EVERETT — Trustees of Everett Community College are counting on a former chancellor of Seattle Colleges to help them find a successor to retiring president David Beyer.
The board has hired the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT), a national nonprofit based in Washington, D.C., which conducts national recruitments exclusively for two-year colleges.
Jill Wakefield, a highly respected former chancellor of Seattle Colleges now working with ACCT, will head up the search effort. Trustees considered her involvement a plus because she knows EvCC and the community.
“We are very familiar with them,” said Mike Deller, chairman of the board of the trustees. “They have the resources and the connectivity through the national organization.”
The organization, which beat out seven other competitors, signed a contract with the community college Tuesday.
Under the contract, ACCT will earn $35,000 and receive up to $5,000 for travel expenses incurred by consultants. There could be “add-on” costs later for items such as travel expenses for semifinal and final candidates when they visit campus.
Beyer, the longest-tenured president in Everett Community College’s history, is planning to retire at the end of the academic year.
ACCT will ramp up its recruitment in January, and finalists could be in front of trustees for interviews and a decision by April, Deller said.
In the next couple of weeks, the EvCC board will form a search committee to work with ACCT. Deller will be chairman and Maria Pena, the college’s chief diversity officer, will be vice chairwoman.
Students, faculty, classified staff, administrators and people living in the community will serve on it, Deller said.
One of the panel’s first tasks is helping craft a profile for the next president. This would amount to traits and skills they would like to see in the next executive. Additionally, input will be gathered at public forums and online via a website that will be launched in early December.
Once the profile is approved by the trustees, it will be used by ACCT in its nationwide search.
An application deadline is penciled in for February. The search committee would interview semifinalist candidates, possibly in March, and forward names of finalists to the board.
Finalists can expect to be interviewed by trustees and to take part in public forums before a final selection is made.
Deller expressed confidence it can be done by April.
“Word is out. People are curious,” he said. “There’s been quite a bit of interest already.”
Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623; jcornfield@herald net.com. Twitter: @dospueblos
