Suffolk County Sheriff Steven W. Tompkins was appointed to serve as chairman of the Roxbury Community College Board of Trustees by Governor Charlie Baker. A member of the Roxbury Community College board since 2013, Sheriff Tompkins served most recently as its vice chair before this new appointment.
RCC offers associate degrees and certificate programs with a primary objective of providing state residents, specifically those individuals living in the Greater Boston area, optimum opportunity for access to a college education consistent with their interests and aptitudes and to reduce to a minimum economic, social, psychological and academic barriers to educational opportunity.
The board of trustees is a community-based entity appointed by the governor to work in tandem with the president of RCC to ensure that the college remains an effective educational institution that provides a strong platform for the at-large community to grow and prosper.
Tompkins has been a member of the department since 2002, and was appointed to serve as the sheriff of Suffolk County on January 22, 2013 before winning election to the position in November of 2014, and re-election in 2016. As sheriff, Tompkins manages all operations at the House of Correction, Suffolk County Jail and the Civil Process Division.
In addition to providing care, custody and rehabilitative support for inmates and pre-trial detainees, he also oversees a management, security and administrative staff of over 1,000 individuals.
Tompkins is a past-president of the Massachusetts Sheriff’s Association. He recently completed a three-year term as a member of the Executive Session on Community Corrections at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. Sheriff Tompkins holds a bachelor’s degree in communications from Boston College and a master’s degree in public affairs from the University of Massachusetts.
