Dr. Tim Cook

Clark College Vice President of Instruction Dr. Tim Cook has been named President of Clackamas Community College. Dr. Cook’s appointment at Clackamas Community College comes after a national search to replace Dr. Joanne Truesdell, who has served as Clackamas Community College president since 2007.

Dr. Cook started his career at Clark College in 1997 as a faculty counselor and taught at the college for 14 years before moving into the Vice President of Instruction role. In total, Dr. Cook has spent 21 years at the college and has been an active member of the community. The move to Clackamas Community College is a move home for Dr. Cook, who is from Oregon City, Ore.

“As a first-generation community college student, I am committed to the work of community colleges, and I’m excited for this next step in my career,” Dr. Cook said. “Clark College provided me with many opportunities to positively impact the lives of students, and I’m looking forward to continuing that work at Clackamas Community College.”

“We are all very happy for Dr. Cook and know he will make an excellent president,” Clark College President Robert K. Knight said. “He has been at the heart of some of our most important initiatives, and leaves us with a great foundation due to his work on our Academic Plan and the work we have been doing to improve college completion through our involvement with the national American Association of Community Colleges Guided Pathways initiative.”

The search is underway for a new Vice President of Instruction. Dr. Cook begins his new role at Clackamas Community College on July 1, and in order to ensure a smooth transition Dr. Travis Kibota has been named Interim Vice President of Instruction. Dr. Kibota is a professor of biology who previously served as a dean at the college and in the grant development office. Dr. Kibota will not be a candidate for the permanent position. “I’m happy to have someone with Dr. Kibota’s experience and expertise step in as the interim. It will make the transition much easier,” President Knight said.

The search timeline comprises bringing candidates to the college during spring term and having a new Vice President of Instruction named before the end of the academic year. That new person would likely not start until sometime during the 2018 fall term.

Mark Magdaleno was named Interim Baseball Coach in January 2016.

Clark College has named Mark Magdaleno as its Interim Head Baseball Coach. Magdaleno takes over as the Penguins are preparing to begin practice for the upcoming season.

“Mags” takes the helm after serving as the associate head baseball coach since he was hired in August. He has spent 32 years coaching baseball at the high school and college level. Most recently he was on staff at Ventura College in California, where he also began his career in 1983. Magdaleno has extensive coaching experience in California and throughout the West. Andy Moore, Mick Ellett, and Jesse Villanueva continue to serve as assistant coaches for the team.

Director of Athletics Ann Walker says she feels fortunate to have Magdaleno and his staff leading the baseball team. “There is great energy in our baseball program right now and that is a tribute to Mags and his assistant coaches,” she says. “I am confident, through his leadership, our young men will achieve great successes, enjoy a sport they love playing, and will represent the program and athletic department in a manner we can all be proud of. I look forward to working with him and his staff and watching the team compete this spring.”

Clark College opens its 2016 season on Tuesday, March 1, against Linfield College at home.

Photo: Clark College/Nick Bremer-Korb

Students were greeted with sunshine as they started a new academic year on September 21, 2015.

The parking lots were filled. The Bookstore was bustling. And the sunshine poured down as if to comfort those who were still mourning the end of their summers as they started the 2015 fall quarter at Clark College on Monday, September 21.

View of Gaiser Hall from the new STEM Building, currently slated to open in fall 2016.

Returning students got to see how much progress had been made on the college’s new Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) Building, which broke ground last fall and is slated to open in fall 2016. What had been mostly a collection of girders when students left in June has now grown into an imposing presence on Ft. Vancouver Way with walls and roof.

This will not be the only construction students will see on the main campus this year: Gaiser will undergo a remodel in preparation for a significantly restructured and modernized Culinary Arts program, and C-TRAN’s Bus Rapid Transit Project is likely to also bring some minor construction along Ft. Vancouver Way.

While official numbers are not available until after the 10th day of class, the quarter began with 11,187 students enrolled, or 4 percent fewer students than the first day of the 2014 fall quarter. This decrease in enrollment is consistent with numbers throughout the state, as a strengthening economy has softened the enrollment spike seen during the recent recession. Oregon two-year colleges are also experiencing significant decreases in enrollment.

