A post-announcement selfie statement with Interim Chancellor Dr. Daisy Gonzales, Board member Pamela Haynes (standing), Board of Governors President Amy M. Costa, Chancellor-Select Dr. Sonya Christian, and Board of Governors Vice President Hildegarde B. Aguinaldo.

Congratulations to Dr. Sonya Christian, CVHEC board member, on her historic appointment Feb. 23 as chancellor of the California Community Colleges System, the largest and most diverse system of public higher education in the nation.

Chancellor-select Christian is the first Asian-American and the first woman to serve as chancellor for the CCC as well as a first-generation college graduate.

As current chancellor of the Kern Community College District, and previously as president of KCCD’s Bakersfield College (2013- 2021), Dr. Christian serves on the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium Board of Directors.

“I am honored to be selected as chancellor, and I am grateful for the leadership and collective work that has created the largest and best community college system in the nation,” said Chancellor-Select Christian. “I do feel a sense of urgency and moral obligation to the job at hand.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom said, “Dr. Christian is one of our nation’s most dynamic college leaders, with a demonstrated record of collaboration and results in the Central Valley. She understands what is needed to deliver on record levels of higher education investment to make real improvements to the lived reality of our students. I look forward to continuing to partner with Dr. Christian to ensure our community colleges are engines of equity and opportunity.”

Her appointment to head the state CC system drew praise from her colleagues on the CVHEC board, which is made up of the presidents and chancellors of 28 member institutions of higher education in the Central Valley’s nine-county region from San Joaquin to Kern Counties including 15 community colleges and four multi-campus community college districts.

“It will be wonderful to have a leader in the system office that understands the unique complexities of leading institutions in rural communities,” said Dr. Kristin Clark, chancellor of WHCCD who serves as chair of the CVHEC board.

Dr. Benjamin T. Duran, CVHEC executive director, said “The CCC Board of Governors made a wise choice by selecting a leader who has proven she understands California’s community colleges and will advocate on their behalf at the state and national level.

“Chancellor-select Christian’s CVHEC colleagues in the nine-county Central Valley are delighted because, as the new chancellor, she understands the needs and challenges of community colleges in the rural areas of California and the students and communities they serve,” he said in a statement Feb 23 upon the announcement.

“They join me in conveying the region’s pride in the selection of a talented and dedicated Central Valley woman as the chancellor of the California Community Colleges,” added Dr. Duran who also is president-emeritus of Merced College.

Chancellor-select Christian will begin her duties June , 2023 filling the position vacated by Chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley in August when he stepped down after leading the community college system for nearly six years. Dr. Daisy Gonzales will continue to serve as interim chancellor until Christian takes office.

See the CVHEC statements.
See the CCC press release. 

See CVHEC blogs: PART 1 • PART 2

See media coverage of CCC Chancellor-Select Christian:
• Los Angeles Times   • San Francisco Chronicle    • EdSource   • LAist   • Cal Matters   • Diverse Issues HE  • Bakersfield Californian   • Inside Higher Ed    • The Renegade Rip   • KGET (NBC)   • KBAK (CBS)    • KERO (ABC)   • Community College Daily

MA Upskilling Project Will Seek Community College Professors to Mentor HS Teachers

Two veteran Kern County educators have been named faculty mentor coordinators for the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium’s Kern Master’s Upskilling Project that was launched last year to help high school teachers earn master’s degrees in Math or English so they can teach dual enrollment courses on their campus.

Dr. Liz Rozell and Dr. Vikash Lakhani will coordinate the Kern program, announced Tom Burke, the Kern MA Upskilling lead for CVHEC.

The Kern Master’s Upskill Program is a partnership between the Kern Regional K-16 Education Collaborative and the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium that was launched in 2022 as part of an $18 million statewide competitive grant awarded to the collaborative to improve student progress from high school to postsecondary education and ultimately into the workforce.

Dual enrollment is one pathway the K-16 state grant will achieve its objectives with the upskill program providing 100 South Valley high school teachers the opportunity to earn a master’s degree that achieves state qualifications for teaching community college dual enrollment English and math courses at local high schools. The participating high school teachers will be paired with community college professors who will serve as mentors.

The first cohorts of 21 math students and 25 English students in the Kern Master’s Upskill Program began courses last month through Fresno Pacific University and National University respectively.

