New CEO
John Groesbeck is now president of Mesalands Community College in New Mexico. Groesbeck has more than 20 years of experience in academics. He worked for both two-year colleges and universities that had a blended role of awarding associate through master’s degrees in New Mexico, Missouri and Utah. For the last two years, Groesbeck has worked with his daughter on a business that provides training, development and software to help entrepreneurs establish lines of credit.
Interim CEO
Shelly Schneider will serve as interim president of Cumberland County College in New Jersey. She held the same position from July 2015 to March 2016. Schneider previously held positions as interim superintendent for Commercial Township Public Schools, interim assistant superintendent for Vineland Public Schools and superintendent of Millville Public Schools.
Obituary
Joseph Thomas Durham, a former Baltimore City Community College president, died on June 26. He was 94. His first job was at Virginia Seminary and College in Lynchburg, Virginia, where he served as dean. Over his career, he also taught at several colleges and universities, including Morgan State College, Southern University, Albany State College, Coppin State College, Florida A&M University, Harvard University and Howard University. In 1976, he joined the Maryland State Board of Higher Education as head of a division that approved college programs, including desegregation plans.
In 1985, then-Mayor William Donald Schaefer appointed Durham as interim president of Baltimore City Community College. In less than a year later he was named president. In that position, he had “the opportunity to direct an institution, influence its policies and to affect the lives of countless, aspiring young black men and women,” according to his obituary.
Durham held the post until 1990 and returned to teaching at Coppin State.
Appointments
Colette Hands is now associate vice president/chief human resources officer at Oakton Community College in Illinois. She previously served at North Park University as director of career development and internships and associate director of business and nonprofit management.
Scott Stump has been confirmed as assistant secretary for the Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education at the U.S. Education Department. Over his career, he has served as associate provost for career and technical education at the Colorado Community College System and as president of Advance CTE, which represents state leaders of career and technical education.