Porterville College, a member of the Kern Community College District, announced its new president on Nov. 9.
Dr. Rosa Carlson, vice president of Academic Services at College of the Sequoias, was selected as the college’s eighth president since the college opened in 1927.
“I’m very excited,” Carlson said. “My first order priority is to meet staff, faculty and students. I’m looking forward to starting new.”
Carlson is no stranger to California community colleges. According to a press release from the KCCD, she started her academic career at Fresno City College before moving on to Fresno State to earn her bachelor’s degree in foreign language and classical studies and then her master’s degree in educational administration and supervision.
Carlson went on to receive her doctorate in educational leadership from the UC Davis/CSU Fresno joint doctoral program.
Carlson has been involved with the community college system for 21 years. Currently, she is in her seventh year at College of the Sequoias in Visalia and before that she worked 15 years with the State Center Community College District. She helped the district to turn off-campus classes held at local high schools in Fresno County into independent campuses.
In her six and a half years at COS, she has helped to bring funding to the college’s Police Academy and nursing programs.
Carlson says that after she adjusts to her new environment in Porterville she hopes to increase enrollment at the college.
“We have to find ways to recruit new students,” Carlson said.
The nine-person committee, responsible for selecting the president, announced on Oct. 13 that the search had narrowed to three candidates.
“We looked for someone who had good experience in the area of leadership,” said Steve Schultz, vice president of learning at PC.
Schultz headed up the committee, which consisted of three college managers, three faculty members, one student, one classified employee and one community member.
According to Schultz, the college received 30 completed applications and from those applications the search committee narrowed the applicants to 11.
Carlson said that two of those 11 candidates pulled out, thinning the field to nine.
“There were quite a few applications,” Schultz said.
Schultz added that he was “very, very pleased” with the number of people applying for the position.
The candidates went through a screening process that required them to attend public forums in which candidates could respond to questions from students, campus employees and members of the community.
Candidate finalists held closed session interviews with KCCD Chancellor Sandra Serrano and the District Board of Trustees in late October and early November.
Following the interviews the Board of Trustees held meetings to decide which candidate they would select to be the next president of Porterville College.
Lincoln Hall, current interim president at Porterville, previously served as interim president at Bakersfield College last fall until William Andrews was appointed to the position. Following the hiring of Andrews, Hall went up to PC to serve while they selected a new president.
“Link (Hall) helps pave the way for great presidents,” Schultz said.