Past Keynote Speakers 

Coming Together for the Next California: Demographic Change, the Future of Work, and Our Shared Future
Dr. Chris Benner, Professor of Environmental Studies | University of California, Santa Cruz | Executive Director of the Everett Program

California is like America on fast forward. Demographic changes, rising inequality, and dramatic economic restructuring that are contributing to social tensions across the country happened in California first. As a result, California is well positioned to provide leadership in finding solutions to our pressing social and economic challenges. What is the future of work that California students of today are likely to face? Community colleges play an increasingly important role in our economic future. How can we lead with new models that can re-energize the California Dream by making equity central to policy and practice? We will explore what these broad demographic, social, and economic trends mean for educational and training paradigms, and discuss the roles that community college leaders can play in shaping our collective future.

Chris Benner is a Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the Executive Director of the Everett Program. His research focuses on the relationships between technological change, regional development, and structures of economic opportunity, focusing on regional labor markets and the transformation of work and employment patterns. Dr. Benner’s recent book, co-authored with Manuel Pastor, is Just Growth: Inclusion and Prosperity in America’s Metropolitan Regions, which helps uncover the processes, policies, and institutional arrangements that help explain how certain regions around the country have been able to consistently link prosperity and inclusion. Benner’s work has also included providing research assistance to a range of organizations promoting equity and expanded opportunity, including the Coalition on Regional Equity (Sacramento), Working Partnerships USA (San Jose), the California Labor Federation, and the Congress of South African Trade Unions, among others. He received his PhD in City and Regional Planning from the University of California, Berkeley.

Building a New College: Lessons Learned
Dr. Scott Evenbeck, Founding President | Guttman Community College

Higher education has never paid more attention to enhancing student success, retention, and graduation than now. Community colleges are currently the focus of unparalleled attention, and support. In higher education circles and state and national agencies, there exists a collective sense that community colleges must raise their game and have higher expectations for their success in serving the students who will define the country’s future. In 2012, the City University of New York (CUNY) opened Stella and Charles Guttman Community College, drawing upon the best practices of other colleges and research findings on student success. From our experiences at Guttman, we will explore: What happens when students follow a guided pathway? When there is no separate developmental work? When there is sustained attention to learning outcomes using an electronic portfolio? What characteristics define this new community college? What elements are transportable to other colleges? What can California community colleges learn from this experience?

Dr. Scott Evenbeck joined City University of New York in 2011 as the founding president of Guttman Community College. Previously, Dr. Evenbeck served as professor of psychology and founding dean of University College at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indiana (IUPUI). He joined the IUPUI faculty after completing his master’s degree and doctorate in Social Psychology at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. While at IUPUI, Dr. Evenbeck played a major role in key initiatives to support student achievement, including efforts to keep students in college. Long involved in designing, implementing, and assessing first-year experience programs for students, Evenbeck has given more than 100 presentations at academic conferences, and has written articles and chapters on academic achievement and persistence. Dr. Evenbeck also served as a taskforce advisor for the Foundations of Excellence in the First College Year and as a board member of the American Conference of Academic Deans and other national associations. In 2009, the National Learning Community conference recognized him with the lifetime achievement award.

What Did We Learn in the Last Ten Years? Where Are We Going in the Next Ten? Reflections from Three Community College Practitioners

Linda Collins, Executive Director | Career Ladders Project | LearningWorks

Bob Gabriner, Co-Director | Leading the Middle—RP Group | Director, San Francisco State University Educational Leadership Doctoral Program

Deborah Harrington, Executive Director | California Community College Success Network (3CSN) | Dean of Student Success, Los Angeles Community College District

This plenary will be a conversation about the evolution of the community colleges during the last ten years. Three community college “old timers” will share their reflections, discuss, argue, debate, and then ask the audience to join in. Four major questions will animate this conversation:

• What are the most significant developments for the community colleges in the last ten years?

• How have these developments affected our students, our faculty and staff, our leaders, and our organizations?

• Have we made progress? Where’s the evidence?

• Where are the community colleges going, and how will we get there?

