CSM’s Fleming to retire
Led Prince Frederick campus for nine years
The College of Southern Mar yland will undergo another transition in leadership as Richard Fleming, vice president and dean of the Prince Frederick campus, retires at the end of this month.
Barbara Ives, director of CSM’s office of strategic partnerships, will serve as interim until June 20, 2018. Fleming’s retirement comes after almost nine years in the role where he oversaw many changes at the Prince Frederick campus.
“During his years at CSM, Dr. Fleming oversaw significant growth at the Prince Frederick Campus,” said CSM president Maureen Murphy in a press release. “The college is grateful for that service as well as Dr. Fleming’s work to cement the college’s ties with the Calvert County community.”
During Fleming’s tenure at CSM, the second building was completed on the Prince Frederick campus, adding 50 percent to the site’s facility space. The B Building, completed in 2013, is the first across the college’s four campuses to have earned LEED certified status. It was also the first publicly funded LEED building in Southern Maryland and the second LEED building in Calvert County. The almost three-year project is what Fleming hopes will be his longest-lasting legacy to the college.
“It was a great opportunity because I got to work with it from nothing,” Fleming said. “… It was a lot of fun. It was a lot of challenge.”
Fleming used the large multipurpose room in the new B Building to promote community partnerships with the college, providing meeting space for more than 125 different organizations and close to 4,000 attendees. That space also served as the setting for the Ward Virts Concert Series, a free concert presented six times a year that is centered around a Bosendorfer grand piano donated to the college, according to a press release.
In addition, Fleming oversaw the Destination College program at the Prince Frederick campus, as the campus offered a taste of college to visiting fifth-graders. Fleming also worked with the CSM Continuing Education and Workforce Development Division as that division made CSM the provider for the Adult Basic Education/General Education Diploma program in Calvert and St. Mary’s counties.
Fleming and his wife, Jean, plan to remain in Calvert County after his retirement. Jean Fleming is the director of Calvert Hospice.
When Maureen Murphy came to CSM after the retirement of former president Brad Gottfried, Fleming agreed to help her with the transition before his own retirement. Fleming plans to continue working after he moves on from CSM.
“I’m not really going to retire,” Fleming said. He said he may stay in education or move on to the private sector.
“It’s kind of a big unknown, which is unusual for me,” he said.
Ives joined CSM in 2015 with more than 27 years of military service, both active duty and in the Naval Reserve, with a parallel career as an educator.
Before coming to CSM, Ives served as the dean of academics for St. Mary’s Ryken High School in Leonardtown, and as a teacher and chair of the math department. While at SMR, she was selected as 2007 Veteran Teacher of the Year for the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., and earned recognition as a National Honor Roll Outstanding American Teacher, according to a press release.
Soon to be at the helm of the Prince Frederick campus, Ives began her teaching career as a certified instructor in the California Community College system while still on active duty in the Navy. She earned a bachelor’s in geophysics and oceanography from the U.S. Naval Academy and a master’s in leadership in education and an advanced certificate in supervision and administration from Notre Dame of Maryland University.
“I am confident that Barbara will not only provide excellent leadership during this time of transition, but our dedicated Prince Frederick Campus staff and faculty will continue to provide outstanding programs and services to our region,” Murphy said in the release.