3 President Finalists

From left, finalists Dr. Peter Maphumulo, Dr. Patricia Hsieh and Anthony "Tony" Kinkel speak during their public forums on June 20.

Three finalist candidates for the position of superintendent/president for the Hartnell Community College District made their case on June 20 in consecutive one-hour forums on Hartnell’s Main Campus.The finalists are vying to replace Dr. Willard Lewallen, who will retire in September after seven years as the college’s senior executive.

Biographies of the candidates are available on the Hartnell website. The college expects to share videos of their full individual presentations and question-and-answer sessions by June 24.

Before each forum, Dr. Robert Griffin, vice president of the search firm hired to manage Hartnell’s search process, introduced the finalists to an assembly of employees, students and community members in Steinbeck Hall.

Within their own 50-minute forums, the candidates had 10 minutes for a personal introduction and then answered questions chosen from those submitted by audience members on note cards.

“The institution is looking for the best leader they can get, with the right fit to continue its legacy and move to the next level,” said Dr. Griffin, of the firm PPL, Inc. “This is a very important process.”

The district Governing Board was scheduled to hold separate interviews with the finalists on June 21 and then continue their decision-making process with background and reference checks and possibly a site visit to one or more of the candidates’ current places of employment.

The board has not set a deadline for its selection, but that could occur by mid-July, said Terri Pyer, associate vice president for human resources and equal employment opportunity at Hartnell.

True to the college’s leading value of “Students First,” all three finalists took the opportunity during their individual forums to express their commitment to serving students – in their current roles and at Hartnell, were they chosen for the position.

The first forum featured candidate Dr. Anthony “Tony” Kinkel, a former teacher, coach and Minnesota state legislator who between 2004 and 2017 was president of three community colleges – in Colorado, Kansas and Tennessee. He now serves as executive director for the Minnesota State Board for School Administrators.

Dr. Kinkel said he has sought to understand the motivations of students in the millennial generation, meaning those in their mid-20s to early 30s, whom he described as highly goal-oriented.

“They say, ‘Show me exactly how I get can an A on my paper,’” he said, continuing in the voice of such a student. “‘I want to be trained in how I can excel in this job and be surrounded by people who want to succeed like I did.’”

Dr. Kinkel said so-called Generation Z learners, those now entering their college years, have a strong desire for individualized learning.

“It can be online, hybrid or in person, but it better be personalized,” Dr. Kinkel said.

Dr. Patricia Hsieh, who is in her 14th year as president of San Diego Miramar College, said she has worked to connect with individual students by inviting them to attend conferences with her, by regularly attending student government meetings and dropping into classrooms if invited by faculty.

“When students see me, they know me,” said Dr. Hsieh, who previously was interim president and vice of student services at Sacramento City College. “They call me President Patricia. The students are the reason why we are here.”

Dr. Hsieh is a native of Taiwan who immigrated to California and began her education after first raising two children.

The third forum featured Dr. Peter Maphumulo, in his sixth year as executive vice president for instruction and student services at Victor Valley College in Victorville, Calif. Originally from South Africa, he was provost and president for the Alexandria campus of Northern Virginia Community College from 2009-13.

Dr. Maphumulo said a community college should be “dedicated to having students at the center of everything you do.”

He described several opportunities for direct communication from students to administrators at Victor Valley, including an annual “Listening Week” during which students are invited to “tell us the pain points they are experiencing, from onboarding to the institution to learning in the classroom.”

One of the audience questions posed to all three finalists asked how each would reach out to the predominantly Hispanic, or Latinx, population in Salinas Valley communities, which is also reflected in the demographics of Hartnell students.

Dr. Kinkel responded by pointing to his success in increasing the number of administrators of color at Motlow State Community College, a multi-campus institution in rural southeastern Tennessee.

He said he tries to not only respond to the cultural needs of people who are different from him, but also actively work to understand what he called their “internal narrative.”

“I’ve made a switch to what I call cultural humility until I know what it’s like to be in your footsteps,” Dr. Kinkel said.

Dr. Hsieh said that through serving a highly diverse population at Miramar, she has found that responsiveness begins with listening and building positive relationships so “the community is able to see the value of the college.”

Dr. Maphumulo said Victor Valley’s student demographics “are almost a mirror image” of Hartnell, not only in terms of ethnicity but also through a predominance of immigrant families and first-generation students.

He said Victor Valley holds family nights and works with a non-governmental advisory board.

“We bring the community to campus so they see it as a place where their children should go,” Dr. Maphumulo said.