Once your career winds down, planning for and then carefully choosing a path among diverging roads makes all the difference, according to a group of six long-time community college presidents who have retired in the past five years, and who shared where they are, what they’re doing and what advice they would give others.
Their own pathways cover a spectrum, from one who says she “failed retirement” and has remained happily busy and connected to the field, to another who has shifted almost entirely to unrelated pursuits, figuring that she might as well not have retired otherwise.
Some provide executive coaching, serve on boards and otherwise hew close to what they had been doing during their years of full-time employment. Others have moved further away, geographically and mentally, pursuing some combination of writing, traveling, gardening, playing music and spending time with grandchildren.
Mark Mitsui, Portland Community College (Oregon)
Tending to deferred maintenance on both his house and himself after the “24-7” role of college president was top of mind for Mark Mitsui, who led Portland Community College from 2016-22 and North Seattle College from 2010-13, spending the three years in between as deputy assistant secretary of education for community colleges in the Obama administration.
“That was important to me, to sort of decompress and also tend to my own health and fitness,” he says, with a regular routine of walking, hiking, bicycling and yardwork, while paying more attention to nutrition. “I’ve been doing some research, and one of the approaches I came across was to reverse-engineer your health and fitness plans,” he adds, imagining what you want to do in your 80s and 90s, and figuring out how to get there, starting in your 70s.
Mitsui also has taken steps to maintain his mental acuity, learning Japanese on Duolingo and finding that the app’s self-study method works well for him, especially now that he has the time. When relatives visited from Japan, he “had the opportunity to try it out a little bit,” he says.
Reconnecting with family and friends has been a priority, with his two daughters now living back in the Seattle area, and most of his extended family in the northwest. Mitsui helped organize a family reunion, which “I would never have had the time to do while I was working.”
Mitsui has poured himself into personal reflection, most particularly in the form of writing. He’s been researching and writing about his family’s history, and he would like to branch out into fiction as well, having attended the Northwest Writers Conference a couple of years ago, with a community college campus as a possible setting. “It’s a rich context to explore.”
In addition, Mitsui and his wife would like to “ramp up” travel, and they’ve gotten more politically involved. “Those are other areas of growth for me, and things that are a little bit new,” he says. “In general, I’ve been striking a balance between newfound freedom and structure — not having too much structure or routine, but having some direction and focus.”
Sandy Shugart, Valencia College (Florida)
Sanford “Sandy” Shugart, president of Valencia College in Orlando from 2000-21, has balanced staying engaged in the field while also taking time for personal pursuits. He and his wife moved to North Carolina, and they have a mountain house in the Virginia highlands, but overall, “I’m spending surprisingly little time in either place,” he says.
Instead, Shugart has been engaged as a senior fellow with both the Aspen Institute and Quo Vadis Institute, based in Salzburg, Austria, in addition to executive coaching, traveling, writing and playing music.
“I’m probably more active than I planned to be, but I’m grateful for the work,” he says. “It’s engaging, and I’m still learning.”
Most of the executive coaching has been connected to Aspen, although Shugart has had a few private clients each year, and he’s handled “deep consulting” with a handful of community colleges through a project called Unlocking Opportunity, about “what happens, post-completion, to your students, with workforce and economic mobility.”
Quo Vadis, of which Shugart is a founding fellow, is a think tank that gathers European thought leaders to tackle the challenging questions facing the continent and find common ground and solutions.
Shugart says he tries to keep himself “unentangled” from larger consulting engagements to protect time to read, write poetry and fiction, and play music.
“Everybody asks me, ‘Can you lead us through strategic planning?’” he says. “I have to guard the time, so I can pay attention to the new priorities in my life.”
Those include seeing more of his two grandchildren, as well as touring with Sandy Shugart and the January Band, a string band that’s touring Europe this fall. The band’s namesake writes most of the songs and plays guitar, while bandmates play fiddle, mandolin and other instruments, with styles including Celtic, folk-rock, “urban folk” and Americana. They prefer smaller venues because “it’s really fun to play where you can see people’s faces and interact with them, and not be fiddling with electronics all the time,” Shugart says.
Alex Johnson, Cuyahoga Community College (Ohio)
For the first two years of his intended retirement, Alex Johnson, who led Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C) in Cleveland from 2013-22 and the Community College of Allegheny County for five years before that, still worked full time. He became a special adviser to current Tri-C President Michael Baston for a year and then interim president of Central State University, the only historically Black, land-grant, four-year university in Ohio.
