Update: 1 Of 5 Columbia College President Candidates A Local

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Update at 1:25 p.m.: Yosemite Community College District (YCCD) has released a revised public forum schedule for the five finalists vying to be the next President of Columbia College. YCCD officials say the reason for the new schedule was due to a date change for Dr. Nicole Albo-Lopez’s forum. Below is the new schedule that includes the Zoom links for each candidate’s forum and at the bottom of the page is a link to the finalists’ profiles.

9 a.m.     Brian Sanders, Ed.D.

Link to Forum: https://cccconfer.zoom.us/j/91608677279

Zoom Meeting ID: 916 0867 7279

 

11 a.m.   Nicole Albo-Lopez, Ed.D.

Link to Forum: https://cccconfer.zoom.us/j/93435114384

Zoom Meeting ID: 934 3511 4384

 

2 p.m.     Val Martinez Garcia, M.S.

Link to Forum: https://cccconfer.zoom.us/j/91910117513

Zoom Meeting ID: 919 1011 7513

 

Friday, Dec. 10, 2021

9 a.m.     Joseph Piazza, Ed.D.

Link to Forum: https://cccconfer.zoom.us/j/98736353191

Zoom Meeting ID: 987 3635 3191

 

2 p.m.     Lena Tran, Ed.D.

Link to Forum: https://cccconfer.zoom.us/j/94716378348

Zoom Meeting ID: 947 1637 8348

 

Original post at 12/2/21 at 3:30 p.m: Columbia, CA – Five finalists have been selected and will all be vying to become the next Columbia College President – one already works at the school.

The Columbia College Presidential Search Committee announced their selections today. They include the school’s current Vice President of Instruction Brian Sanders, Ed.D., and the other four are from Los Angeles, Lemoore, Sacramento, and San Jose. (All the candidate’s profiles can be viewed at the bottom of the page.)

The chair of the search committee is Dr. G.H. Javaheripour, who took over the position of Interim President of the college when Dr. Santanu Bandyopadhyay stepped down to become the Acting and then interim President of Modesto Junior College. A position that later became permanent, as earlier reported here. The committee conducted the initial interviews of candidates and has sent its list of five finalists to the Yosemite Community College District (YCCD) board.

The board will hold open forums for the finalists next week via Zoom. At that time, “each will have an opportunity to discuss their preparation for the position, their education and leadership philosophy, concluding with a time to respond to questions from the forum attendees,” according to college officials. Here are the schedules for the forums:

Thursday, December 9:

• 9:00 a.m. Brian Sanders, Ed.D.
• 2:00 p.m. Val Martinez Garcia, M.S.

Friday, December 10:

• 9:00 a.m. Joseph Piazza, Ed.D.
• 11:00 a.m. Nicole Albo-Lopez, Ed.D.
• 2:00 p.m. Lena Tran, Ed.D.

Candidate Profiles and Zoom links to their forums can be found here.