While enrollment declined overall, some specific segments saw increases. Running Start, which allows high school students to earn college credits while still in high school, saw its enrollment rise by 14 percent from its fall 2014 numbers to more than 2,200 students. Elearning (or online) courses grew this year by 5 percent, with more than 3,700 students taking advantage of the flexibility to take online classes at times and places that work for them. The college continued to see slow but steady growth in students of color, up 1 percent compared with fall 2014. Students of color now make up 31 percent of Clark’s student body.

Photos: Clark College/Jenny Shadley

Computer Technology instructor Bruce Elgort brings years of private-sector experience to the classroom.

On Thursday, June 11, students in Clark College instructor Bruce Elgort’s PHP and SQL programming class (CTEC 227) will face an audience. While that might be standard for a class in the performance arts, it’s less expected in a computer science course focused on complex web and application development questions. However, Elgort believes it is exactly the type of thing that will set them apart as they look for jobs.

“The most important thing is that these students are showing what they learned in solving the technical problems in front of them, but it is also important that they learn how to explain their approach and interact with clients and customers,” Elgort said.

Elgort knows, having spent several years in private industry as the president of Elguji Software and, before that, in IT roles with Sharp Electronics and Underwriter Laboratories. He continues to be engaged in national Open Source software efforts and a variety of other projects. Beyond his deep industry experience, Elgort has distinguished himself as a teacher, earning an Exceptional Faculty Award at Clark College in 2013.

Elgort invites members of the community to attend the presentations, which will take place on June 11 at 4 p.m. in Foster Auditorium on Clark College’s main campus. The crowd of 50 to 60 individuals from the tech community and Clark College are there to provide feedback and learn more about the college Computer Technology program.

Students started their projects by developing detailed application specifications for a fictitious bank called “Greenwell Bank.” Students interviewed their client to see what “the bank” needed for app functionality. Once the specs were approved, they went into the architecture and design phases. From there, they then sought continuous feedback from the application stakeholders as they coded the applications. The projects being presented include two home inventory apps, a construction bidding app, an HR employee review app, and a project management system. All of this occurred within a nine-week timeframe.

While the CTEC 227 presentations are notable for the large public audience expected to attend, many programs at Clark—including Engineering, Computer Science, Mechatronics, and Studio Art—include public presentations to industry experts as part of their final or capstone projects.

Clark College is located at 1933 Fort Vancouver Way, close to downtown Vancouver. Parking is free. Maps and directions are available online.

Individuals who need accommodation due to a disability in order to fully participate in this event should contact Clark College’s Disability Support Services Office at 360-992-2314 or 360-991-0901 (VP), or visit Penguin Union Building room 013 as soon as possible.

Clark College has received a major grant toward the college’s efforts to help low-income students complete their education. Work is already underway on the three-year Working Families Success Network (WFSN) grant, which provides $100,000 per year to hire staff and equip them to work with students.

WFSN is a program of Achieving the Dream, a partnership of seven nonprofit organizations that has grown to become the largest non-governmental reform movement working in higher education today. Achieving the Dream works at 200 higher education institutions in 34 states and the District of Columbia helping nearly 4 million college students realize greater economic opportunity.

Through the WFSN grant, Clark College will have an opportunity to provide more support to students in the areas of financial literacy, career services and gaining access to public benefits. “One of our goals is to remove the stigma and mystery surrounding some of the public benefits that students may be eligible for,” Armetta Burney, Associate Director of Workforce Education Services, said. She explained that the grant allows the college to hire four part-time coaches to work one-on-one with students, helping them to access resources and manage their finances as they reach for their educational goals.

“We also have an effort underway to help faculty and staff understand how to direct and encourage low-income students,” Burney added. “This is a large issue for the college as a whole, as 47 percent of Clark College students are classified as low-income.” Burney added that there are many ways for faculty and staff to encourage students, but one of the easiest is to share the website www.washingtonconnection.org, which helps students quickly and easily determine their eligibility for public benefits.

The grant parameters state a goal of reaching 25 percent of low-income students with both high- and low-touch services by the end of the three-year grant. High-touch services include one-on-one interactions like financial coaching, career coaching, or assistance with access to public benefits. Low-touch services include workshops, classes and general information on resources and services provided by the college.

