November 19, 2025
AACC is carefully tracking the impacts of yesterday’s interagency agreements between the U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services, Interior, Labor, and State. We are working diligently to understand how the changes may impact our colleges and will provide clarity as it becomes available. We are also closely monitoring administrative processes related to the resumption of federal operations. Please let us know your institutions’ needs so that we can represent them optimally.
My remarks to a leadership development conference at the Community College of Baltimore County last week in Maryland addressed the opportunities of “Leadership in a Changing Time.” I shared some of the framework for my own vision of community college leadership, which includes nurturing community benefit and civic infrastructure, innovating in the public interest, and advancing fairness. I was deeply inspired to see how many deans, chairs, faculty, and vice presidents are eagerly seeking more skills, inspiration, and direction to inform their leadership progress. From the questions I received from the audience, I recognize the hunger for tools that can further build leadership capacity among AACC member institutions.
My meeting with the Education Design Lab earlier today gathered several of our DC partners on the topic of the Workforce Pell implementation. This new advisory group will contribute to organizing our shared knowledge about the process and troubleshooting proactively as the administration determines the rules that will govern the implementation.
This evening, I will travel to California to meet with the Community College League of California, whose work touches well over 2 million students. I was fortunate enough to lead Las Positas College in my first presidency, so I have a special place in my heart for California. Their advocacy voice is particularly powerful by virtue of their size, but also because of their consistent investment in strategy. I look forward to sharing my insights on advocacy from our Washington, DC, perspective.
Just over a week ago I was honored to address the American Association of Women in Community Colleges (AAWCC) as they celebrate their 50th anniversary. As the former president of the AAWCC, I was excited to see so much energy around building women’s leadership capacity at all of our institutions.
Deepening partnerships is one of several strategies outlined in Resilient by Design, so I was thrilled to meet with more than a dozen community college leaders from Appalachia recently, who are engaged in Cyber ACCESS (Cyber Appalachian Community Colleges Eco-System Sustainability). This $10 million initiative is funded by the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) to upskill workers in cybersecurity. AACC’s affiliate council, Community Colleges of Appalachia, leads this work with ARC and AACC involving key industry partners, including Microsoft, Lockheed Martin, IBM, Ferrilli, and the Telecommunications Industry Association. Several visiting AACC members also visited IBM’s X-Force Cyber Range in Washington, DC, this month for a real-world demonstration of the skills and tools needed to repel a cyber attack. Our colleges’ rapid response to growths in labor markets—such as cybersecurity—is an excellent example of our adaptability.