With the faculty mentor coordinators now in place, Burke said the project will begin planning to launch its mentor recruiting campaign this summer. Community college professors who serve as mentors will be paid two stipends of $1,000 each during their mentorship period.  Details about the application process will be available in the March issue of the CVHEC newsletter, Burke added.

As faculty mentor coordinators, Rozell and Lakhani will work cooperatively with Burke to recruit, assign and coordinate professors from community colleges as mentors for high school teachers participating in the Kern MA Upskilling Project.

“I look forward to working with Liz and Vikash over the next couple of years on this very important project to increase Kern County’s capacity to deliver dual enrollment courses at our local high schools,” Burke added.

Dr. Lakhani, who will serve as the English faculty mentor coordinator, has over 20 years in higher education administration.

Most recently, he was the vice president for Student Services at Palomar College in San Marcos, CA  serving as: the chief Student Services officer providing direct oversight to Enrollment Services; Counseling, Equity and Student Success; College Health Services including Behavioral Health; Student Life and Leadership and Athletics. Previously he was the assistant vice president for Student Success/Student Affairs at California State University, Bakersfield and the associate vice president for Enrollment Management at Humboldt State University.

Dr. Lakhani holds a BSc. in Information Technology from United States International University-Kenya, a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from CSU, Bakersfield and a Doctorate in Educational Leadership (Ed.D.) from Fresno State (the latter two are CVHEC member institutions). He is currently working on establishing a center that provides a globally known math and reading enrichment program in the Bakersfield area.

Burke said that during his tenure at CSUB, Dr. Lakhani provided leadership to numerous initiatives and programs that advanced the campus in meeting its student success goals.

“Some of his noted career accomplishments include his leadership on K-12 partnership programs such as the launch of the University Promise at CSUB, partnerships developed with Bakersfield College where he provided leadership for the Finish in 4 Program and the Program Pathways Mapper — and his success in securing funding from external agencies,” said Burke, who also is chancellor-emeritus of Kern Community College District.

Dr. Rozell, who will serve as Math faculty mentor coordinator,  currently serves as the senior adviser to the Kern Community College District chancellor in the areas of Baccalaureate Degrees and Energy.

Dr. Rozell retired in 2019 after 30 years at Bakersfield College serving in various roles including mathematics and engineering faculty, faculty chair, dean of Instruction and vice president of Instruction.

One of the highlights of her administrative career was leading the college in the development of its first baccalaureate degree in Industrial Automation.

She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics and Physics from Houston Christian University, a Master’s of Engineering degree in Industrial Engineering from Texas A&M, and doctoral studies in Industrial Engineering at Texas A&M University and Colorado State University.

For more information and a mentorship application,  contact the mentor coordinators:

(Math) – lizrozell@gmail.com;    (English) – vikashlakhani@hotmail.com.   

 

See Related Links:

• CVHEC Teacher Upskilling Program for Master’s Degrees Supports Dual Enrollment in South Valley via Kern K-16 Collaborative Grant with Central Valley Higher Education Consortium
• Tom Burke Named Kern Master’s Upskill Lead
• KCSOS Mary Barlow Announces $18.1M Workforce Grant (KCSOS press release – June 9, 2022)
• State announces recipients of $108.6 million in grants to streamline transition from school to college and career– (EdSource May 26, 2022) 
• D Herrera to Head Kern Regional K-16 Education Collaborative– (CVHEC e-Newsletter July, 2022)
• “Blurring the Lines Between High School and College: Dual Enrollment in the Central Valley”(CVHEC video – March 2022)
• ‘Dual Enrollment Upskilling Teachers Master’s Program’ Advances Equity(CVHEC e-Newsletter January 2021)
• Kern Education Pledge
• B3K Prosperity

 

 

 

(UPDATE May 26, 2023) – See Math Bridge Kickoff May 18 coverage.

 

BY TOM URIBES
CVHEC Communications Coordinator

(JANUARY 24, 2023) — Six rural Central Valley Higher Education Consortium member institutions will partner with 21 high schools to promote equity in mathematics via dual enrollment courses for Black or Latino students thanks to a $4 million federal grant awarded to CVHEC partner College Bridge.