“We know that far too many of our students are just one financial crisis away from dropping out of school, and that once they drop out it can be incredibly difficult for them to return,” said Edie Blakley, Director of Career Services. “With this grant, Clark College will be able to help more of these students weave a safety net for themselves that can allow them to stay focused on their long-term goals and create a plan for their financial wellness during and after college”

The Clark College Board of Trustees approved the 2015-2020 Strategic Plan on Wednesday night during its monthly board meeting. The Board’s approval is the final step in the approval process, and the campus will begin implementing the new strategic plan right away. According to Associate Vice President for Planning Effectiveness Shanda Diehl, the college has already begun to implement elements of the plan, as the final approval represents two years of discussion and work at the college to clarify the mission, vision, themes and values that will guide the campus over the next five years.

The updated vision statement for the college is, “Clark College inspires learners to excel, transforms lives, and strengthens our increasingly diverse community.”

The updated mission is, “Clark College, in service to the community, guides individuals to achieve their educational and professional goals.”

Beyond the mission and vision, the college developed core themes to guide its priorities for the coming five years:

• Academic Excellence: Facilitate student learning by providing the conditions for intellectual growth through scholarship, discovery, application, creativity, and critical thinking.
• Social Equity: Facilitate student learning by providing the conditions that improve educational outcomes and eliminate systemic disparities among all groups.
• Economic Vitality: Facilitate student learning by providing programs, services, and conditions that improve the economic well-being of the students, college, and community.
• Environmental Integrity: Facilitate student learning by providing the conditions that continually improve the college’s physical, virtual, and social environment.

The complete strategic plan, along with many documents that led to its creation, can be found at: http://www.clark.edu/clark-and-community/about/strategic_plan/index.php.

Three outstanding women working in different fields, but with a similar commitment to improving the lives of others in Southwest Washington, are the winners of the 2015 Iris Awards, honoring women of achievement in Southwest Washington.

The awards will be presented to Lisa Schauer, Senior Vice President for Business Development at Mackay Sposito; Lori Pulliam, Director of Transition at the Washington State School for the Blind; and Victoria Bradford, owner of Comfort Interiors and a member of the Evergreen Public Schools Board of Directors.

Schauer, Pulliam, and Bradford will be honored on March 5, 2015 in Clark College’s Gaiser Student Center. Following a 5 p.m. reception, the awards ceremony will begin at 6 p.m.

Tickets are on sale through the Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce at www.vancouverusa.com. The cost is $35 per person; a table sponsorship, which includes six tickets, can be purchased for $250. Seating is limited.

Clark College is located at 1933 Fort Vancouver Way, Vancouver. Driving directions and parking maps are available at www.clark.edu/maps. Anyone needing accommodation due to a disability in order to fully participate in this event should contact Clark College’s Disability Support Services Office at (360) 992-2314 or (VP), or visit Penguin Union Building room 013, by February 27.

The Iris Awards are a continuation of a tradition of honoring women in Southwest Washington that began in 1985 with a photography exhibit at Clark College. Over the years, the annual event has developed into an official awards ceremony, with a nomination process open to all members of the local community.

The Iris Awards are supported by Clark College, the Clark College Foundation, Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce and the Vancouver Business Journal, which publishes the “Women in Business” directory, the only Portland/Vancouver metro area directory of businesses that are owned, directed or managed by women. The Iris Award winners will be featured in the 2015 “Women in Business” directory.

The 2015 Iris Award Recipients

Lisa Schauer

Lisa Schauer, standing, goes over spreadsheets at MacKay Sposito.

Lisa Schauer is a Senior Vice President for Business Development at MacKay Sposito. She was the first female partner in the regional engineering consulting firm. As a member of the firm’s Board of Directors and Executive Committee, she is currently responsible for strategically positioning the firm’s business development and marketing efforts. Schauer is well known throughout MacKay Sposito and in the industry for her commitment to people and mentoring, including launching the company’s Veteran’s Council, in 2013 to recognize and support veterans.

Schauer is equally well known through her involvement in the community. She is on the Chair of the Board of Directors for the Children’s Center and was a Founding Board Director and is currently the Chair of H-RoC Political Action Committee, a non-partisan group formed to advance women leaders in Southwest Washington. She has served on many other boards and leadership positions.

