Three candidates are vying for the chancellor job at San Diego Community College District, and next week the public will get a chance to ask them questions at three public forums.
The district’s board of trustees has been searching since last summer for a new chancellor to replace Carlos Cortez, who resigned in May after two years in the job to take care of his parents, according to the district. The district serves about 80,000 students at three credit colleges and its college of continuing education.
The firm Academic Search has helped the district execute its search since this summer. A search advisory committee reviewed the job applications received; the resulting three finalists had the highest total scores from committee members.
The three finalists are:
- Daisy Gonzales, deputy chancellor at the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office. She has served as the acting and interim chancellor of the state office during the pandemic. She has also worked as a consultant for the California Assembly Appropriations Committee and Assembly Budget Committee.
- Brian King, who has been chancellor of the Los Rios Community College District in Sacramento since 2013. Before that, he was the superintendent and president of Cabrillo College in Aptos, near Santa Cruz, for nine years. He has also served in leadership positions for the Community College League of California and California Community College Athletics Association.
- Gregory Smith, who has been acting chancellor of the San Diego Community College District since March. He was previously vice chancellor of people, culture and technology services at the district for about three years. He has also served as an administrator at Shasta College and previously worked in the U.S. Department of Labor.
The district will hold three public forums, one for each of the finalists, styled as Q&A sessions. The forums will be held from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. on the following days: Monday, Nov. 27, for King; Tuesday, Nov. 28, for Smith; and Wednesday, Nov. 29, for Gonzales.
Members of the public can submit questions for the finalists via email to ChancellorSearch@sdccd.edu. The district will ask all forum participants to complete an online feedback survey within 24 hours after each forum, and the survey results will be considered by the district’s board of trustees when selecting the chancellor.
The board of trustees is expected to select a new chancellor by February.
