Progress continues on Clark’s new president search. In October the Board of Trustees approved the Presidential Profile created by our Search Advisory Committee with input from the college and community. A contracted search firm, Gold Hill Associates, immediately reached out to its national network to cultivate candidates. The position was also posted by Clark’s Human Resources team to nearly 30 diverse job sites, organizations, and networks – locally, regionally, and nationally.
Friday November 15 marked the posting period close with 60 applicants. The Search Advisory Committee is currently evaluating 21 applicant packages advanced to the college by Gold Hill. On completion of this evaluation the Committee will select eight to nine semi-finalists for video interviews. On completion of those video interviews, three or four finalist recommendations are then expected to be presented by the Committee to the Board of Trustees for approval to advance at their December board meeting.
As indicated on our search timeline, finalists will be invited to the College in January for constituent panel interviews and public forums, and follow up evaluation with their college. It is expected that the Board of Trustees will be making their selection by the end of February 2020, and that the new President will begin onboarding in the summer of 2020 in preparation for the 2020-21 academic year.
The Board of Trustees thanks everyone who is supporting this important work for the college, our students and staff, and our community.
Clark College announced today November 14, 2019 that Rashida Willard has accepted the position of Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the college effective immediately.
“Rashida has earned the respect of her peers, our students and the
community as a strong and effective leader,” said Clark College Interim
President Sandra Fowler-Hill who made the appointment. “She has created and
developed structures, spaces and programs to help remove barriers for students
and she’s leading the effort to create a culturally competent campus to help
students succeed. The college is thrilled to make this announcement.”
Willard joined Clark College four years ago as Operations Manager
of Administrative Services. She has taught as an adjunct professor, has served
as Director of Operations and Risk Manager, and for the past 17 months has
served as Interim Associate Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
During that time, she has developed, aligned and integrated new
and existing initiatives and procedures into a cohesive platform to foster a
more inclusive, welcoming and diverse college community.
“I am deeply invested in this work, and am passionate about
creating inclusive, safe and welcoming environments where all students have maximum opportunities to succeed,” Willard said.
“I am eager to move forward in community and collaboration, building on our
team’s momentum of the last several months.”
Willard was
a participant and graduate of the Social Justice Leadership Institute for the
Washington State Community College System in 2017-2018 and was nominated as a
Real Hero by the Learn Here Project in 2018. She is also a part of the
Vancouver Police Chief’s Diversity Advisory Team.
Willard
holds a master’s degree in Business Administration, a bachelor’s degree in
Business Administration, and an associate degree in Organizational Dynamics.
She is currently attending Concordia University, pursuing a doctorate in
Education with a concentration in Professional Leadership, Inquiry and
Transformation. Her current research explores strategies that faculty and staff
employ to create culturally engaging spaces for students of color attending
predominantly white institutions and how campus racial climate affects their
persistence and completion rates. This research will be used to examine and
identify strategies to close the equity gap among students of color in higher
education.
Clark College takes next step in hiring new president
Community and college representatives selected to screen and recommend finalists for the next Clark College President.
Community and college representatives have come together to form a Presidential Search Advisory Committee at Clark College. Their job will be to screen applicants and recommend presidential candidate finalists to the Clark College Board of Trustees.
The committee met for the first time on October 11 to review the process, participate in implicit bias training ,and discuss the job description for the next president. The composition of the committee is outlined in Clark College policy 610.025. It includes community leaders as well as college students, staff and faculty.
Suzanne Southerland, Professor of Communication Studies
Al Schauer, Founder PointNorth Consulting
Paul Speer, Clark College Board of Trustees Presidential Search Lead
Brian Taylor, Industrial Sales Manager Siemens
Vicki Sovold-Prendergast, Mount Pleasant School District Superintendent
Dr. Siri Wickramaratne, Geography Instructor
Rashida Willard, Clark College Office Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
The committee’s work is supported by non-voting members Dr. Preston Pulliams, CEO of Gold Hill Associates, and Stephanie Weldy, Interim Executive Assistant to the Board of Trustees.
“Diverse community involvement is key to a transparent, equitable and inclusive process,” said Paul Speer, search lead and member of the Clark College Board of Trustees. “This is a moment in history for Clark College. Our next president will shape the future of the college supporting our students, community, faculty and staff.”
