Community College Achievements and Activities

IEW Highlight on Community College Staff, Faculty, and Alumni Achievements

Virginia Lipke, recipient of the 2012 AACC Outstanding Alumni Award, has been honored for her work with the CDC’s Global AIDS Program, one of the world’s most advanced HIV/AIDS prevention programs. In her work, Lipke brings her health-care expertise to some of the remotest regions in the world. She also develops strategies and guidance for infection control in areas with few resources and, in doing so, has helped to set the standard for HIV/AIDS and TB patient care throughout the world. She also works with several international agencies, including the World Health Organization. Learn more.
Awilda R. Marquez, recipient of the 2000 AACC Outstanding Award, caught the desire to travel immediately after graduating high school. Upon her return, she enrolled at Harford Community College in her hometown of Bel Air, Md. After transferring, with scholarship in hand, to Georgetown University, she graduated magna cum laude 2 years later with a bachelor of science degree in foreign service. She then deferred graduate school to work for the U.S. Foreign Service in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and Nairobi, Kenya. Upon her return she helped found the Women Entrepreneurs of Baltimore, a non-profit organization that lends women small amounts of money to start their own businesses. The Clinton Administration tapped Marquez to be a White House liaison at the State Department and then Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Director General of U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service, responsible for managing a network of 100 domestic export assistance centers and over 140 commercial service offices in 70 countries abroad. "Because our economy right now is global, it is imperative for students at all levels to understand the international dynamics, the variety of cultures outside our borders, and the challenge of communicating with other cultures," says Marquez, who speaks French, Spanish and Bengali. "I believe every student should take an opportunity to visit and travel abroad. It changes your perspective instantly and forever." Learn more.
Rose Marie Battisti, the 1999 recipient of AACC's Outstanding Alumni Award, formed Asian Children Services In 1997 to carry out humanitarian projects in Vietnam. She is a representative of the Pearl S. Buck Foundation and regularly commutes from her home in Little Falls, NY to Hanoi, and she serves on the boards of several service organizations. Battisti is the mother of eight children, four biological and four adopted, and a proud grandmother of two. She is an alumna of Herkimer County Community College, NY. Learn more.
Curtis J. Nelson was inspired locally by his alma matter, Riverland Community College (MN), to become an internationally recognized expert on plant physiology. He has traveled the world (Europe, Tunisia, Morocco, Brazil, Mexico, India, Kenya, North and South Korea) consulting on high-tech agriculture projects. Learn more
Veronica Campbell-Brown, 2008 Olympic Gold Medalist, Women’s 200-meter Race
Barton County Community College (AK)
Melanie Walker, 2008 Olympic Gold Medalist, Women’s 400-meter Hurdles
Essex County College (NJ)

IEW 2012 Activities

An AACC Free Webinar. Speak the Language: How to Drive Value Through Your College ESL Workforce Programs, Wednesday, November 14, 2012, at 2:00 p.m. (ET). The nation's leading experts on education and English as a second language (ESL) will discuss the essential elements of an effective, high-value ESL and workforce training program. Introduction by AACC CEO and President, Dr. Walter Bumphus. Registrer.
AACC VELT Program. Flathead Valley Community College (MT), Northwestern Michigan College (MI), Oxnard College College (CA), and Gateway Technical College (WI) are participating in AACC’s VELT program this fall. 16 presidents and vice presidents from Chinese vocational and technical higher education institutions split into 4 groups and are visiting the colleges during IEW. The VELT program trains Chinese administrators each year in U.S. community college pedagogy, administration, and development of local business relationships.

AACC China Trip. As part of the U.S.-China Consultation on People-to-People Exchanges, AACC led a delegation of 12 U.S. community college presidents and administrators to China in October for the 2012 China Annual Conference for International Education hosted by the CEAIE. Following the conference, the delegation visited vocational and technical colleges in Nanjing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. The AACC China Trip is an annual event, which began in the fall of 2007.

AACC IEW Staff Luncheon. On Tuesday, Nov 13, AACC staff was treated to a presentation by foreign diplomat Mark Darby (Embassy of Australia in Washington, D.C.). Mr. Darby presented an overview of Australia’s vocational education system, discussed Australia’s efforts to address its skills gap and where Australia and the United States might share challenges and best practices as we move forward meeting the education and workforce needs of our respective countries.