Susan goes west, Krista heads east

Sault College will be losing two high-profile staff members.

Krista Pearson, college registrar, will be starting as Algonquin College registrar in Ottawa beginning December 7.

Susan Hunter, director of marketing and communications, will soon begin her new role as Vice President of Community Relations and Student Services at Northern Lights College in Dawson Creek, B.C.

Hunter, a Sault native, was a part of the Sault College team for nearly a decade.

During that time, the postsecondary school adopted a new logo and rebranded as enrolment grew by 32 percent.

It is not yet certain who Hunter's successor at Sault College will be.

"I'm very pleased that I am being given the opportunity to join such a strong and progressive College poised for greatness," Hunter stated on the Northern Lights College website.

Pearson, a native of Halifax, first arrived in Sault Ste. Marie to work at Algoma University (then known as Algoma University College) in 2002 as its director of external relations before becoming its registrar.

Pearson left Algoma in 2009 to work as associate vice president of learner services and enrolment management at Lethbridge College in Alberta before returning to the Sault to be Sault College's registrar in 2011.

Present at Thursday's Sault College board of governors meeting, Pearson was congratulated by Ron Common, Sault College president and Peter Berlingieri, board chair, for her work at the college, particularly in international student recruitment.

With almost no international students at one time, Sault College currently has 72 international students from 17 countries. 

Pearson said she is looking forward to her new role as Algonquin's registrar.

"It's a known role in a very new context, it's a college that has nearly 20,000 full-time registrants…that's outside my scope of experience and I'm interested in pushing myself."

"I feel like I've done good work at Sault College and I'm ready for a bit more," Pearson told reporters Thursday.

Jennifer Rennison will be taking over as Sault College registrar.