The Olympic College board of trustees voted Tuesday to extend a public offer to Chantae Recasner, current interim president of Seattle Central College, to serve as the 16th president of Bremerton-based Olympic College, which also has campuses in Poulsbo and Shelton.
The appointment will not be finalized and a start date will not be announced until contract negotiations are complete, the college said in a news release yesterday.
Joan Hanten has served as interim president of Olympic College since last June after she succeeded Marty Cavalluzzi, who retired.
“Joan stepped into the role without hesitation and her leadership has been invaluable,” Harriette Bryant, chair of Olympic’s board of trustees, said in the release. “She has been a dedicated leader at Olympic College for many years, including the past nine months as interim president.”
Bryant said the offer to Recasner marks a pivotal moment in the search for a permanent leader, which began in July. Presidential finalists participated in open forums, answered questions from attendees, and met with college leadership as part of a comprehensive, inclusive search led by the Presidential Search Advisory Committee and executive search firm Academic Search. Feedback from the groups helped shape the selection criteria and inform the board’s decision, the release said.
Recasner has more than 20years of higher-education experience and leadership, including roles as tenured faculty, dean of instruction, and vice president of instruction. She was appointed interim president of Seattle Central College in 2024. She holds a Doctor of Philosophy in education from the University of Cincinnati, a Master of Business in operational excellence from Ohio State University, and two Master of Arts degrees from Ohio State in teaching and learning, and African and African American studies. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Loyola University New Orleans.
The new president will arrive on the heels of Olympic College last fall completing the remodel of its Poulsbo campus into a state-of-the-art hub for health care education. The remodel served as a key component of Phase 1 of the college’s Health Care Expansion Project, a plan to expand access to essential health care programs at the college’s Bremerton and Poulsbo campuses. The Poulsbo campus is now home to educational labs for diagnostic medical sonography, surgical technology, and radiologic technology — all new programs as part of Phase 1.