After that, “I did get additional offers, but I decided it was time to pursue retirement, full force,” he says, with occasional consulting gigs.
The two previous years allowed him to mentally transition and ease into retirement, which has left him “able to face full retirement more easily,” he says. He’s still connected to the field, “but at the same time, I get to do some of the things I like most, especially service to the community, and also more relaxing things, like golf.”
Upon his retirement, Johnson and his wife moved to North Carolina for warmer weather and because he’s originally from there and wanted to be closer to his sisters and other relatives. He serves on the board of Achieving the Dream, and he is on several local advisory boards, with a focus on health issues among African American males. In addition, he’s vice chair of the board of his alma mater, Winston-Salem State University, also an HBCU.
Beyond that, Johnson is working on his third book, called “Acts of September,” which traces his life experience growing up in the South during the Civil Rights movement, how it affected him and what has transpired since.
“I’m enjoying writing that,” he says. “It’s a memoir that positions my life from a historical context.” His first two books were more about community college leadership and operational issues, he adds.
Lori Sundberg, Kirkwood Community College (Iowa)
Like Shugart and Johnson, Lori Sundberg, who led Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa from 2018-23 and Carl Sandburg College in Galesburg, Illinois, for eight years before that, moved south upon retirement — in her case, to South Carolina, to be closer to family.
While several people have asked her whether she plans to do consulting or coaching, Sundberg, a former American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) board member, has no interest.
“I just decided I wasn’t going to do that,” she says. “If I was going to do those kinds of things, I would have stayed president of Kirkwood.”
Instead, Sundberg has shifted her energies toward writing, enrolling in an online writers’ workshop with the goal of having a book proposal by the end of 12 months — and she’s decided to write about women in leadership, aimed at younger “women who are in the pipeline, about things I have observed over the years,” she says. “It is considered a memoir, plus a prescriptive; it is partly my story over the years, but also steeped in research.”
Sundberg also had a piece published in a regional magazine in South Carolina about a friendship that has last 45 years, as well as a monthly article for her local women’s club about its activities. “I’ll probably take more writing courses. I really enjoy writing,” she says.
Beyond that, Sundberg has started painting, playing pickleball, working with a personal trainer three times per week — and enjoying her four grandchildren.
“Being a community college president, over the years you miss a lot because of the schedule,” she says. “I’m enjoying being able to make up for some of that lost time.”
Constance Carroll, San Diego Community College District
After serving as chancellor of the San Diego Community College District for 17 years before she retired in 2021, Constance Carroll — who is also founder, president and CEO of the California Community College Baccalaureate Association — likes to tell friends and colleagues that she has “failed” retirement.
“I have alerted them that they will not see me in a Winnebago parked by a lake anywhere,” she says. “I enjoy service and working with colleagues in education and outside of education. I retired from one job, chancellor, in order to pursue other things in a structured manner.”
Carroll serves on about five other local and national boards, including the national Community College Baccalaureate Association.
In addition, Carroll serves the South Dakota-based Conrad Prebys Foundation, which funds medical research along with the arts and humanities, and she serves on the National Council on the Humanities, to which she was appointed by President Barack Obama. Other board involvements include the National College Promise advisory board, supporting the effort toward free tuition for students, and the advisory board for the University of California-Davis Wheelhouse, a center for community college leadership and research.
“I’m very, very active, and happy to be active,” Carroll says. “I’m available for speaking engagements at colleges or at community events. … I enjoy providing assistance to community college CEOs who want to have a sounding board regarding some of their decisions and plans—sort of an informal counseling. I will continue to be active in that regard, as well.”
Bryan Albrecht, Gateway Technical College (Wisconsin)
Like Carroll, Bryan Albrecht, who served as president of Gateway Technical College in Kenosha, Wisconsin, for 19 years before his retirement in 2022, has stayed actively engaged in both executive coaching and serving on community and professional boards, many related to education, workforce and the overall world of community colleges.
Another former AACC board member, Albrecht probably spends the largest portion of his time as an executive coach with the National Coalition of Certification Centers (NC3), helping potential leaders in the community college world advance their careers by providing insights into workforce training and developments, and, lately, he’s been doing similar work for Skills USA. He also serves on the board of the National Occupational Comprehensive Testing Institute, “which has a direct connection to skilled training and allows me to be involved the certification pathways I spent so much time on at Gateway,” he says.
