Margaret Ellibee, the top administrator for the University of Arkansas Pulaski Technical College, will retire at the end of June, the college announced Thursday.
"It's just been an honor to be a part of the UAPTC family and be able to serve our community and serve our students. As a teacher, that's what makes a career absolutely the best," said Ellibee.
By enrollment, the college is the second-largest two-year school in the state. About 4,300 non-high school students enrolled this past fall, according to state data.
The college joined the University of Arkansas System in 2017. UA System President Donald Bobbitt said a search committee will be formed to help find the college's next chancellor.
Ellibee, 61, has overseen the launch of an ongoing effort to build a new STEM Park that includes a major renovation to the science building on the North Little Rock campus.
She credited her predecessor in the job, Dan Bakke, with starting the effort to build the 90,000-square-foot Center for Humanities and Arts, which opened in 2016. It includes a theater and also houses the Windgate Gallery, which has hosted various traveling art exhibits.
Ellibee praised the commitment of the college's students.
"Many of them are parents, and they have to juggle their work life and family life along with their education," Ellibee said. "I think that to see our students and their ability to do that, in addition to their dedication to receive their education, is absolutely amazing."
UA-Pulaski Tech and other two-year colleges must support students in addition to providing an education, Ellibee said. Having a food pantry and partnering with Rock Region Metro to give students bus passes are examples of the college striving to help, Ellibee said.
Providing such services is "a requirement for us" to help students, Ellibee said.
Joining the UA System positioned the college for the future, Ellibee said, noting transfer opportunities for students and also benefits made available to employees with the transition.
Ellibee said faculty and staff work to better themselves and "to continue to learn more about their craft."
"We just have tremendous people here," Ellibee said.
Bobbitt, in a statement, said that when working with Ellibee "it was very apparent that with any decision on the table always involved putting students, community and her faculty and staff first."
Ellibee earns a salary of $176,826, according to a UA System spokesman.
Before joining the college, Ellibee worked as vice president for strategic effectiveness and advancement at Waukesha County Technical College in Wisconsin. Ellibee previously served as state director for career and technical education for the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.
Ellibee started her education career in Arkansas, however, teaching vocational agriculture at Stuttgart High School from 1983-86.
Along with being named in 2019 among the nation's top community colleges by the Aspen Institute College Excellence Program, Ellibee cited a training collaboration with the 189th Airlift Wing of the Arkansas Air National Guard as among top accomplishments for the college.
"Those community collaborations that provide a quality educational experience for our students, those are huge accomplishments for this institution," Ellibee said.