SFCC Announces Candidates for President

The Santa Fe Community College Governing Board announced today that six candidates have been selected to interview for the position of president of the college. The six were selected following a comprehensive search process led by co-chairs Carole Brito and Linda Siegle, who worked with a 19-member committee made up of faculty, staff, students, foundation members and others to narrow the application field.

“We thank the members of the search committee and look forward to inviting the candidates for campus visits over the next two weeks,” said co-chair Brito. She said the candidates will have meetings with various groups on campus during one-day visits, and an open public forum will also be scheduled with each of the visiting nominees. 

The advertisement for president of SFCC drew 54 applications.  “We felt we had a large, highly qualified pool of applicants.  We were pleased the college attracted such experienced, well-skilled leaders in the field,” said co-chair Siegle.   

The candidates are:

• Pamela Anglin, C.P.A., Ed.D., President, Paris Junior College, Paris, Texas.  “Community College Week” recognized Paris as one of the 50 fastest growing community colleges in the nation.  In 2011, it received the Excellence in Education Award for Medium-Sized Community Colleges from the Texas Association of Businesses.
• Dorothy Duran, Ph.D., Vice President for Academic Affairs, Iowa Western Community College, Council Bluffs, Iowa. Duran has served Iowa Western since 2006.  She previously was dean and director of the El Rito Campus of Northern New Mexico College. 
• Richard Eugene Durán, Ed.D., President, Oxnard College, Oxnard, California. Durán has been with Oxnard since 2007.  From 2004 to 2007, he served as president of Pima Community College in Tucson, Arizona.  He is on the Board of the American Association of Community Colleges. 
• Ana Guzman, Ed.D., President, Palo Alto College, San Antonio, Texas. Guzman has been president of Palo Alto College for the past 12 years. She has also served as a senior advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Education (2000-2001). Her experience includes four years as the executive vice president for Institutional Advancement and Community Relations for Austin Community College in Austin,Texas.
• Margie C. Huerta, Ph.D., President, Doña Ana Community College, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico.  Huerta has been President of Doña Ana, a branch of New Mexico State University, since 2004. She was previously the college’s chief academic officer.  Her experience also includes serving as dean of Arts and Humanities at Austin Community College. 
• Leslie Anne Navarro, Ph.D., President, Morton College, Cicero, Illinois.  Navarro was appointed interim president at Morton College in 2006, and named president in 2008. She was executive vice president of Administration and Academic Affairs there from 2007 to 2008.  Her experience also includes service at Austin Community College, as head librarian and associate professor from 1999 to 2006. 

Current SFCC President Sheila Ortego announced her retirement this past November, effective August 31. The process of selecting a new president for the college began with discussion forums held with the college community and the community at large, where input was gathered and nominations for the larger search committee were solicited. The Governing Board also hired the national search firm Gold Hill Associates to assist with the application process.

“The upcoming candidate forums will afford an opportunity for broad participation in the selection process, and we look forward to feedback from the campus community and the public as we continue with the important task of selecting the next president of SFCC,” Siegle said.  The schedule for the visits will be released later this week.

For more information on the presidential search process, visit www.sfcc.edu/presidential_search.