New CEO
Marielena DeSanctis will serve as president of the Community College of Denver, effective January 15. She currently is provost and senior vice president for academic affairs and student services at Broward College in Florida. DeSanctis joined Broward in 2014, serving as president of its A. Hugh Adams Central Campus and vice president of student affairs, prior to assuming the role of provost and senior vice president in 2019. During her tenure at the college, DeSanctis used research-based best practices to reduce achievement gaps between Pell and non-Pell eligible students and course passing rates between Black and White students. DeSanctis also led the implementation of a new college readiness and enrollment program in partnership with the local school district. Prior to joining Broward, she had almost six years of experience as an engineer in private industry and 16 years of experience in K-12 and technical college education.
Interim president
Pat Hannon has been named intern president of West Georgia Technical College (WGTC) at the start of the new year. Hannon has served as vice president of administrative services, vice president of student affairs, and vice president of academic affairs over his more than 30-year career at WGTC.
New campus president
Deborah Kish Johansen is the next president of Hillsborough Community College‘s Brandon Campus (Florida). She previously served as vice president of academic affairs at Northwest Florida State College, and prior to that was vice president and chief operating officer at Rio Salado in Arizona. Kish Johansen also served as vice president of academic affairs at Aims Community College in Colorado from 2016 to 2018 and was the college’s academic dean prior to that. She also has legal and government experience, having served in positions of corporate and government legal counsel.
Appointments
Jan Knox is now Guilford Technical Community College‘s associate vice president of marketing and communications and of the GTCC Foundation. Prior to joining the North Carolina college, Knox was director of development and marketing for a nonprofit organization serving children with autism and their families.
Ashley Morris is now vice president for academic affairs at Savannah Technical College in Georgia. Morris has been the college’s dean for business and professional services since February 2019. Previously, she was dean of academic affairs and quality enhancement plan director for Albany Technical College.
Calandra Stringer, associate vice president for academic affairs at Tallahassee Community College (TCC) in Florida, has been named the college’s provost and vice president of academic affairs, as of January 1. Stringer joined the college in 2003 and has served in various leadership roles during her 17-year tenure, including director of the TCC STEM Center for six years.
At Clark State Community College in Ohio, Matt Franz has been appointed senior vice president for technology, safety and strategic initiatives, and Tiffany Hunter is now provost. Franz, who joined the college in 2013, has previously served in various positions, including director of information technology, chief information officer, vice president of information technology, and vice president of information technology and emergency management. Hunter joined Clark State in 2019 as vice president of academic affairs. Previously, she served at Florida State College-Jacksonville as dean of education and human services and as a faculty member for more than seven years.