The Board of Trustees, with assistance
from the committee, has now approved the job description which is posted and
being distributed nationwide. It can be found at https://collegepresidentsearch.com/searches/.
Preston Pulliams of Gold Hill Associates is conducting the candidate search. In early October, he held two open houses and conducted numerous individual interviews to get input on the college’s opportunities, challenges and hopes for a new president over the next decade.
The Search Advisory Committee will meet
again in early November to participate in an equity in hiring workshop.
Candidate applications are due mid November. The Committee will review the
qualifying applications and select semi-finalists by late November.
The Board of Trustees plans to approve finalists in December, providing sufficient time to have the candidates visit Clark College in January for interviews, community and college forums. The Board plans to announce the new president in February 2020.
“It’s the most important work we will
do as a board of trustees,” said Speer.
Clark College celebrates ten years at Columbia Tech
The ribbon is cut on the next 10 years of Clark College at CTC.
Clark College Interim President Sandra Fowler-Hill and ASCC President Evans Kaame celebrate the 10th anniversary of Clark College at Columbia Tech Center with a traditional Vancouver Chamber of Commerce ribbon-cutting.
Business and community leaders joined Clark College on Monday, October 14 for a Vancouver Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting to celebrate a milestone. Clark College first opened Columbia Tech Center in east Clark County in fall 2009.
Responding to feedback from employers and residents in East Vancouver, the college refreshed its offerings at Columbia Tech Center to be a hub for business and technical education.
“Columbia Tech Center is today a bustling campus on the east side with a wide range of programs available to our students. We are grateful for the community’s support over the years and renew our commitment to serving the community in a way that best meets their needs.”
Clark College Interim President Sandra Fowler-Hill
ASCC President Evans Kaame and Clark College Interim President Sandra Fowler-Hill
The
college has worked to create a series of course offerings this fall that will
allow students to pursue career-oriented higher education in subjects that
include business, information technology, computer support, and project management—all
without having to travel to the college’s main campus near downtown Vancouver.
Most classes are scheduled to run just two days a week (Tuesday and Thursday),
allowing students to plan their studies around work and/or life obligations.
We are committed to offering business classes at Columbia Tech to provide our students viable pathways forward to earning the new skills that they need to be successful–whether that be a single course, a certificate or a degree.”
Professor Adnan Hamideh, Division Chair, Clark College Business Administration Department
Hamideh is also preparing to create a business degree path for office administration, he said. The school already offers accounting, marketing, management and business administration. About 7,000 full-time students take business classes at Clark College he said.
Last month, ECD moved its business classes from a leased space in downtown Vancouver to the Columbia Tech Center, said Kevin Witte, vice president of the program. The move was in part a way to help the college save money, but it also moved students closer to some of the city’s larger employers, including WaferTech.
Witte said participating employers include Boeing Co, and they request specific skills for students to learn, which the college incorporates into its training.
Business leaders take a tour of Clark College’s Mechatronics program at Clark College Columbia Tech Center
Business and community leaders toured the college’s nationally recognized Mechatronics lab. The engineering program focuses on both electrical and mechanical systems. It is a foundational training program for advanced manufacturing. Graduates earn an average of $88,000 as mechatronics engineers and 100 percent of Clark’s graduates are finding jobs in their chosen field.
The college has also expanded the range of class offerings serving Running Start students, a popular state program that allows high school students to earn college credit, tuition-free, while still in high school. The expanded offerings provide more opportunities for families with children attending high schools in the eastern portion of the college’s service district, which covers Camas, Washougal, and parts of the Columbia Gorge.
ASCC President Evans Kaame spoke to the business leaders and elected officials thanking them for their support of Clark College students over the years.
“Because you care, students at Clark have opportunities to succeed. Our students are better prepared to go out and do great things.”
ASCC President Evans Kaame
ASCC President Evans Kaame and Vancouver Chamber of Commerce staff
Presidential search open houses
Clark College reached out for community and college input on the selection of the next college President this past week. The search firm, Gold Hill Associates, held an open house as one source of input on what the job profile should include. The profile will be used as the job description during the recruitment process, which begins formally later this month.
There is no formal presentation. “We want this to be a conversation around the priorities of the community and the college,” said Clark College Trustee Paul Speer. “Specifically, we have three questions. (1) What do people see as the biggest opportunities for Clark College over the next decade? (2) What do people see as the biggest challenges for Clark over the next decade? (3) What do people think are the most important qualifications for our new president?”
