Shoreline Community College will partner with the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) to find the next president of the college.
At their Sept. 25, 2013 regular meeting, members of the college Board of Trustees voted unanimously to contract with ACCT for assistance in their search for a successor to former President Lee Lambert. Lambert left in June, 2013 for the chancellor position at Pima Community College in Tucson, Ariz. Leading the college since that time is Interim President Daryl Campbell. Campbell served as vice president for administrative services at Shoreline since 2008.
Under the base $35,000 contract, ACCT will provide consultant services through on-campus visits, phone, e-mail and video conferencing as needed. ACCT will recruit “high-caliber candidates” with a national communications strategy and advertising campaign. The Shoreline president position is now listed at the ACCT web site, http://acctsearches.org/searches. ACCT will participate in developing materials related to the search as well as in processing candidate applications. ACCT will provide an appropriate level of background reference reports for both semi-final and final candidates.
Shoreline’s Trustees decided on May 22 to explore using a consultant in the search process. They asked college staff to research search-firm possibilities and present three options to the board. Those three were ACCT, Gold Hill Associates and RPA Inc. At a Sept. 12 special meeting, the board interviewed representatives from all three companies. Upon choosing ACCT, the board then asked college staff to negotiate contract terms. That proposed contract was presented and approved by the board at the Sept. 25 meeting.
Leading the work by ACCT will be Laura Saunders, Ph.D. Saunders is well-familiar with the community college system in Washington, having served as Interim President of Bellevue College. Prior to that, Saunders was vice president of administrative services at Bellevue. She served in a similar capacity for 15 years at Highline Community College, was director of planning and capital budget at the University of Washington and was on staff at The Pennsylvania State University and the University of California.
ACCT is a national organization to foster greater understanding of and appreciation for community college boards; support boards in their efforts to develop public policies focusing on meeting community needs; help build board governance leadership and advocacy capacity through in-service education and training programs; and support boards through specialized services and programs. In addition, ACCT provides search executive services, conducts retreats and workshops for trustees, helps with board self-assessments and does presidential evaluations.