Pollard, presently president of Nevada State College, will assume management this fall. She succeeds Dr. Walter Bumphus, who announced his retirement earlier this year after leading AACC since 2010.
The appointment comes at a essential time for neighborhood faculties, which function important pathways to increased training and workforce growth for thousands and thousands of Individuals. Because the voice of greater than 1,000 neighborhood faculties nationwide, AACC advocates for establishments that present instructional entry to over 10 million various college students.
“The neighborhood school sector is a cornerstone of America’s instructional and workforce ecosystem for thousands and thousands of Individuals,” mentioned Dr. Sunita “Sunny” Cooke, AACC Previous Board Chair and chair of the search committee. “Dr. Pollard’s spectacular profession has demonstrated that she is a frontrunner amongst leaders.”
Pollard brings in depth expertise in neighborhood school management to the function. Earlier than her present place at Nevada State College, she served as president at Montgomery School in Maryland and Las Positas School in California. Her profession trajectory displays the neighborhood school sector’s dedication to selling leaders who perceive the distinctive challenges and alternatives dealing with these establishments.
As a first-generation school graduate, Pollard embodies the transformative potential of accessible increased training that neighborhood faculties symbolize. Her private background aligns with the demographic profile of many neighborhood school college students, who typically come from households the place increased training entry has been restricted.
“Neighborhood faculties are the place tomorrow is born — in school rooms full of discoverers, doers, and difference-makers — and they’re the answer to arrange important workforce, shut entry gaps, and gasoline civic renewal in each nook of this nation,” Pollard mentioned in saying her appointment.
The choice of Pollard as the primary lady to steer AACC displays broader efforts throughout increased training to diversify management ranks. Her appointment is especially important given the function neighborhood faculties play in serving various scholar populations and addressing fairness gaps in increased training entry.
Pollard’s management credentials prolong past her presidential roles. She has been acknowledged as certainly one of Washington’s 100 Most Highly effective Ladies by Washingtonian Journal and acquired a 2017 Tutorial Management Award from the Carnegie Company of New York, together with a Visionary Award from the Washington Space Ladies’s Basis.
Her educational background features a bachelor’s diploma and Grasp of Arts in English from Iowa State College, and a Ph.D. in instructional management and coverage research in increased training from Loyola College Chicago.
“This function is greater than management: it’s a cost to reimagine what is feasible when entry, affordability, and excellence converge,” Pollard mentioned, highlighting the strategic imaginative and prescient she brings to the place.
Below Bumphus’s management, AACC has labored to raise the profile of neighborhood faculties in nationwide coverage discussions and advocate for elevated funding and help. His tenure included efforts to place neighborhood faculties as important companions in workforce growth and financial restoration initiatives.
“Passing the baton to a confirmed chief similar to Dr. Pollard is an honor and I’m assured that the group and the nation’s neighborhood faculties won’t simply persevere, they may thrive underneath DeRionne’s management,” Bumphus mentioned.
As AACC’s new chief, Pollard can be answerable for advocating for the wants of neighborhood faculties on the federal stage whereas supporting member establishments of their efforts to serve college students and communities. The group, headquartered in Washington, D.C., works to make sure neighborhood faculties have the assets and help wanted to satisfy their mission of accelerating financial mobility.
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