Vicky Wood is a community college graduate herself. Now she runs South Carolina’s largest technical college, and since taking over in 2024 she has tied it more closely to the region’s employers.

Wood is president of Trident Technical College, which served 20,625 students in 2025 across five campuses and online, more than any other technical college in the state, she wrote in an April op-ed in The Post and Courier.

The college has won a five-year, $2.99 million federal grant to strengthen the link between its classes and students’ careers, The Post and Courier’s Moultrie News reported Oct. 28. The grant, from the U.S. Education Department’s Strengthening Institutions Program, began in October. It will pay for guided career pathways, advising focused on careers, coursework on artificial intelligence and workplace skills, more work-based learning and a central Career and Transfer Center expected to open in June 2028, according to the report.

“We want every student to see a clear path from the classroom to a meaningful career and to have access to the opportunities and support that can help them reach their goals,” Wood said, according to the Moultrie News.

A first-generation graduate

Trident Tech’s area commission picked Wood as the college’s sixth president in April 2024, after a national search that drew more than 70 applicants, The Post and Courier reported. She took over July 1, 2024, from Mary Thornley, who had led the college since 1991.

Wood came from Washington State College of Ohio in Marietta, Ohio, where she had been president since 2017, WCSC Live 5 reported, citing the college. She previously served as provost and vice president of academic affairs and student services at Marion Technical College.

She is a first-generation community college graduate, Live 5 reported. She earned an associate degree in business from Marion Technical College, a bachelor’s degree in business education from Ashland University, a master’s in education from Bowling Green State University and a doctorate in higher education leadership from the University of Toledo.

“In accepting the presidency of Trident Technical College, I am honored for this opportunity to lead this highly valued, high-impact institution into the future,” she said in a written statement when she was hired.

Training Boeing’s new hires

In December 2025, Boeing South Carolina chose Trident Tech to handle baseline training for the production and maintenance workers it hires to build the 787 Dreamliner, The Post and Courier reported. Boeing committed up to $70 million over the five-year contract, which began Jan. 1. The college took over the work from readySC, the state technical college system’s training division.

Boeing agreed to lease the entire third floor of the college’s 218,000-square-foot S.C. Aeronautical Training Center in North Charleston, which was completed in late 2019 at a cost of $80 million, the newspaper reported. The company has said it needs at least 1,000 more factory workers.

“We touch about every industry,” Wood told The Post and Courier. She said the college expected to double its instructor staff to handle the 787 curriculum.

Shipyards, kitchens and trucks

Wood has pushed the college into other fields where employers need workers.

In March, Trident Tech was awarded $1.5 million in federal money, secured by the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, to build a mobile maritime training lab with welding booths in a 53-foot trailer, according to the college. Wood said the lab would “help more residents access high paying jobs in the maritime sector.”

She also testified for a bill, which the Legislature approved May 14, letting South Carolina’s technical colleges offer a four-year degree in culinary arts management. Gov. Henry McMaster signed it May 18, according to the Legislature’s records. The college has said the program also needs approval from state education boards and its accreditor before it can be offered.

“An applied bachelor’s degree program in Culinary Arts Management fills a workforce gap by providing advanced culinary education,” Wood said.

The college broke ground in March 2025 on a $37.5 million renovation of its Berkeley Campus in Moncks Corner, which the college said will triple its capacity to 3,000 students and add a transportation and logistics center for commercial truck driving and diesel mechanics training. In September, the college named Marshall Connor vice president of economic development to set up a new division combining its workforce training, industry partnerships and continuing education work.

Wood has made the case for the college in economic terms. Trident Tech generates $970.6 million in annual economic impact, the most of any South Carolina technical college, she wrote in her April op-ed, citing a 2025 analysis by the University of South Carolina’s Darla Moore School of Business.

“When our students succeed, our communities and employers succeed with them,” she wrote.