Yera-Cronin named next CGCC president

Yera-Cronin’s hiring came in a special meeting Tuesday at the Indian Creek Campus in Hood River. The college search committee started with 44 applicants, and the community met the four finalists earlier this month.

The vote was unanimous, with all seven board members weighing in —including Sarah Segal and Dr. Kevin McCabe via conference call. Lee Fairchild, who led the search process, moved to adopt the contract with Yera-Cronin, and Charlotte Arnold seconded. Joining in the vote were Stu Watson, Pam Morgan, and Dana Campbell.

Watson said, “In all respects, the board was kind of blown away with how lucky we got to get someone with these talents. As vice president of academic affairs, she led their application for the Aspen Prize for community college excellence. They were second this year, and in the top 10 a couple of years ago. It’s a culture of excellence, and coming from that, I think she’s got the horsepower to create something like that here.”

Yera-Cronin, who could not be reached for comment by press time, will succeed interim president Lori Ufford, who is CGCC’s Chief Academic Officer. Frank Toda stepped down as president last summer, leading to a national search process that Fairchild said was rigorous and professional.

He praised the search committee and support staff for its thoroughness and dedication, and said three of the four candidates were strong, but Yera-Cronin stood out.

She currently serves as president of the Florida Association of Colleges of Teacher Education, and was chosen as a leadership fellow to the American Association of Community Colleges National Community College Hispanic Council.

Yera-Cronin will start work at CGCC July 1. Watson said, “She’s got great experience and has worked a lot in the academic arena, helped develop bachelor degree teacher training programs; she pulled together 11 different institutions to support an $8-million grant they got not just for the college, but other insitutions. She’s got great energy and is dedicated to making this, as she put it, a destination college.”

Search committee member Rob Kovacich said, “I’m very excited for Marta to come in and change everything. She’s going to change everything.”

Asked to elaborate, he said, “transparency. We really have no direction, not really sure what we’re doing. Money. She has brought so much money into her current situation. If she did that here, it can really create change,” said Kovacich, who teaches chemistry at the college.

“She will engage a student population that right now isn’t not really looking forward to coming here.

“She wants to be everywhere all the time. She is going to put in so much effort, and we are going to be the beneficiaries,” Kovacich said.

Volunteers participating in the presidential search committee represented a cross-section of college faculty, staff, students, board members and the community at large.

Committee members were District 21 Supt. Candy Armstrong, Annette Byers, Dana Campbell, Martin Campos-Davis, Martha Capovilla, Danny Dehaze, Kristen Dillon, Lee Fairchild, Cyndi Gentry, Supt. Dan Goldman, Robert Kovacich, Mary Martin, Jonathon Neptune, Stephen Shwiff, Andrea Padilla Smith, Eric Studebaker and Jeanie Vieira.

Fairchild also praised the work of executive assistant Tiffany Prince and presented her with a plate made by Fairchild’s wife, artist Karen Fairchild.

“Tiffany spent many long hours on this and was responsible for making everything happen at the time when it needed to, and saw it happened smoothly, while also making sure that everything coming along next in the process also came into line smoothly.”

Watson said, “She is very supportive of initiatives and has worked with the Indian River college to increase enrollment and retention, those are issues we’re really high on as a board. We need to get people in and keep them here to graduation or transfer.

“She is huge on community relations and outreach and partnerships.

“She is planning to spend a lot of time meeting with people in the first months and establishing stronger ties that we have had with our community, with our business community, but also potential students and parents of potential students.

“She wants to work on expanding the dual enrollment programs we’ve been working on but haven’t; gotten as far as the board would like, and she’s going to be a great partner with our student services people in improving those connections.”

Also interviewed for the job were Dr. Leanne Frost, director of the General Studies Division at Montana State University; Dr. Sarah Thompson Tweedy, vice president of Student Access, Involvement and Success at the State University of New York; and Dr. Paul Jarrell, assistant superintendent and executive vice president of Santa Barbara City College, Santa Barbara, Calif.

“The search committee did an immense amount of work to get us to this stage and we are deeply appreciative,” said Dr. Lee Fairchild, college board vice chair, who led the search effort.

Gold Hill Associates, a national search firm directed by Dr. Preston Pulliams, former president of Portland Community College, helped identify and recruit candidates.

Yera-Cronin will become the third president of CGCC since the institution was established in 1977.  

There are now campuses in Hood River and The Dalles.

CGCC serves seven counties in Oregon and Washington that border the Columbia River Gorge.