Public forums with candidates will be held Friday, April 5
Mt. Hood Community College has selected three finalists in the search for a new college president.
The college Board of Education approved the finalists during its Wednesday, March 13, meeting.
With college president Michael Hay retiring June 30, 2013, a search committee including students and employees has selected Debra Derr, Suzanne Miles and Jacob Ng as the finalists.
Michael Viera of Community College Search Services assisted in the search process, helping narrow down the applicant pool from 38 applications.
Since the Feb. 13 presidential search committee meeting, we have picked first level candidates, Viera said. Weve conducted reference checks on the candidates and checked their civil and criminal background.
Students, employees and members of the public are invited to three candidate forums at 11:30 a.m., 12:15 p.m. and 1:20 p.m. Friday, April 5, on the Gresham campus. The board will conduct a second round of interviews with candidates Saturday, April 6.
The purpose of these forums is to give the public and staff an opportunity to hear from each one of the candidates, said Dave Shield, board chairman.
Debra Derr
The president of North Iowa Community College, Derr has held senior administrative positions at Mt. Hood Community College and Clackamas Community College.
Derr has experience working with students who have disabilities, along with advising and counseling, teaching psychology and student development courses and administering student affairs programs.
Derr received her bachelors degree in business administration from Linfield College, a masters degree in counseling from Portland State University and a doctorate in community college and higher education administration from Oregon State University.
Suzanne Miles
Miles is interim chancellor for Pima Community College in Tuscon, Ariz., the eighth largest multi-campus institution in the nation.
Prior to her 26 years with Pima, she worked at Oakland University in Rochester, Mich., and in television and radio news in Anchorage, Alaska.
Miles received a bachelors degree in speech from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. She earned a masters degree in communication from Arizona State University and a doctorate in communication with a minor in higher education administration from the University of Arizona.
Jacob Ng
Ng is the vice chancellor of student services at Peralta Community College District in the San Francisco Bay Area.
He has held several administrative positions at the community college during the past 17 years.
He has nine years of community college teaching experience and four years of experience as an adjunct faculty member, along with eight years of full-time counseling faculty.
Ng received his bachelors degree in psychology from Evangel University in Missouri, a masters in counseling and clinical psychology from Cal Lutheran University and a doctorate in community college leadership from Oregon State University.