The Dual Enrollment Math Bridge Project, with a total budget of $6.7 million, was awarded the five-year US Department of Education grant in late December for the six colleges to provide college-level math classes that will improve and support college readiness for underprepared students in the colleges’ respective service areas beginning next fall.  (This federal grant supports 60 percent of the total project budget with the remaining funding coming from non-governmental sources).

The participating CVHEC colleges are: Cerro Coso, Columbia, Madera, Reedley, Taft and West Hills College Coalinga. The names of the participating high schools will be released in February.

“For this grant, Dual Enrollment Math Bridge will include nearly 8,000 low-income, Black or Latino 11th or 12th grade students who lack access to rigorous math courses,” said Dr. Lynn Cevallos, founder and president of College Bridge, a California non-profit based in Los Angeles County dedicated to forging a path towards both college access and success for underrepresented students.

“This DE Math Bridge project is an innovating high school intervention that will close equity and attainment gaps in college math and college completion at the 21 Central Valley rural high schools within the six colleges’ service areas,” she said.

Cevallos created College Bridge in 2011 with the mission “to transform the K-16 educational system by identifying and eliminating barriers that prevent underrepresented students from progressing to and through college.”

CVHEC is assisting the Dual Enrollment Math Bridge project by using its role as a convener to bring the higher education and K-16 representatives together with College Bridge, Cevallos said.

CVHEC is made up of 30 institutions of higher education in the Central Valley’s nine-county region from San Joaquin to Kern Counties including 15 community colleges and four multi-campus community college districts. The presidents and chancellors of each institution serve on the CVHEC Board of Directors. CVHEC also created the Central Valley Dual Enrollment for Equity and Prosperity (CVDEEP) Task Force made up of valley educators and policy makers that the consortium convenes to address dual enrollment issues as well as issued a white paper in June 2020.

Dr. Benjamín Durán, CVHEC executive director, said the DE Math Bridge project “will prepare and guide students as they transition to college or university equipped with math credits and confidence.

“The DE Math Bridge creates a model for meaningful dual enrollment pathways and expansion that can be replicated in other regions of California serving underprepared students,” Duran said.  “We commend College Bridge for its leadership in serving Central California students as well as the leadership of our member community colleges in collaborating with their K-16 districts and College Bridge.”

Cevallos said the Dual Enrollment Math Bridge Project goals include three student-level goals with implementation of classes planned for the fall 2023 semester:

• closing equity and achievement gaps in mathematics, improving rates of underrepresented students pursuing STEM majors and completion of college transition plans;
• professional development goals to creating sustainable continuous improvement models for intersegmental math, counseling and administration teams;
• and two goals focused on sustainability and scaling.

The project is based on an evolving series of longitudinal research/practice projects that College Bridge has successfully implemented since 2013 — the Math Pipeline Readiness Project (M-PReP), Cevallos said.

“Nearly 2,000 underprepared students participated in previous versions of M-PReP with 84 percent passing a college-level math course through the program.”

One M-PReP success story occurred in 2018 at Dinuba High School, a Central California rural high school that served 1,988 students at the time (82 percent socioeconomically disadvantaged and 93 percent Latino).

For more information about the DE Math Bridge Project, contact Owynn Lancaster, vice president of Academic Strategy at College Bridge: Owynn.lancaster@college-bridge.org.

 

For CVHEC media inquiries: Tom Uribes, CVHEC Communications/Media coordinator (tom@uribes.com or text 559.348.3278).

See the College Bridge press release.

 

UPDATES

• What the CV-HEC Is Happening Blog: Math Bridge Update 
• “What the CV-HEC is Happening” Blog – The Gift of Math 

Program with Kern K-16 Collaborative Will Help Provide Teachers for Dual Enrollment Courses

Thomas J. Burke, chancellor emeritus of the  Kern Community College District, will lead the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium Kern Master’s Teacher Upskilling Pathway for English and Mathematics, announced Dr. Benjamín Durán, CVHEC executive director.

The Kern Master’s Upskill Program hopes to provide 100 South Valley high school teachers the opportunity to earn a master’s degree that achieves state qualifications for teaching community college dual enrollment English and math courses on local high schools.

It was launched this summer as part of an $18 million statewide competitive grant awarded to the Kern Regional K-16 Education Collaborative  to improve student progress from high school to postsecondary education and ultimately into the workforce. The consortium first implemented the program in Fresno County last year with similar state funding through the Fresno/Madera K-16 Collaborative.

