Board of Directors
2013-2014 Chair LeRoy W. Mitchell Westchester Community College, NY
From the Chair Shifting Winds
Chair-elect Robin M. Smith Lansing Community College, MI
Vice Chair Roberto Zárate Alamo Colleges, TX
Secretary-Treasurer Bakari Lee Hudson County Community College, NJ
Immediate Past Chair Jean Torgeson North Iowa Area Community College, IA
Central Regional Chair Diane Gallagher Highland Community College, IL
Northeast Regional Chair William E. Coleman, Jr. Mercer County Community College, NJ
Pacific Regional Chair Jim Harper Portland Community College, OR
Southern Regional Chair Randall “Mack” Jackson Midlands Technical College, SC
Western Regional Chair Robert “Bob” Feit Southeast Community College, NE Kirsten Diederich North Dakota University System, ND Stanley Edwards Halifax Community College, NC Mary Figueroa Riverside Community College District, CA Connie Hornbeck Iowa Western Community College Vernon Jung Moraine Park Technical College, WI Gregory Knott Parkland College, IL Jeffrey May Joliet Junior College, IL Kent Miller Mid-Plains Community College Area, NE Clare Ollayos Elgin Community College, IL Hector Ortiz Harrisburg Area Community College, PA George Regan Robeson Community College, NC Dana Saar Maricopa County Community College, AZ Jane Strain Cochise College, AZ David H. Talley Palm Beach State College, FL Rafael C. Turner Mott Community College, MI
We are all the products of our life experiences. I was fortunate to have been born into a family that supported itself by building boats — hard work, but work that taught me a variety of lessons. Perhaps the most valuable lesson of all was advice from my father that was at the time literal, but which has taken on a great metaphorical meaning for all of us. My father told me, “You can’t control the winds, but you can shift the sails.” Since 2008, community colleges have had truly unprecedented opportunities to shift our sails. Budgets have been cut, enrollment rates spiked beyond our capacities and then dropped sharply once we learned to cope. These were clearly economy-driven effects that are still affecting us today. None of us has been complacent. Despite all the unprecedented changes, community college trustees, with ACCT at the helm, have not only coped with the factors beyond our control, but we have also taken the noble and necessary initiative to make the changes required to improve the outcomes and future lives of our current students. This is not easy work for individual trustees or for our national association. ACCT has forged vital new relationships with philanthropic foundations to make these changes possible through the Symposium on Student Success that you will read about in this issue of Trustee Quarterly, other partnerships such as the one we have with Single Stop USA to help students find the resources they need, and through the focused, data-driven and outcomes-based work of the groundbreaking Governance Institutes for Student Success. We did not have to do this work; we have chosen to do it, and it is my honor to serve as the board chair of an association that represents the honorable, hardworking, and humble individuals who make up our nation’s community college boards. Still, there is at least one more great shift underway in our country: Over the past 20 months, approximately 200 community college presidents have left their positions, and a full 75 percent of current presidents have indicated that they plan to leave their offices within the next ten years. This changeover in leadership will undoubtedly have an extraordinary and profound effect on the community college system as a whole — and as trustees, it is our responsibility to make sure that the transition is a smooth one that works in favor of our students. This will be a unique opportunity for us, as trustees, to embrace the long-neglected initiative of diversifying our faculty. Students of all backgrounds need role models in the classrooms to enhance their prospect of emulating those whom they aspire to become. Please be sure to read about this transition and what ACCT is doing about it on page 26. I look forward to my year as ACCT Chair, and to bringing my message to Washington, D.C., this February at the Community College National Legislative Summit. I hope to see you there, and to hear how your board is navigating these choppy, ever-changing waters. The lessons that come from this hard work can be hard won, but we are always better for it in the long run. LeRoy W. Mitchell Westchester Community College, New York
Emily Yim Edmonds Community College, WA
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