Two finalists named for chancellorship of Grossmont Cuyamaca Community College
Printer-friendly versionDecember 2, 2008 (EL CAJON) Public forums are scheduled for Dec. 10 and 11 for two finalists seeking the position of GCCCD chancellor. The finalists are Dr. Cindy Miles, president of the Hialeah Campus of Miami Dade College in Florida, and Dr. Mark Zacovic, interim vice president of administrative services for the Pasadena Area Community College District. The district is seeking a new chancellor because of Dr. Omero Suarez’s plans to retire from the district next spring after more than a decade at the district’s helm. Public forums for the candidates will be followed by closed-session interviews by the governing board. Dr. Miles will present at two hour-long public forums, 8:45 a.m., Wednesday, Dec. 10, at the Grossmont College Student Center and 10:45 later that morning at the Cuyamaca College Communication Arts Center Theater. Dr. Zacovic will present at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 11, at the Grossmont College Student Center and at 2:30 p.m. at the Cuyamaca College Communication Arts Center Theater. Grossmont College is at 8800 Grossmont College Drive in El Cajon; Cuyamaca College is at 900 Rancho San Diego Parkway in Rancho San Diego. Free parking is available on both days. Both candidates have doctorates in education and years as administrators in higher education. Miles has been president of the Hialeah Campus since its founding in 2005 as the seventh campus of Miami Dade College, or MDC, a state-supported institution in southern Florida with eight campuses. With a total enrollment exceeding 160,000, it is the largest college in the nation. Hialeah Campus serves the Greater Hialeah-Miami Lakes area, enrolling about 11,000 students and offering associate degrees and certificates. Before assuming the presidency of the Hialeah Campus, Miles served as vice president for learning and academic affairs at the Community College of Denver from 2002-2005. She began her higher education career in 1989, teaching developmental mathematics at Paris Junior College in Texas, and spent more than a decade as a medical technologist. She joined the Community College of Denver in 1995 as assistant to the president, and progressed in several administrative positions before her move to MDC. Miles is chair of the Hialeah Chamber of Commerce’s Education to Business Committee; serves on the National Commission on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion of the American Association of Community Colleges, and as MDC representative to the League for Innovation in the Community College. Outside the college, she assists local and national service organizations, and consults on topics including educational quality and innovation, learning outcomes and assessment, leadership and change. She holds a Ph.D. in educational administration from the University of Texas at Austin. She received her master’s in secondary and higher education form Texas A & M University Commerce; and her bachelor’s in biology from the University of Texas at Austin. Zacovic is a 23-year veteran of the California Community College system, first serving as the director of administrative services at Santa Barbara City College, where he also taught part-time in business administration for five years beginning in 1985. Zacovic has also served as the vice president of business services at Lake Tahoe Community College, interim president of Santiago Canyon College, vice chancellor of business operations and fiscal services at Rancho Santiago Community College District, and superintendent/president at Mt. San Jacinto Community College District. Most recently, he assisted two districts in an interim capacity: as vice chancellor of administrative services at Contra Costa Community College District for 10 months, and currently, as vice president of administrative services at Pasadena City College/Pasadena Area CCD on an 11-month assignment. With an enrollment of more than 27,000 students, the Pasadena City College District is the third-largest, single-campus community college district in the United States. PCC has served the San Gabriel Valley and portions of El Monte and Rosemead for more than 80 years. Zacovic has served on the boards of the Association of California Community College Administrators, where he is the immediate past president; the Association of Chief Business Officers, including two years as president, and the Community College League of California. He currently is serving in his second year as ACCCA’s representative on the State Chancellor’s Consultation Council. A native Southern Californian, Zacovic earned his Ph.D. in educational leadership with an emphasis in higher education at the University of Nevada, Reno. He earned a master’s in business administration at Whittier College, and his bachelor’s in sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. For more information about the colleges and district, go to www.gcccd.edu. Click here to read the candidates’ bios. Printer-friendly version