Linda Collins works to foster improved student achievement, educational and career advancement for Californians—through research, policy, and direct support to community colleges and their partners. Currently, Linda oversees the California Community College Linked Learning Initiative; technical assistance for several California Career Pathways Trust regional consortia; and ongoing work to support the Career Advancement Academies, designed to connect low-income youth and adults to college and career. In state and national education policy, Linda worked with the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office to develop the statewide Ladders of Opportunity initiative and the statewide Career Advancement Academy demonstration project. Linda currently leads California’s delegation to the national Alliance for Quality Career Pathways, and is a founding member of the California EDGE Coalition. Previously, Linda taught social sciences at Los Medanos College for over 15 years and served two terms as President of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges. 

Dr. Robert Gabriner has been a faculty member, administrator, and leader in the California community colleges for over 40 years. He has held a variety of leadership positions in the RP Group since 1995, and is currently the co-director of the Leading from the Middle program. Dr. Gabriner is also a professor of educational leadership and director of the Educational Leadership Doctoral Program at San Francisco State University. Previously, he served as Vice Chancellor and Dean of Research, Planning, and Grants at City College of San Francisco for 19 years. Dr. Gabriner was also a history instructor in the Peralta Community College District for 22 years, and while a faculty member, served as president of the Community College Council of the California Federation of Teachers. He has been a leader in community college reform initiatives since 1985, including AB 1725 (1988), the Community College Accountability Act (2004), and the Student Success Task Force (2011).

Dr. Deborah L. Harrington works to improve student access, success, and equity with extensive experience as a faculty member, administrator, and leader in the California community colleges during the last three decades,. As the Executive Director of the California Community College Success Network (3CSN,) Dr. Harrington oversees the 3CSN research-driven communities of practice, leadership institutes, and regional networks, providing ongoing support to over 18,900 California educators from all 113 colleges. In the Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD), which serves nearly 160,000 students, she has been an English Professor, Writing Center Director, Dean for Institutional Effectiveness, and Vice President of Academic Affairs. Dr. Harrington has helped lead national and state efforts through equity-minded programs, including the Puente Project, Achieving the Dream, and the Diversity/Equity Scorecard Project. She additionally serves on numerous statewide committees and advisory groups including the Advisory Committee on Legislation and the Basic Skills Advisory Committee.

Design For Equity
Michael Tubbs, Fellow & Lecturer, |Institute of Design at Stanford University | City Councilmember, Stockton, CA

Given the challenges of the 21st century and the populations community colleges now serve, what tools can we harness from design thinking to evolve how community colleges effectively support students? How can school leaders connect these tools with empathy to create learning ecosystems and pathways to opportunity for the full range of traditional and non-traditional students? In this keynote address, participants will engage in a rapid design session to reflect on these questions in their own contexts.

Michael Tubbs was elected in 2012 as the youngest councilmember in the history of Stockton, California, earning more than 60% of the citywide vote. While in office, Tubbs has established literacy programs in concert with the Housing Authority and the University of the Pacific; drafted and passed Ban the Box legislation; allowing those previously convicted of a crime to apply for city jobs; piloted an anti-recidivism, back-to-work program; and created community-wide coalitions, such as the San Joaquin County Alliance for Boys and Men of Color, Reinvent South Stockton Coalition, and the Black Community Crusade. 

Tubbs has interned at both Google and the White House. He earned a bachelor’s degree with honors and a master’s degree in Policy, Organization, and Leadership studies from Stanford University. Tubbs is a Truman Scholar and a recipient of the Dinkelspiel Award, the highest award given to undergraduate students at Stanford. Tubbs founded The Phoenix Scholars and the Summer Success and Leadership Academy at the University of the Pacific, and was featured on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams and as a speaker at TEDx San Joaquin and TEDx Stanford. He has been honored as one of Black Enterprise’s “Top 40 under 40,” The Root's (www.theroot.com) “Top 25 under 25” and one of Reader Digest's “50 Things to Love about America.” He is the subject of the feature length documentary, “True Son,” which recently premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. In addition to his duties as a councilmember, Tubbs is currently a fellow and lecturer at the Institute of Design at Stanford University.

Crossing Boundaries: A Practitioner’s View on Facilitating Meaningful Dialogue and Campus Engagement (video)
Dr. Francisco Rodriguez, Chancellor | Los Angeles Community College District

Increased national attention is being paid to the significant roles community colleges play in transferring students to the university and to building the middle class through workforce training. Key to this is bolstering the educational outcomes of the institution and its students. So what roles can college leaders play in shaping productive dialogue on the prickly issues of institutional performance and student success? What can be done to create, nurture, and sustain a campus culture that can ultimately lead to improving student success and to facilitating meaningful engagement by crossing boundaries? This opening session will offer the candid views of an accidental leader who now leads the largest community college district in the nation.

