NHTI President Steps Down

NHTI President Lynn Tolbert Kilchenstein announced that she will step down from her position at the end of the calendar year. Kilchenstein has been associated with NHTI, Concord’s Community College since 1986, first as a teacher, the English Department Head, faculty president, and then associate vice president of academic affairs, before taking on the presidency in 2003. During her 10-year tenure, Kilchenstein has overseen historic growth at New Hampshire’s largest community college.

Among the developments at NHTI during her presidency was the completion of a three-phase expansion and upgrade of facilities for the College’s hallmark allied health programs. The College doubled the size and enrollment of its Dental Auxiliaries program with the addition of a new wing to MacRury Hall in 2009; the College opened the LEED silver-certified Beverly D. Grappone Hall, a state-of-the-art nursing education facility, in 2009; and the College completed renovation of MacRury Hall in 2010, adding state-of-the-art labs for its Diagnostic Medical Imaging, Paramedic Emergency Medicine and Natural Sciences programs.

Under Kilchenstein’s leadership the College experienced dramatic growth in its student population from 5,240 students in the 2003-4 academic year to a peak of 6,685 students served in 2010-11, a 27.5 percent increase. She guided the College, known locally and affectionately as “The Tech,” through a successful rebranding in 2007. Reflecting the evolution of the college to a comprehensive community college offering degree programs in a broad spectrum of technical, career and liberal arts fields, the College changed its name from “New Hampshire Technical Institute” to “NHTI, Concord’s Community College.”