Clark College will soon announce the formation of it’s Presidential Search Advisory Committee comprised of college students, staff, faculty and community leaders who, with an equity lens, will assist in the search process. They attended equity training sessions Friday, October 11th as their first order of business. They will help formalize the job description to be released later this month.
The Board of Trustees are responsible for the hiring of the next college president. They anticipate a final decision by February 2020. For more information about the process please go to www.clark.edu/presidential-search.
All
interested candidates should contact Gold Hill Associates for questions
regarding the application process or inquiries.
Chippi Bello, far right top, with the cohort of Social Justice Leaders from Washington State.
Left to right: Hanan Al-Zubaidy, Kayla Escott, and Chippi Bello
Congratulations to Hanan Al-Zubaidy, Chippi Bello, and Kayla Escott, Clark College’s three representatives at the Social Justice Leadership Institute this year. They have demonstrated a commitment to making our college a more inclusive and social justice-minded place.
This is a yearlong program to foster leadership identity among historically underrepresented groups. It allows leaders to develop a network of colleagues system wide. It also helps develop a pipeline of employees able to move into higher leadership positions.
Clark’s representatives attended at three-day retreat in August to kick off the program. They’ll attend five workshops during the academic year and will graduate from the program in June. As part of the curriculum, they’ll attend the Faculty and Staff of Color Conference (FSOCC) to be held in Spokane next month.
Clark College Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion supports this program. It helps to develop and implement comprehensive professional development to improve employee intercultural and multicultural competencies as part of the college’s strategic goals.
Images provided by Chippi Bello.
Making a match: Clark students and manufacturers
Mechatronics lab at Clark College
Clark College and ESD 112 are now hosting Washington’s newest Center of Excellence, a hub for connecting the region’s students and employers through job training and coordination. The local office is known as the Center of Excellence for Semiconductors & Electronic Manufacturing.
It’s the 11th office of its type in the state. The centers were created by the state Board for Community and Technical Colleges in 2004. They’re intended to serve as liaisons between local schools and industries, providing career opportunities for students and helping industries maintain skilled workforces.
“This is a great opportunity for students at Clark College,” says Dr. Sandra Fowler-Hill, Interim President of Clark College. “Working strategically with our industry partners, we can help develop the talent pipeline within advanced manufacturing that will allow local manufacturers to grow and will provide outstanding opportunities for our students to succeed.”
Each center is built around an industry that plays a major role in the local economy, such as a clean energy center at Centralia College and a marine manufacturing and technology center at Skagit Valley College.
The new Clark County center focuses on semiconductors and electronics, due to the presence of several big electronics companies in the area, including silicon-wafer manufacturer SEH America, a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Shin-Etsu Handotai Ltd.
“We have an electronic and semiconductor hub here in Southwest Washington that we’d like to support,” said Mohammed Maraee, the new center’s associate director. Maraee lives in Vancouver and previously worked for the Oregon Manufacturing Innovation Center and has taught business administration at Portland Community College.
The Clark County center operates under the leadership of an existing center at Everett Community College that focuses on aerospace and advanced manufacturing. It has a primary office at the main Educational Service District 112 building and a satellite office at Clark College, Maraee said.
Clark College is well positioned to support the new center, with programs like computer technology, welding, and mechatronics that provide graduates with the skills needed for today’s jobs in advanced manufacturing. The college has also announced that the first building in its future satellite location in Ridgefield, Clark College at Boschma Farms, will be dedicated to advanced manufacturing.
The new center is funded by $300,000 allocated by the state legislature in the 2019-21 budget. Its partners include Clark College, local K-12 schools, and the Southwest Washington High Technology Council.
The council is made up of representatives from several high-tech companies that are either headquartered or have a significant presence in Clark County, including SEH America, nLIGHT, WaferTech, and Silicon Forest Electronics. The group was at the center of the legislative effort to secure funding for the new center.
The group is chaired by Ben Bagherpour, vice president of site services and government affairs at SEH America, who also serves a member of the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges.
“The [High Technology Council] is pleased to now have a single point of contact that we can reach out to,” Bagherpour said in a statement. “The associate director will be our point person to understand high-tech manufacturing companies’ workforce and education needs and to work with the K-12 and higher education systems to develop and align programs to meet these needs.”
