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PARKERSBURG - The president of WVU Parkersburg was named the 2026 Entrepreneurial President of the Year Monday by the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship.
Dr. Torie Jackson said the recognition belongs to a campus that has learned to look at ordinary things and ask what they could become.
The association is a national organization of community colleges and partners promoting entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurial mindset in higher education. The award was announced during the association’s annual conference at the Hilton Boston Park Plaza Hotel and presented by Dr. Michael Baston, who received the honor in 2025.
“For me, entrepreneurship isn’t about business. It’s about possibility,” Jackson said. “It’s about seeing things that others see as common and saying, I wonder what we could do with that? I wonder what it could become?”
The clearest example sits a few miles from the main campus, in Vienna. When Ohio Valley University closed, it left behind more than 250 acres of buildings, athletic fields and empty parking lots.
Many people saw a loss for the Mid-Ohio Valley, but Jackson said her team asked a different question.
“We asked, what could it become? How could it help our campus move forward, and how could it help the entire Mid-Ohio Valley?” she said. “When others saw maybe drear, we decided to see vision.”
In 2023, the WVU at Parkersburg Foundation purchased the former university property with the help of a $10 million gift from the Ross Foundation. The site is now home to the college’s Innovation and Technology Center, a hub planned for academic programs in computer science, information technology and engineering alongside space for businesses, coworking and community partners.
Jackson said the project gave her a motto she often repeats.
“See the vision and not the reality,” she said. “If you get stuck in the reality, sometimes you never move forward. Sometimes you forget the opportunities that exist before you. And sometimes you realize that taking a risk, even though it could be a large risk, is one that not only makes your life better, but the lives of thousands of students that will come after you.”
The approach has shown up in the numbers. This fall, WVU Parkersburg recorded its 12th consecutive semester of enrollment growth, with headcount up 2% from a year earlier. The college passed 3,000 students in fall 2025, a 9% jump, at a time when community colleges across West Virginia were losing students. Last year, NACCE also named WVU Parkersburg one of the top five entrepreneurial colleges in the nation and awarded $45,000 to support Forging Futures, a program that delivers industry-certified welding training inside correctional facilities.
Jackson was named interim president in May 2022 and became president in May 2023 after a national search. She has described herself since as WVU Parkersburg proud and said her own history with the college shapes how she thinks about the students who come after her.
“I love the opportunity to help students because I once was a student at this college,” she said. “When we are able to share that message with other students, it warms my heart. And one of the ways we can do that is by not being like every other institution,” she said. “We will do things differently. We will see opportunities where others don’t, and we will take risks from time to time,” she said. “At the end of it, I believe that you can see a lot of extraordinary in the most ordinary places. At WVU Parkersburg, that’s what we’re going to continue to do, because that’s what makes us a great environment for student success.”