Dr. Francisco Rodriguez began his tenure as Chancellor of the Los Angeles Community College District on June 1, 2014. Prior to his appointment as head of the nation’s largest community college district, Dr. Rodriguez served as Superintendent/President at MiraCosta Community College District (Oceanside, CA) for five years and President at Cosumnes River College (Sacramento, CA) for six years. Dr. Rodriguez has dedicated his career to diversity, equity and inclusion issues and to outreach to underserved communities, particularly the development of young Latino and African American males.

Expanding Student Success in the 21st Century: Innovation, Disruption or Improvement? (video)
Dr. Martha J. Kanter , Distinguished Visiting Professor of Higher Education and Senior Fellow | New York University

Some noted scholars who call themselves reformers seek to disrupt higher education under the banner of innovation. Others are frustrated that community college graduation and rates are too low. Far too many aren’t aware of the transformative evidence-based remediation and pathways models that are taking hold on many campuses, despite the chronic underfunding of two-year institutions that educate nearly half of America’s undergraduates. This keynote session will offer a national perspective of the state of evidence, progress and impact of community colleges to propel the nation’s social and economic prosperity in the 21st century.

Dr. Martha J. Kanter is a Distinguished Visiting Professor of Higher Education and Senior Fellow at New York University. In 2009, President Barack Obama nominated Dr. Kanter to serve as the U.S. Under Secretary of Education with oversight responsibility for federal postsecondary statutory, regulatory and administrative policies and programs for the U.S. Department of Education. Previously, Dr. Kanter served for sixteen years in the Foothill-De Anza Community College District as President of De Anza College and then Chancellor of the district. She began her career as an alternative high school teacher in Lexington, MA and established the first program for students with learning disabilities at San Jose City College. 

The "E" Word
Darrick Smith, Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership, Department of Leadership Studies, Organization and Leadership | University of San Francisco

As conditions of inequity persist in our society and continue to have a pervasive presence at all levels of our educational system, an examination of the assumptions that often define institutional culture and frame institutional practices is in order. This presentation will focus on the ideological and structural missteps that are commonly taken as colleges and community organizations work to improve completion rates in higher education. Attention will be paid specifically to issues of instructional support, the notion of rigor, and the social significance of the California Community College system.

Act Locally
Ken O'Donnell, Senior Director, Student Engagement and Academic Initiatives & Partnerships | California State University Office of the Chancellor

California has a legitimate interest in increasing student success, eliminating inequities and assuring high-quality degrees. These goals enjoy consensus support, but we find considerably less agreement on how best to reach them. Maybe that’s a good thing. Our colleges and universities serve a diverse state, with distinctive regional strengths, market demands and student needs. And the diversity only increases when we consider the needs of at-risk populations: interventions that work for some groups may fail others, or depend on local context. As California’s higher education leadership looks for ways to better serve the state, we will benefit from approaches that set clear goals and unequivocal metrics to judge progress. Yet, to choose how we do better, the most equitable decisions may be closest to home.

The Changing Landscape of Developmental Education
Wednesday, October 3 | 10:00 – 11:00 | Uri Treisman, Charles A. Dana Center | University of Texas, Austin

Developmental education is in the spotlight.  Just about everywhere faculty members, administrators and legislators are wrestling with the reformation of an enterprise that is widely perceived as shaped more by the weight of history than by the needs of today's academic programs or workplace needs.  I will describe what I believe to be the most promising elements of experimental work now taking place, as well as the details of some of the policies that—if not modified—would constitute a betrayal of the core mission of community colleges.   My hope for this talk is that it will lead to the creative redirection of energy now going into minor modification of current offerings to a fundamental redesign of community college pathways, focused on supporting upward social and economic mobility for our students.

2012 POWER Awards
Wednesday, October 3 | 1:00 – 1:45

Outcomes assessment directs our instructional, student service and administrative unit work by clearly describing and documenting the student knowledge, skills, abilities and beliefs that are a result of student learning activities and service interactions. It is also an important means of improving student success, guiding practice and driving institutional change. Well-designed outcomes assessment goes beyond compliance and can address multiple goals—sustainable and learner-centered implementation methods, demonstration of student progress in classes and programs and the generation of reliable and trustworthy data that document success and help guide interventions and improvement. Awards and highlights of the award winners' effective approaches will be highlighted in the lunchtime ceremony.