SEH America has been involved in previous local pipeline efforts aimed at addressing concerns about attracting and retaining a skilled technical workforce. Last year, the company launched a pilot program called Career Launch, offering participants paid part-time apprenticeships at SEH paired with tuition assistance for students at Clark College.
The program is expanding for the 2019-2020 school year, Bagherpour said, and will now include similar opportunities at some of the other council companies. It will also be incorporated into the new center and further developed along with future programs as the center continues to grow.
Photos: Clark College/Jenny Shadley
Clark College student works her dream job
Jeni Banceu now reporting for the Columbian Newspaper (photo courtesy of Annika Larman)
If you read the Columbian, you may see a familiar byline: that of Clark College student Jeni Banceu. As reported in that newspaper, she is the first Clark College student to work at the Columbian as a paid news intern.
The newly endowed Dee Anne Finken internship is a partnership between the Columbian, Clark College, and Clark College Foundation. It is named for Clark’s former journalism professor, who served as academic advisor to the college’s student news publication, The Independent, before retiring in 2018. Her successor, Beth Slovic, organized the campaign and raised money to create the paid internship for the summer.
“We liked Jeni’s can-do attitude and maturity, and her story about the homeless person living in the RV [published in The Independent in June 2018] was in my opinion a great read for a beginning journalist,” Columbian Editor Craig Brown wrote in an email.
Banceu’s stories are regularly appearing in the Columbian. “I feel so lucky to have been chosen for the Dee Ann FInken Internship,” she said. “I look forward to writing as much as I can and gaining new skills. I also look forward to getting to know our amazing local journalists.”
Banceu will return to Clark College in fall quarter serving as editor-in-chief of The Independent (nicknamed “The Indy”).
Also kudos to The Independent for its most recent journalism award.
The news magazine and website won first place in the “sweeps” category of the annual contest hosted by the Pacific Northwest Association of Journalism Educators. That means individual Indy journalists won first, second, and third place more than did students from any other Oregon or Washington college that entered.
The Indy is recognized as a top community college news publication in the nation, having received numerous regional and national awards.
Clark College announces new Interim President
Dr. Sandra Fowler-Hill
The Clark College Board of Trustees voted unanimously tonight to offer the interim college presidency to Dr. Sandra A. Fowler-Hill.
She
has accepted, pending completion of contract negotiations. The decision was made at a special board
meeting Tuesday June 25 following a two-month process led by the Board of
Trustees with support from a national search firm.
The successful
candidate was selected after a series of interviews with faculty, staff,
students, and trustees, as well as a collegewide open forum. “We
received many comments through the process, which were all taken into
consideration as we made our deliberations,” said Trustee Paul Speer. “We had
three excellent candidates and we think Dr. Fowler-Hill will be a tremendous
asset to our college during this year of transition.”
Dr. Sandra A.
Fowler-Hill is an experienced leader in higher education, having served as
President of Portland Community College’s Rock Creek Campus from 2014 to 2018.
She has also served as Vice President of Instruction at Everett Community
College and Dean for Student Learning at Cascadia Community College. She began
her career at Olympic College, where she worked for 19 years, beginning as
program manager of Women’s Programs, then moving into a tenured faculty position
before being named to the position of Dean for Social Science and Humanities. Since
retiring from PCC Rock Creek, she has served as a consultant for the
Association of Community College Trustees. She earned her bachelor’s degree in
Applied Behavioral Science from George Williams College in Downers Grove,
Illinois; her master’s degree in Human Development Counseling from the
University of Illinois at Springfield; and her doctorate degree in Community
College Leadership from Oregon State University.
Retiring
President Bob Knight will meet with the incoming President to help with the
transition, both before and after his planned retirement date of July 15, 2019.
“We are grateful to Bob Knight for his leadership. This marks
a major milestone in Clark’s history. By appointing an interim president for
the year, the college and the community will have ample time to recruit,
screen, interview and interact with candidates for the permanent position,”
said Speer. “We want this to be a robust, inclusive and transparent process.”
Located
in Vancouver’s Central Park and serving up to 12,000 students per quarter,
Clark College is Southwest Washington’s largest public institution of higher
education. The college currently offers classes at two satellite locations: one
on the Washington State University Vancouver campus and one in the Columbia
Tech Center in East Vancouver. Additionally, its Economic & Community
Development program is housed in the Columbia Bank building in downtown
Vancouver.
