Palikir, Pohnpei - March 3, 2010 –– The members of the WASC team to the College will arrive in the FSM before the official visit to all the College’s six sites. The official visit is scheduled to commence on the 8th of March, 2010.
Three members of the visiting team will begin their visits at Kosrae, Chuuk, Yap and FSM-FMI campuses. The three will arrive at their destinations on March 6, 2010. Dave Clarke will visit Chuuk Campus and will depart for Pohnpei on Wednesday of March 10; Martha Tilmann will visit Kosrae and will depart for Pohnpei on Tuesday of March 9; and David Barney will visit Yap and FSM-FMI campuses and will depart for Pohnpei on the Wednesday of March 10.
The rest of the team members, who will also be arriving on the 6th of March, will visit Pohnpei and National campuses. They include:
- Sandra Serrano, Team Chair
- Kate Pluta, Team Assistant
- Douglas Dykstra
- Ricardo D. Navarrette
- Sean James
- Carolyn Bloch
- Mary Ann Laun
The team will conclude their visit with an exit meeting at the National Campus on the morning of Friday, March 12, and will depart Pohnpei in the afternoon.
The following are the visitors along with short biographical information for each of them:
Sandra Serrano, Team Chair, is the Chancellor of the Kern Community College District, a California Community College three-college district. The district's service area spans 26,000 square miles, across parts of five counties. Student enrollment is 30,000 headcount. There are 374 full time faculty and an equal number of adjunct faculty, 476 classified staff and 78 administrators. Sandra has 30 years of higher education experience that includes serving as a student services director, dean and vice president, adjunct faculty, and college president. She has a Bachelor of Arts and a Juris Doctorate. She has served on five accreditation teams. This is the fourth team she has chaired.
Kate Pluta, Team Assistant, has taught English at Bakersfield College for over twenty-five years. She has served as Division Chair for Modern Languages, Academic Senate President, and Faculty Association President (CCA). COM-FSM will be her third site visit, her second as assistant.
Douglas Dykstra has been Chancellor of Windward Community College since July 1, 2009. Prior to that he served as Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at Hawai‘i Community College for five years. He began his career in the University of Hawai‘i Community College System as an Instructor in History in 1975 also working as a grant writer and at various mid-level academic administrative posts at Leeward Community College. He has served on one ACCJC visitation team in 2004. His research interests have been in the fields Hawai‘i immigration history and in other state and local history topics.
Martha J. Tilmann, Dean of Special Projects, College of San Mateo. Her responsibilities have included launching an extension of the college and overseeing Study Abroad, Distance Education, and Community Education. Previously she was Dean of Technology, which held a wild range of programs including the Police and Fire Academy, Building Inspection, Electronics, Welding, Multimedia, and others. Before going into administration she taught Computer Science for 16 years.
Ricardo D. Navarrette’s professional career in university and community colleges has spanned over 37 years in three universities and three community colleges. Ricardo has taught composition, creative writing, literature and various counseling courses at the college level. He has been a college counselor, EOPS Director, Upward Bound Director, English instructor, Assistant Dean of Student Development, Dean of Admissions & Records and is presently the Vice President, Student Services at Santa Rosa Junior College.
An active leader in various community organizations, Ricardo has served as President of the Sonoma County "Social Advocates for Youth", was formerly on the executive board of the Community College Chief Student Services Officer Association, now serving on the editor board of the "I-Journal" and was the founding president of the Sonoma County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
Sean James, Vice Chancellor of Operations Management at the Kern Community College District (KCCD). In his six years with the Kern Community College District his assignments have included Internal Auditor, Interim Director of Fiscal Services, and Vice Chancellor of Operations Management. The duties of the Vice Chancellor of Operations Management include development, design, operation, and improvement of the systems that create and deliver the District’s services. As Internal Auditor Mr. James was responsible for overseeing compliance with the laws and regulations that apply to the Kern Community College District.
Mr. James is a Certified Public Accountant licensed in the State of California and has over 15 years experience auditing California Public School Districts.
Dave Clarke has taught biology at College of the Siskiyous in Northern California for fourteen years. He has been the president of both the Academic Senate and the Faculty Association/CTA. He has been the College’s Self-Study Standard IV Co-Chair in both 2003 and 2009. He will be participating in his third site visit.
David Barney, of De Anza College in Cupertino, California, is on his third accreditation team. Barney came to De Anza as telecommunications dean from Maui Community College, where he was media director from 1980-88. He has experience in organizing distance learning programs and related technology at both institutions and now teaches courses in the film/television department at De Anza, including scriptwriting, television production, and media and society courses. He holds a master's degree from the University of Hawaii and a bachelor's degree from the University of Delaware. He has directed news and public affairs programs for ABC Hawaii, public stations in Ohio and Washington D.C., and for the U.S. Army.
Mary Ann Laun, Dean of Library Services at Pasadena City College,
has extensive experience in public, special and academic libraries. She holds a master's degree in Library Science from UCLA and a master's degree in Education with an emphasis in Instructional Technology from California State University, Los Angeles. She is extensively involved in her campus's planning and technology agendas and serves on state, national, and international library committees. In 2008, Pasadena City College won a national award for Excellence in Academic Libraries. She has participated in nine site visits.
Carolyn Bloch is a Registered Nurse certified as Transcultural Nurse Specialist and in Diversity Management/Customer Service. She holds a certificate in California from the Board of Registered Nursing as Clinical Nurse Specialist. In addition to numerous other achievements, she received her diploma in Nursing from Queen of Angels School of Nursing, a B.A. at Pepperdine University and from Azusa Pacific University received both an M.A. in Education and an M.S. in Nursing. Carolyn Bloch has worked internationally in both the private and public sectors. Her experiences included educational and advisory roles in Mexico and Venezuela. She has lectured extensively on cultural issues for health care providers. Former Certified Transcultural Nurse Specialist and Transcultural / Diversity Consultant for the County of Los Angeles-Department of Health Services. Carolyn Bloch is a faculty at Los Angeles County College of Nursing and Allied Health. She is currently assigned to staff development for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services Human Resource Department. On January 16, 2009, she was recognized as the 2009 La Opinion’s Mujer Destacada for the Health Category (La Opinion is America’s #1 Spanish-language Daily Newspaper). This is her second accreditation visit.
The College was also notified to expect five more additional members to be named before the March 8 – 11, 2010, visit. More information about the visit will be available later.
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