• Outstanding Program-Level Outcomes Assessment: La Shawn Brinson, Los Angeles Southwest College

• Local SLO Change Agent: Arkady Hanjiev, West Hills College Coalinga

• Statewide SLO Champion: Fred Hochstaedter, Monterey Peninsula College

• Lifetime Achievement: Julie Slark, retired

• Lifetime Achievement: Jerry Rudmann, retired

What’s Hope Got to Do with It?
Thursday, October 4 | 1:15 – 2:15 | Ricardo Diaz, Jim Fillpot, Sherrie Guerrero, Laura Hope & Cindy Walker | Chaffey College

In an interactive panel, faculty and staff from Chaffey College discuss the rationale for adopting an institutional emphasis on hope, engagement and well-being in both student services and instruction. Based on extensive research from the Gallup organization, one of the single most compelling long-term predictors of academic achievement is hope. But what is it? And how can educators make hope actionable? The panel will discuss ways that Chaffey, through a partnership with Gallup, is beginning to measure it, teach it, and adopt it. As Chaffey has discovered, hope is not only an actionable educational strategy but a cultural compass that has the capacity to transform the college culture.

Rethinking Remedial Education and the Academic-Vocational Divide: What the Two Cases Can Teach Us About the Curricular, Institutional, and Societal Barriers to Comprehensive Reform

Mike Rose, UCLA | Thursday, October 13, 1:15-2:30

Along with government and philanthropic initiatives to help more Americans, particularly low-income Americans, enter and succeed in post-secondary education, there is a good deal of interest in remedial education (because a significant number of students are academically underprepared) and in Career and Technical Education, because a number of students elect an occupational pathway. On the remedial front, policy makers are calling for reform of remedial education, for it has proven to present various barriers to degree completion. On the CTE front, policy makers want more academic work integrated into career courses to better prepare students for the demands of the new economy. There is currently a lot of effort on both fronts. But both remediation and CTE emerge from and carry with them assumptions about cognition and learning that will limit their effectiveness, and these assumptions are reinforced by institutional structures and status dynamics and by the forces of social class. This presentation will offer an examination of these assumptions with the goal of moving beyond them. It also offers some reflection on research methodology suited to exploring the educational and social dimensions of complex topics like remediation and CTE.

Beyond the Fear Factor

Rebecca Cox, Seton Hall University | Friday, October 14, 8:30-9:45

In this keynote, Rebecca Cox discusses a central problem of teaching and learning: gaps between faculty expectations of students and students’ actual performances.  Drawing on her research, which includes extensive classroom observations and interviews with community-college faculty and students, she will highlight the students’ experiences and perspectives, which in turn, help explain student disengagement and counterproductive behavior.

Note to Educators: Hope Required When Growing Roses in Concrete
Jeff Duncan-Andrade, Ph.D. , Assistant Professor of Raza Studies | Education Administration and Interdisciplinary Studies | Mandela High School |East Oakland | Thursday, October 7, 8:30 – 10:00 am

In this lecture, Jeff Duncan-Andrade draws from his 18 years as an urban educator to explore the concept of hope, as essential for nurturing urban youth. He first identifies three forms of “false hope”—hokey hope, mythical hope, and hope deferred—pervasive in and peddled by many urban schools. Discussion of these false hopes then gives way to Duncan-Andrade’s conception of “critical hope,” explained through the description of three necessary elements of educational practice that produce and sustain true hope.  Through the voices of young people and their teachers, and the invocation of powerful metaphor and imagery, Duncan-Andrade proclaims critical hope’s significance for an education that relieves undeserved suffering in communities.

