Dear Southwestern College Community:
As you know, Dr. Nish’s last day with the District is today, June 30. Once again, the Board is thankful to Dr. Nish for her dedicated work for the District over the last several years, and we wish her the best in her future personal and professional endeavors.
We wanted to let you know about the plan for finding our next Superintendent/President. The Board is focused on finding the right person to lead the College. But this process will take some time, likely six months or more. As a result, we are actively looking for a qualified interim to serve until a permanent Superintendent/President is found. The selection of an interim may take several weeks. Last night, the Governing Board unanimously voted to appoint Tim Flood, Vice President of Business and Financial Affairs, to serve as Acting Superintendent/President. Tim has successfully served in that role before, and we are very thankful to him for his willingness to do so for the next couple of weeks.
To select the interim, the Board has appointed me and member Norma Hernandez to lead the search with participation from constituency leadership. The Board has approved a proposal from Community College Search Services to help us with the search for an interim and permanent Superintendent/President. CCSS is one of the leading search firms in California for community colleges, is well respected, and has assisted the College before. CCSS also has a very strong local and national network of experienced consultants and candidates from which to draw for both the interim and permanent search efforts.
The permanent search plan is outlined in the CCSS proposal on BoardDocs. Additionally, the search process and timeline will be discussed in further detail at future Board meetings. We encourage your participation in the effort to find the next leader of our College.
We thank you once again for your continued dedicated work on behalf of our students.
Nora E. Vargas,
Board President
