milligan College in Johnson City, Tennessee.
In addition to completing a bachelor’s degree in mathematics at Milligan College, he received a second bachelor’s degree, in physics, from Georgia Tech, according to his biographical information on NCC’s website. He completed his doctorate in experimental atomic physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology after receiving a National Science Foundation fellowship.
Hammond holds numerous patents and in 2013, he was recognized as one of 60 outstanding alumni of the NSF’s highly competitive Graduate Research Fellowship Program.
North Central College is ranked No. 19 out of 157 schools in the Best Regional Universities Midwest category in U.S. News & World Report’s America’s Best Colleges report. It’s also No. 8 for Most Innovative Schools.
