CEOs on the move
Kathleen Burke has been appointed chancellor of the South Orange County Community College District in California as of July 1. She is currently president of Los Angeles Pierce College, which she has led since 2010. She was previously vice president of academic affairs and vice president of institutional effectiveness in colleges throughout the Los Angeles Community College District, including Los Angeles Trade Technical College, East Los Angeles College, Los Angeles City College and Los Angeles Mission College. Prior to that, Burke was dean of academic affairs at East Los Angeles College, and for 10 years was the chairperson of the visual and performing arts division at Glendale Community College, where she also served as president of the board of trustees.
Christopher M. Reber will serve as the next president of New Jersey’s Hudson County Community College, effective July 1. He is currently president of the Community College of Beaver County (CCBC) near Pittsburgh. At CCBC, which he has served since 2014, Reber led new initiatives in support of a student-centered learning environment; strategic enrollment management; regional partnerships; career and educational pathways, diversity, advancement and grant development, and continuous improvement. Previously, Reber served for 12 years as executive dean at Venango College of Clarion University of Pennsylvania. His career also includes 18 years at Penn State Erie, Behrend College, where he served on the senior management team and held several positions.
L. Marshall Washington has been named president of Kalamazoo Valley Community College in Michigan as of July 1. He is currently president of New River Community and Technical College in West Virginia, a position he has held since 2013. Previously, Washington was vice president and CEO at the Lancaster Campus of HACC, Central Pennsylvania’s Community College, and before that vice president of student services at Kellogg Community College in Michigan. He has served on numerous local, state and national organizations, including the American Association for Community Colleges board of directors.
New CEOs
Gregory Adam Haile will be the seventh president of Broward College in Florida as of July 1. Since 2011, Haile has been at the forefront of the college as its general counsel and vice president for public policy and government affairs. As the college’s first in-house chief legal counsel and longest-serving executive to report directly to the college’s president, he oversees the college’s compliance and regulatory affairs as well as the broad-ranging legal issues impacting the landscape of higher education.
Federico Zaragoza will serve as the ninth president of the College of Southern Nevada, effective August 15. He has been vice chancellor for economic and workforce development at the Alamo Colleges in Texas since 2004. Zaragoza has held various leadership positions, including state director for the Wisconsin–Job Training Partnership Act Programs, president and CEO of the Private Industry Council of Milwaukee County and dean of continuing education for the Milwaukee Area Technical College. He also worked for the Milwaukee Public School District as director for alternative education programs. Prior to his vice chancellor appointment, Zaragoza was vice president of administration for St. Philip’s College-Southwest Campus.
Interim CEOs
Joe Burke is now interim president of Alabama’s Calhoun Community College. Most recently, Burke was vice president and dean of instruction at Northeast Alabama Community College (NACC). He began his career at NACC as a counselor and psychology instructor. He went on to serve as director of admissions, chief student affairs officer and vice president and dean of instruction.
Glen Cannon is now interim president of Georgia Piedmont Technical College. He previously served as a vice president of administration at the college and later became president of Chattahoochee Valley Community College (Alabama). He returned to Georgia to serve as president of Gwinnett Technical College.
CEO retirements
Gena Glickman, president of Manchester Community College (MCC) in Connecticut, has announced plans to retire July 1, after 10 years at the institution.
Among her notable accomplishments at MCC, Glickman counts the growth of student support services and continuously improving retention and graduation rates, and building the college’s community partnerships and extraordinary foundation support for scholarships and programs. Additionally, MCC increased its engagement with the town of Manchester, creating the Dehn Gallery, now a student-run art gallery, and the Viscogliosi Entrepreneurship Center in downtown Manchester. Under Glickman’s leadership, the revival of the theater program, extraordinary galley events and the Economic Summit and the White House Summit all that brought recognition to the college’s community engagement efforts.
Glickman also has served on several national organizations, including the American Association of Community Colleges’ Commission on Research, the College Board’s Community College President Advisory Panel and the American Council on Education’s Commission on Advancement of Racial and Ethnic Equity, to name a few.
Prior to MCC, Glickman was vice president for teaching, learning and student development at Elgin Community College (Illinois). She also was associate provost and assistant provost at the University of Baltimore, dean at the Maryland College of Art and Design, executive director for curriculum development and evaluation at Harford Community College (Maryland), assistant to the vice president for academic affairs at Baltimore City College, assistant dean at the University of Baltimore School of Law, and a tenured faculty member at the Essex Community College (now a campus of the Community Colleges of Baltimore County).
Edna V. Baehre-Kolovani, president of Tidewater Community College (TCC) in Virginia, has announced that she will retire as the college’s fifth president on July 1. She served as its leader for six years.
In 2013, Kolovani led the development of TCC’s 2013-2018 strategic plan, and she is particularly proud that the momentum created by the strategic plan will continue, even as a new five-year plan is developed. Among other high points at the college under her leadership:
- Establishment of zero-textbook-cost courses and degrees, which have saved students more than $1 million
- Realignment over the last four years of TCC’s academic and career-technical programs into nine guided pathways that support workforce needs, with structured advising and curricula aimed at improving students’ successful degree attainment
- Stackable programs that ensure credits earned in certificate programs apply to associate degrees, reducing the cost of college to students
- Designation of TCC by the U.S. National Security Agency and Department of Homeland Security as a Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense
- Creation of the TCC Women’s Center STEM Promise Program, a scholarship to increase the number of degrees awarded to women and minority students in certain STEM disciplines
- A 130 percent increase in the number of high school students earning college credits through dual enrollment.
Before coming to TCC, Kolovani was president and superintendent of Napa Valley College in California and president of HACC, Central Pennsylvania’s Community College. She also held leadership positions at Elgin and Highland community colleges in Illinois and Genesee and Jamestown community colleges in New York.
Penny Wills, president of Yavapai College in Arizona, has announced that she plans to retire December 31. She has led the college since 2011, coming from Northeast Iowa Community College where she served as president for seven years. Wills has expertise in many areas in higher education, including student development, assessment, planning, quality improvement and community partnerships. Her professional accomplishments include her selection to the higher education institute at Harvard University, and various leadership positions, including the American Association of Community Colleges’ Commission on Leadership and Professional Development.
Appointments
Scott Stump has been nominated by President Trump to serve as assistant secretary for the Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education at the U.S. Department of Education. Stump, who is chief operating officer for Vivayic, Inc., a learning solutions company, previously was assistant provost for career and technical education at the Colorado Community College System. In 2014, he was president of the National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education consortium, now called Advance CTE.
Chris Tombari has been named dean of academic affairs for the School of Liberal Arts at the Community College of Aurora (Colorado). He joined the college in 2009 as chair for the English as a Second Language Department and in 2016 was promoted to associate dean of academic affairs.
