Dr. Susan D. Looney
On July 1, 2018 Susan D. Looney, J.D., Ed.D. became the sixth president of Reading Area Community College.
Prior to entering higher education as a professional, Dr. Looney spent almost five years with the Department of Defense as an Operations Research Analyst at Fort Monmouth in NJ. In this position, she generated economic cost estimates by analyzing and predicting potential problems and risk for the Budget Management Division in preparation of awarding defense contracts to government contractors for high-tech communication satellite systems. Dr. Looney created and performed detailed forecasting and planning models, and briefed top U.S. Army officials and the House Appropriations Committee in Washington, DC on budgets and results.
Dr. Looney's teaching career began in 1998, when she accepted a full-time faculty position in Accounting at Mohave Community College in Arizona. At Mohave, she advised its Phi Theta Kappa chapter and in 2001 received the Paragon Award for Outstanding New Advisor. She remained with Mohave Community College until fall, 2001 when she returned to the east coast to be closer to family. Dr. Looney accepted a full-time teaching position in Business Administration at Delaware Technical Community College. While a faculty member at Delaware Technical Community College, she was honored with two awards that speak to her commitment to students in and outside the classroom: the Distinguished Advisor Award from Phi Theta Kappa and the Teaching in Excellence Award from the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs.
In her 21 years as a full-time community college educator, eight as a faculty member and 13 years as a senior administrator, Dr. Looney has worked in diverse roles including: Assistant to the Campus Director and Director of Corporate and Community Programs at Delaware Technical Community College; Interim Assistant Vice President of Academic Affairs, Arts and Sciences at Colorado Mountain College. Dr. Looney was named Dean of Instruction at Reading Area Community College in 2014 and named Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs/Provost at RACC in 2015.
After completing her AA at Brookdale Community College, Dr. Looney went on to earn her BS and MBA in business administration from Monmouth University, JD from Widener University School of Law, and ultimately an Ed.D. in higher education leadership from Nova Southeastern University.
Dr. Looney maintains strong ties to the community and strives to enhance the college’s partnerships with area organizations and nonprofits. She serves on the Reading Hospital Board of Trustees, as well as the boards of the United Way of Berks County and the Berks Alliance. Regionally, Dr. Looney is a commissioner on the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, and on the national level, she is a member of the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) Commission on Student Success.