A recruitment campaign with information sessions is now underway for courses that will be taught by Fresno Pacific University and National University, both CVHEC member institutions. Cohorts are set to begin in January.

The application deadline for the math component taught by FPU is Dec. 9 with the final virtual information session set for Nov. 29 at 4:30 p.m.  (Register for the Math Education Information Meeting Zoom link at: https://bit.ly/3PSPesc).

The application deadline for the English component taught by NU is Dec. 12, 2022. The final information session   is set for Dec. 1.  (Register for the English info sessions at www.tinyurl.com/MAENGLISHNU).

With Burke’s appointment, CVHEC is moving full-steam ahead in collaboration with Dr. Krista Herrera, director of the Kern K-16 Collaborative, said Durán.  Burke has also been serving as CVHEC Transfer Project coordinator following his retirement from KCCD in 2021.

“We are pleased that Chancellor-Emeritus Burke will lead this very significant initiative that will ultimately benefit south valley high school students by providing more teachers qualified to teach dual enrollment,” Durán said. “Tom is a natural fit for this project, he is dedicated to serving the communities of Kern County. He and Dr. Herrera will provide a powerhouse team for this project’s goals.”

Burke will serve as the CVHEC liaison for the Kern K-16 Education Collaborative and lead for the MA upskilling project. He will lead the team overseeing recruitment of the high school MA upskilling teachers and well as the community college faculty who will serve as mentors to them.

Burke served the California Community College system for 24 years including as KCCD chief financial officer for 15 years before being named the district’s chancellor in 2016. He retired in July, 2021 and in December, Burke was conferred chancellor emeritus by the KCCD Board of Trustees.

He is an alumnus of CSUB where he earned his Master’s in Business Administration in 1986 after earning his Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Finance at California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo in 1981. Burke has served as an adjunct faculty member for CSUB’s Educational Leadership Doctoral Program.

Prior to KCCD, he worked as a manager of Regulatory and Governmental Affairs and in Financial Planning for Contel and as a Financial Analyst for the Getty Oil Company.

During his five years as chancellor of KCCD — which includes Bakersfield College, Cerro Coso Community College, and Porterville College and serves nearly 40,000 students in five counties — Burke was a member of the Community College League of California State Student Centered Funding Formula Taskforce and the Affordability, Food & Housing Access Taskforce.

Career highlights include involvement with the California Community College Business Officers (ACBO) and development of the California Community College System’s previous statewide funding resource allocation model adopted in 2006 (Senate Bill 361). In 2014 he was recognized by the Association of California Community College Administrators with their Excellence in Leadership Award.

Most recently, ACBO awarded Burke its Achievement of Excellence Award in October 2022 for his contributions to ACBO and the California Community College System.  As the district CFO, Burke was a region representative, vice president and president of NACBO.  He was also a member of the State Chancellors Fiscal Advisory Group.

When Burke was appointed KCCD chancellor in 2016, Bakersfield College’s student government lauded the appointment, calling him a “champion for student voice and concerns.”

 

See program details

• Fresno Pacific University Math MA Program
• National University English MA program

 

For media inquiries, contact:

CVHEC – Tom Uribes at 559.348.3278 (tom@uribes.com)

FPU – Wayne Steffen at 559.453.3677 (wayne.steffen@fresno.edu)

NU – David Hicks at 619.481.7802 (dhicks2@nu.edu).

 

BACKGROUND

 

The Central Valley Higher Education Consortium, incorporated as a 503c non-profit educational organization in 2002, is made up of 30 institutions of higher education in the valley’s nine-county region from San Joaquin to Kern counties.  The presidents, chancellors and/or directors of member campuses sit on the CVHEC Board of Directors.

In addition to CVHEC, the Kern Regional K-16 Education Collaborative, administered through the Kern County Superintendent of Schools (KCSOS), includes strategic partners California State University, Bakersfield; UC Merced and UCLA; as well as 46 Kern County school districts;  KCCD; the West Kern Community College District; the Kern Economic Development Corporation; the County of Kern; and numerous economic development/industry partners. [link to Kern K16, here is the correct link]  https://kerneducationpledge.com/