In addition, Albrecht serves on the boards of Froedert South Hospital in Kenosha; STEM 101, which provides projects and other educational resources for elementary and middle school students; and two startup companies: Appion Solution, a software company focused on apprenticeships; and By Design, a career counseling software startup.
“Being engaged in the entrepreneurial spirit of startup companies keeps me excited about the future and connected to technology initiatives,” he says. “I’ve stayed in the technical college world, expanded into the university world, and I still have my heart in the K-12 world. … I want to continue serving as an executive coach. I like the idea of mentoring. It’s rewarding for me, and hopefully impactful for the students I serve.”
Albrecht also would like to write a memoir aimed at his grandsons, with whom he spends personal time participating in hobbies like fishing.
“Most of my time now is making sure that I balance the involvement I have with the personal life I would like to have — to get out and do more traveling and experience some of the rewards that serving in the technical college system has provided me,” he says.
Advice for those nearing retirement
These presidents also had advice for those about to join them in retirement. Mitsui suggests starting with the very practical financial steps of meeting with a good financial adviser, identifying what kind of lifestyle you want to pursue, and determine what assets you can count on, including Medicare and Social Security. Then, on a more personal level, assess what’s going to be different about retirement, what you will miss about working and what you will enjoy.
“The nice thing about retirement is that there are still ways to be engaged, but now you get to select which ways you get to be engaged,” he says. “You’re not going to see the folks that you’ve been spending a lot of time with; on the other hand, you have more control over your own schedule.”
Shugart advises to move toward something than away from something.
“As you think about retirement, think about what new work you’re going to engage, and what your life will be, not what you’re getting away from,” he says. “Probably the most important thing I’ve learned in this transition is not to be in too big of a hurry to allocate your time. You are making choices and not being blown about by whatever wind comes your way.”
Talk with colleagues who have recently retired about what it’s been like for them, Johnson suggests, and consider asking your board of trustees to ease the transition on both sides of the relationship by maintaining emeritus status for the first year.
“The other thing is, try to stay connected to the field, attending meetings of national organizations and things of that sort, just to make sure that … retirement doesn’t feel abrupt,” he says. “Because that’s going to happen to you. It can have an effect on you, from an emotional standpoint.”
Be patient in your transition
Johnson also advises being patient with yourself, allowing time to transition into full-time retirement.
“I want to take advantage of the time to do the things that fulfill me,” he says. “My wife and I have created a bucket list of places we’d like to see. We’ve been to Europe several times, South America several times and Hawaii. The travel is an important opportunity, as well, to experience something new.”
Sundberg similarly suggests preparing for the fact that you will be leaving behind closely connected colleagues with whom you regularly communicated and considered friends. She focused on trying to find community and connection, which “can be either through family, if they’re close by, or developing new friends,” she says.
Find physical activities you enjoy — pickleball, in her case — and take up pursuits you haven’t had time for, Sundberg adds, as she has with writing, as well as painting and joining a couple of book clubs.
“It can feel a little jarring when you walk away from all the connections you have,” she says. “It is an adjustment, that’s for sure. You have to give yourself some grace. As president, it’s 24/7/365. I was always connected, even when I was on vacation.”
Preparing yourself mentally is key, agrees Carroll, who suggests finding a middle ground between having a very rigid plan in place and planning to do nothing for six months.
“In my case, service is important to me,” she says. “Being involved in professional associations is important to me. Someone else may want to focus on writing, or doing something else or leisure. It depends upon the individual.”
Talking to a counselor or with those who have recently stepped down can bring ideas on how to structure a happy retirement, rather than just drifting into it, Carroll adds.
“Find a mixture of pleasurable activities and work activities, service activities, teaching, whatever is fulfilling,” she says, adding that she was surprised by “how many requests I would get to join boards, to do speaking.”
Albrecht similarly advises having a plan for retirement and not thinking you will just be on permanent vacation.
“You want to continue to fulfill yourself, whether through volunteerism in the community, staying connected to organizations and expanding your horizons,” he says. “All of those things give you a richer life, participating in the community in a different way. “
Finding a balance between your former work pace and completely shutting off “the valve” of emails and text messages is also important, Albrecht says.
“You will feel like people forgot about you,” he says. “You’ve got to make more effort to outreach to others, to stay connected, to stay on top of what you want to accomplish.”
