Carol Swartz, director of Kachemak Bay Campus, will retire from the University of Alaska System effective Dec. 31 of this year.

Swartz has been at the helm of the campus, an offshoot of Kenai Peninsula College and the University of Alaska Anchorage, for the last 32 years.

“Swartz has been instrumental over the years in growing the campus in Homer,” according to a press release from Kenai Peninsula College. “She greatly increased the number of students attending, number of programs and classes offered and having the campus become the ‘community square’ on the Southern Kenai Peninsula.”

She was also responsible for Homer’s own Kachemak Bay Writers’ Conference. Held every year for the last 17 years, the conference brings Pulitzer Prize-winning authors and local Alaska writers to Homer.

Swartz has been recognized by several organizations for her work over the years. She holds the Governor’s Award for Distinguished Service to the Humanities, the YWCA Alaska/BP Women of Achievement Award, and is in the Alaska Women’s Hall of Fame.

A national search will begin “immediately” and finalists for the position of director will interview at KBC this September and October, according to the release. Swartz’ replacement is slated to start in early December.

Applicants can visit: https://www.kpc.alaska.edu/employment/.