Johnson set to chair AACC board in July

Sandra Kurtinitis, current AACC board chair and president of the Community College of Baltimore County (Maryland), at the AACC annual convention this month in Orlando, Florida. (Photo: Adam Auel)

Alex Johnson, president of the Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C) District in Ohio, will become chair of the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) board of directors on July 1, succeeding Sandra Kurtinitis, president of the Community College of Baltimore County in Maryland.

William Serrata, president of El Paso Community College in Texas, will serve as chair-elect of the 32-member board. He was elected to the position at the AACC annual convention this month, along with 10 new board members.

Alex Johnson

Johnson joined Tri-C, the largest community college in Ohio, as president in 2013 after serving as president of the Community College of Allegheny County in Pittsburgh and chancellor of Delgado Community College in New Orleans. Earlier in his career, he was president of Tri-C’s Metropolitan Campus in Cleveland from 1993 to 2003.

Johnson has served in numerous capacities with AACC, including being a member of the board and executive committee; member of the Voluntary Framework on Accountability Steering Committee; member of the 21st-Century Commission on the Future of Community Colleges; and co-chair of the Implementation Committee for the Commission’s report “Reclaiming the American Dream.”

William Serrata

Serrata has served as president of El Paso Community College (EPCC) since 2012. He previously was vice president for student affairs and enrollment management at South Texas College. During his career, Serrata has provided enrollment management leadership in fostering enrollment growth as well as increases in student retention, dual-credit enrollment, and graduation rates with an emphasis on first-generation and Hispanic populations and establishing a college-going culture. 

Serrata has served on the Texas Workforce Education Leadership Committee and on the executive committee for the Texas Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. On the national level, Serrata is a member of the board of directors of Excelencia in Education, and in 2015 was named an Aspen Institute Ascend Fellow. EPCC was a top-10 finalist in 2015 for the Community College Aspen Prize and in 2016 the college received the AACC Excellence Award for Student Success. Last fall, Serrata served on the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas’ El Paso branch. He is currently on the AACC board’s executive committee.

New college representatives to the AACC board who were elected in April include:

Phil Neal, president of Southcentral Kentucky Community and Technical College, will serve as the new institutional at-large representative. Sandra Massey, chancellor of Arkansas State University – Newport, was selected to serve as the public at-large representative.

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