Lori Pulliam

Lori Pullman working with a member of the LIFT program.

Lori Pulliam has been teaching at the Washington State School for the Blind for 32 years, and currently manages the residential department which provides residential services and education to our middle and high school students, and the LIFTT program, which teaches young adults with visual impairment skills of independent living. Throughout these 32 years she has taught students with deaf-blindness, worked with students from WSSB who were taking classes in the local public schools, taught career education and worked with students in community based work experience placements.

Lori has helped develop programs to improve employment prospects for blind students. She was part of a team that developed the Youth Employment Solutions (YES), a summer career education and work experience program for students with visual impairment. She has been a long time staff member for a summer course for public school educators. Lori has served on boards and commissions in the state. Currently she is serving on the Disability Transition Task Force. Locally she is a member of the Fort Vancouver Lions Club and has given her time to coaching soccer and participating in efforts like the Walk and Knock Food Drive.

Victoria Bradford

Victoria in her interior design shop, Comfort Interiors.

Victoria Bradford is the owner of Comfort Interiors. She bought the interior design business in 2000, and under Bradford’s ownership, the company has won awards in both the Vancouver Parade of Homes and the Portland Street of Dreams.  She is also one of the founders of Pomeroy Equitable Solutions, a company created to give businesses the opportunity to partner with schools to fund needed programs.

Beyond her full-time duties as a business owner, Bradford has served on the Evergreen Public Schools Board of Directors for the past 15 years. Bradford has served four times as Board President and Vice President, as well as the legislative representative and federal liaison for both the EPS District and the Washington State School Directors Association. The Evergreen Public School District is the fourth-largest school district in the state, and the third-largest employer in Clark County, with more than 27,000 students and an annual budget of over $240 million.  She has been a leader during highs and lows in the district, from the budget cuts of the late 2000s to the opening or remodeling of 15 schools.  A signature achievement was her instrumental role in researching and establishing Henrietta Lacks (HeLa) High, a bioscience and healthcare high school, in the district. Bradford is also a founder of the Quality Schools Coalition of SW Washington.

Bradford is a member of the Vancouver Downtown Association. She is on the Development Committee at The Fort Vancouver National Trust and has parlayed her love of ballroom dancing into best dance honors at the Trust’s 2012 Dancing with the Local Stars competition.

Photos: Clark College/Jenny Shadley

On Saturday, February 28, the Penguin Athletic Club, in conjunction with the Athletics Department at Clark College, will hold the annual Clark College Athletic Hall of Fame banquet and induction ceremony at 5 p.m. in the Penguin Union Building. The banquet and ceremony will take place after the women’s and men’s basketball games that day, which start at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. respectively. The inductees will be honored during halftime of the men’s game.

This year’s honorees include:

Lisa Boe (Women’s Basketball) helped lead her team to 55 wins during her two seasons at Clark College. In 1989 the Penguins won the NWAACC (now NWAC) Championship; in 1990, they finished second. Boe was First Team All-NWAACC both years and MVP of the league one year. She was selected to the All-Tournament team both years, and was MVP of tourney one year. Boe, who went on to play at the University of Central Missouri, and is currently a Portland police officer.

Coach George Fullerton (Track & Field) coached Track at Clark for 24 years (1958-1989), guiding his student athletes to the 1960 NWAACC Track & Field Championship, as well as numerous regional championships during the course of his career. Fullerton lives in Vancouver.

Denny Huston received his Associate of Arts degree from Clark, where he was student athlete (1959-1961), coach (1965-1969), and Athletic Director (2008-2011). He also coached basketball at Camas High School and had many coaching stints at the college level from 1963 to 1992.

The 1989 Women’s Basketball Team won Clark’s first NWACC basketball championship, finishing the season 27-6. (pictured at top)

For more information on this event, please access the Hall of Fame link at http://www.clarkpenguins.com/hof.aspx. Individuals can also register online by February 21 at www.cvent.com/d/krq8gg. Tickets are $25.00 per person.

If you need accommodation due to a disability in order to fully participate in this event, you should contact Clark College’s Disability Support Services Office at 360-992-2314 or 360-991-0901 (VP), or visit Penguin Union Building room 013 as soon as possible.

