People

Barb Matias, Palm Beach State College executive director of human resources, is among 22 community college administrators from around the country who recently completed the National Community College Hispanic Council’s 2016 Leadership Fellows Program.

The program, hosted by the University of San Diego School of Leadership and Education Sciences, is designed to develop a pool of highly qualified Hispanics whose career interest focuses on assuming increasingly responsible administrative positions, with the ultimate goal of becoming a community college president.

Matias was named new executive director of human resources since in 2014 after serving about seven months as the interim. She began working at the College in 2003 as a human resource generalist. She was promoted to senior human resource generalist in 2006 and promoted later that year to manager of human resource programs. In 2011, she was named assistant director, human resources, safety and risk.

“Preparing strong leaders for the future is the primary purpose of the National Community College Hispanic Council’s Leadership Fellows Program,” said NCCHC President Maria Harper Marinick. “A demographic shift is occurring in the United States, and we need leaders who can model the way for the growing Hispanic population. Through this program, Fellows gain the necessary knowledge and skills they need to lead higher education into the future and positively impact the economic and civic success of their respective communities.”

Components of the Leadership Fellows Program include two residential training seminars.  Each Fellow prepared an individualized professional development plan and is engaged in a mentoring relationship with a Hispanic community college leader. The fellows attended the NCCHC Leadership Symposium Sept. 22-24.

NCCHC is an affiliated council of the American Association of Community Colleges, a national organization that has provided leadership to the community college movement for the past half-century. The Council, which was established 30 years ago, works to promote the educational interests and success of the Hispanic community and emphasizes access, equity and excellence for students and staff in community colleges. One of the first ventures was to offer a leadership development program, with support from the Ford Foundation.  Of the original 72 Fellows, more than 15 are now community college presidents and many others have moved to positions of increased responsibility as executive level administrators. Since the program’s inception, more than 250 community college administrators have participated as Leadership Fellows.