The campaign kickoff and reception for Nan Gomez-Heitzeberg, candidate for Kern Community College District trustee, was held on Sept. 19.

The election for KCCD trustee is Nov. 6 and registered voters have two votes in Area 1, the district Heitzeberg is running in, each for a different trustee.

According to Heitzeberg the reception was for the public to get to know her and to thank her

supporters.

“There’s some people who may not know me, so [it’s] to introduce myself to them so they understand what I value and what I believe is important, which is supporting Bakersfield College do its job for students,” Heitzberg said.

“And…to thank the people who have already volunteered to help out on the campaign, it’s what I call a grassroots campaign, which means it will take a lot of people helping with walking precincts and phoning voters reminding them to vote and helping voters to understand me and why I think I would be a good trustee member.”

Heitzeberg, who was the Vice President of Bakersfield College for 34 years, decided to run for

KCCD Trustee to be of service to the community. She said it was her idea of continuing to serve

the Bakersfield College students. Heitzeberg’s goal is to be on the board to help

with the decisions regarding the three colleges in the KCCD district.

Heitzenburg said the trustee’s responsibility include oversight responsibilities and budgets for

the colleges.

“[Trustees] come forward for the trustees to review and they have to decide on that.

Trustees also decide the outcomes for the colleges. You know, are they successful? And graduating students and getting them certificates and being successful and moving on to transferring. Trustees also have a responsibility, oversight responsibility for ensuring that the colleges have the services that they need from the district office. Whether that’s technology, finances, or…human resources,” Heitzeberg said.

Mindy Munoz, site supervisor for the California Student Opportunity and Access Program (CAL-SOAP), was at the reception.

Munoz said she came to support Heizteberg for trustee.

“Nan is great, anything that she puts her mind to it’s going be awesome,” Munoz said.

The current KCCD Trustee, William Thomas, gave a speech at the reception. Thomas said it was time to plan for generations to pass. Thomas recently served as senior advisor on the KCCD Bond Blue Ribbon Committee and is part of Heizteberg’s campaign. He added that Heizteberg knows what needs to be done.

“I need someone who knows and is very knowledgeable about what we need to do to rebuild

Bakersfield College. And no one knows it better than Nan Gomez Heizteberg. She knows what

needs to be done and she will be at the board meetings and [will] vote to make sure it gets done. So that’s the one trustee that I know knows how to build a better BC and that’s why I’m so

enthusiastically supporting her and hope others will as well,” Thomas said.