This has been a year of highlights for Clark’s Dental Hygiene program, including the opening of the Firstenburg Family Dental Hygiene Education and Care Center and now the introduction of a Bachelor of Applied Science degree.

The Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU) has approved Clark College’s proposal to add the college’s first baccalaureate degree. Starting in the fall of 2015 the college will offer a Bachelor of Applied Science in Dental Hygiene.

The B.A.S. in Dental Hygiene will benefit both students and the community, according to Dr. Tim Cook, Vice President of Instruction at Clark College.  He explained that this program opens up additional job opportunities to students, while adding very few additional courses to their degree plan. “Previously, students in the Associate of Applied Science program in Dental Hygiene were here for four or more years because of the requirements of the program,” Dr. Cook said. “Being able to offer this degree allows Clark students to earn a bachelor’s degree in the same time.” The new program builds on the current dental hygiene program, with an increased emphasis on research and educational methodologies. Because all dental hygiene curriculum is standardized by the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA), minimal changes to the A.A. program are required.

The new B.A.S. in Dental Hygiene is Clark College’s first baccalaureate degree.  Students with an associate degree are typically employed in private practice offices or clinics.  The bachelor’s degree provides opportunities for dental hygienists to work in dental sales, public health, and research.  “Like many other healthcare professions, dental hygiene has experienced a gradual yet steady movement toward the bachelor’s degree as the desirable degree for entry-level professionals,” Dr. Cook stated.

The approval of this program caps off a year of highlights for the program, including the opening of the Firstenburg Family Dental Hygiene Education and Care Center. The $3.3 million renovation was funded by donations from a variety of entities including the Firstenburg Foundation, Roy and Virginia Andersen Endowment, M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, John A. and Helen M. Cartales Foundation, and many others.  Renovations of the space allow the program to serve more students and more patients – particularly children and underserved populations.

The addition of the B.A.S. in Dental Hygiene is part of a larger push to expand access to baccalaureate education in Washington State that began with the passage of HB1794 by the Washington Legislature in 2005. This bill, which included language allowing community and technical colleges to begin offering applied baccalaureate degree programs, was designed to meet the state’s goal of increasing the number of baccalaureate degrees earned in Washington to 42,400 by 2019. As of the fall of 2013, there are 11 colleges in the State Board of Community and Technical College (SBCTC) system offering 23 different applied baccalaureate degrees.

Applied baccalaureate programs are seen as a perfect fit for community and technical colleges because they fill the gap some employers are finding in filling jobs that require both technical proficiency and the skills that a baccalaureate degree typically provides. These degrees also broaden the range of jobs and promotion opportunities available to students, both key goals for community and technical colleges.

Clark’s new website features improved navigation and a mobile-friendly format.

Clark College is launching a new website today that will help improve navigation, expand access forstudents, and ensure timely updates to content. The website, which uses the same clark.edu address as the college’s former website, features a new, mobile-friendly format that can be viewed on a variety of platforms and devices.

The new site also includes a variety of helpful features to aid students in navigating to the information they need. A prominent box on the home page includes links to frequently used pages; for more detailed searches, the website’s “Clark A-Z” page has been expanded to offer visitors direct links to even more services. This page and other navigation tools are now easily findable through the “Directories” link on the right side of the top navigation menu found on every page.

For students, the “Current Students” page (also easily found in the top navigation menu that appears on every page, under “Clark Students”) has been improved with a clean layout that helps students easily access the information they need–including schedule planning, online registration, and student email.

Behind the scenes, a new content management system has streamlined departments’ abilities to update information on their web pages, ensuring that important departmental information gets updated regularly by the people who understand it best. The college’s Communications & Marketing Department will continue to oversee the website’s look and operation.

The new site is the work of not just Communications & Marketing, but of dozens of Clark staff and faculty members who collaborated on content and navigation, trained to become content managers, and worked to improve the content on their respective departments’ pages. Many months in the making, this new website will continue to develop after launch, with new features like a mobile-friendly online map to the main campus already in the works.

Visitors to the site are encouraged to contact commark@clark.edu with any questions, notes for improvement, or concerns.