Jeffrey Michael Reies Duncan-Andrade, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Raza Studies and Education Administration and Interdisciplinary Studies.  In addition to these duties, he continues as a high school teacher in East Oakland where for the past 18 years he has practiced and studied the use of critical pedagogy in urban schools. He currently teaches English at Mandela High School in East Oakland. Before joining the faculty at SFSU, Duncan-Andrade taught English and coached in the Oakland public schools for 10 years, and completed his doctoral studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Duncan-Andrade has lectured around the world about the elements of effective teaching in schools serving poor and working class children. He works closely with teachers, school site leaders, and school district officials nationally, and as far abroad as Brazil and New Zealand, to help them develop classroom practices and school cultures that foster self-confidence, esteem, and academic success among all students. His research interests and publications span the areas of urban schooling and curriculum change, urban teacher development and retention, critical pedagogy, and cultural and ethnic studies.  He has authored numerous journal articles and book chapters on the conditions of urban education, urban teacher support and development, and effective pedagogy in urban settings that have been published in leading journals such as Harvard Educational Review and Qualitative Studies in Education.  He recently completed two books, The Art of Critical Pedagogy: Possibilities for Moving from Theory to Practice in Urban Schools and What a Coach Can Teach a Teacher, with Peter Lang Publishing.  These books focus on effective pedagogical strategies for urban schools. He is currently completing his third book on the core competencies of highly effective urban educators with Routledge Press.

 A Federal View on Community Colleges
Frank Chong, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Community Colleges in the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Vocational and Adult Education| Thursday, October 7 , 1:15 – 1:45 pm

Dr. Chong will provide an overview of the President's College Completion Goal which states, “By 2020, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world.” Some estimate that in order to accomplish this goal, community colleges would need to graduate an additional 5 million students in the next ten years. Furthermore, the role of research will be a critical component in measuring and understanding student outcomes. Dr. Chong will discuss strategies and share approaches that will enable America’s community colleges to play a proactive role in meeting the President’s goal.

Frank Chong began his duties as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Community Colleges in the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Vocational and Adult Education, in January, 2010. Prior to coming to Washington, D.C., Dr. Chong served as president of Laney College, the flagship of the Peralta Community College District in Oakland CA. Prior to assuming the Laney College presidency, he served as president of Mission College in Santa Clara CA and Dean of Student Affairs at City College of San Francisco. He was an appointed member of the San Francisco Children and Families Commission, and was elected to the San Francisco Board of Education in 1998. From 1987 to 1991, he served as special assistant to Willie L. Brown, Jr., the Speaker of the California State Assembly. Dr. Chong has served on numerous boards focused on higher education, including the Chief Executive Officers Board of the California Community Colleges and the American Council on Education Commission on Advancement of Racial and Ethnic Equity. He is the former president and founding member of Asian Pacific Americans in Higher Education (APAHE), a national advocacy organization.  

One Journey, Many Paths
Donna McKusick, Dean | Developmental Education and Special Academic Programs | Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC)| Friday, October 8 , 8:30 – 9:45 am

In the keynote, Dr. McKusick will share CCBC’s journey of the past ten years of becoming increasingly focused on student success. This journey, spearheaded by the examination of learning outcomes and framed by national research literature, has led the college down many individual roads to increase levels of student and faculty engagement, improve outcomes for developmental learners, increase retention and graduation rates, and close achievement gaps. Strategies touched on will include acceleration in developmental education, learning communities, departmental pedagogy projects, culturally responsive instruction, and a college-wide student success course. Participants will hear about both wins and losses, effective strategies and mistakes, and will be encouraged to take an honest inventory of their own practices as they pave their own paths for student success.

Donna McKusick is dean for developmental education and special academic programs at the Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC). In this position, she coordinates all aspects of developmental education and learning assistance for the CCBC system including developmental courses, tutorial support, the academic support course, learning communities, honors, and the libraries. She has degrees in English, Reading, and Education including a doctorate from University of Maryland in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis on academic literacy. She has also received her certification in developmental education from the Kellogg Institute at Appalachian State University. Dr. McKusick has served community colleges for over thirty years in both instructional and administrative capacities. She has been the author, principle investigator, and director for major grants including Workplace Literacy, Title III, and a federal earmark for CCBC’s Closing the Gap Initiative, and she led the college to its achievement of the MetLife Community College Excellence Award in 2008. She is currently assisting in the coordination of CCBC’s participation in the National Learning Communities Demonstration Project and the Achieving the Dream program. Dr. McKusick co-authored a book with Dr. Al Starr, Making Sense: A Guide for Readers and Writers, published by Pearson. She has provided consultation, delivered presentations, and published articles on literacy, developmental education, learning communities, and closing the achievement gap in higher education.