The Peralta Community College District (PCCD) is looking for a new person to lead the Student Services department at Laney College. Public forums for the three finalists for the position of Vice President of Student Services were held Monday.
The three finalists are Lily Espinoza, who is the current Assistant Director of the CREST internship program at UC Santa Cruz, as well Heather French, the Associate Vice Chancellor and Dean of Students at UC Merced and Blas Guerrero, a former Dean of Admissions at Samuel Merritt University.
The new VP will oversee a number of departments underneath the Student Services umbrella, including the Welcome Center, Financial Aid, Counseling, Admissions & Records and Student Accessibility Services. The candidate will be responsible for facilitating “student success,” according to the position’s job description, as well as facilitating professional development for student services staff, academics and classified personnel.
According to Laney College President Rudy Besikof, the college hopes to extend an offer to the selected candidate in “roughly ten days.” If the candidate accepts, the appointment must be approved by the PCCD Board of Trustees, per Administrative Procedure 7122.
PCCD initially announced Monday evening via email that the feedback forms should be submitted “no later than close of business on Friday, April 12th.” However, an email announcement on Tuesday stated that feedback forums are due Thursday at noon.
Lily Espinoza has spent 20 years working in student services across multiple colleges. She has already interviewed “at least three times” for the Vice President of Student Services position. “My eye has always been on working in administration at a community college,” she told forum attendees.
Espinoza holds multiple post-graduate degrees ranging from a Master’s in Student Personnel Administration from Columbia University to a Doctorate in Educational Leadership from Cal State Fullerton. She says her pathway has led her to hold a swath of positions in education, from “classified staff […] to being the dean” at numerous colleges.
If selected for the role, Espinoza said she would prioritize bringing new voices into leadership to avoid burn-out and “limited representation” in governance. She emphasized taking an “inventory” of leadership and asking questions such as, ”Are there term limits? Is there a rotation? Are people being scaffolded into the leadership pipeline?”
Forum attendees asked multiple questions related to classified employees, who staff a majority of the positions in the Student Services department. Espinoza plans to center classified employee morale and professional development with her leadership.
To improve student services and student outcomes, Espinoza encouraged implementation of a “holistic approach” to addressing the needs of the student body. “Are we providing that holistic support from before that student becomes a learning community member,” she asked, “all the way through alumni and […] once they get that first job?”
Espinoza acknowledged the multiple job changes on her resume, which includes positions held for time periods as short as six months and as long as five years. She attributes this budget cuts causing interruptions in her career, as well as having been a single mother. “You sometimes take positions that are really a sacrifice of your own professional growth,” she said.
Now that her son is an adult, she said, “I would love to stay at a place for 5 to 10 years. That’s really what I’m looking for.”
Heather French focused on how her previous experiences in various roles would help her to understand different aspects of the role of VPSS. She touched briefly on some of her background, starting off with her childhood in Maine, and her undergraduate degree that she received from Bradford College in Human Studies. She moved to California in 2001, shortly before attaining her Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology from Humboldt State University. She also holds an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership.
When asked how she would collaborate with the student associated body, French responded, “The student association is one of the key areas that I would look to for getting a pulse of what the concerns are for students, what are the key student needs or issues that they feel need to be addressed.”
French referenced her time working with student housing and residential life as a strong basis for determining student needs and organizing student activities. She shared that her higher education career started in that field, and that she has built up a portfolio of work related to student services
French presented what she calls her “Five-Pronged Approach” to improving student services and student outcomes, which included a student-oriented focus, support for professional staff, collaborative leadership, striving for excellence, and working through a lens of equity, justice, and diversity.
Blas Guerrero has a long history working in higher education in Northern California. This includes his roles as Dean of Student Development at Los Medanos College, Director of Strategic Diversity Recruitment Initiatives and Transfers Programs at UC Davis, and Dean of Admissions at Samuel Merritt University. He also taught at the UC level and retired from the UC System after 25 years of service. According to his LinkedIn, Guerrero is currently working as Vice President of Educational Partnerships, Services and Programs for Amistad Associates, a management consulting firm.
Guerrero was born in Monterrey, Mexico, and was raised in Ventura County by his single immigrant mother. He received a BA in Psychology from UC San Diego, as well as a masters degree in Educational Leadership and Administration and PhD in education from UC Berkeley in 2000.
During the forum, Guerrero reflected on his first professional job working in education at Laney College in which he directed a professional development program geared towards high school students who were underperforming in math and the sciences.
To improve student services and student outcomes, Guerrero emphasized the importance of building student social safety nets and learning communities, connecting students to resources, building student confidence in their learning abilities, and engaging with high schools, continuation schools, and community organizations.
“Student services doesn’t begin here on campus,” Guerrero said. “[It] begins out in the community.”
Guerrero stated, if selected as Vice President of Student Services, “I ain’t going anywhere. You got my word on it.”
Links
Lily Espinoza: Forum | Feedback | LinkedIn
