Board meeting recap

At the Aug. 26 meeting of the MCC Board of Trustees, Carolyn Brown was acknowledged for her dedication as the secretary for the MCC Board of Trustees for the past 15 years, serving through three chancellors. The board appointed Cindy Johnson as the new secretary to the Board of Trustees, effective Aug. 27, 2010.

Any items that need to be added to board meetings should now be sent to Cindy Johnson, program coordinator for the chancellor’s office.

The board meeting schedule, which includes dates agenda items need to be submitted, can be found on the InfoExchange by searching ‘board meeting’ and clicking on the appropriate link. (An updated schedule with changes will be posted soon.)

The board approved acceptance of funds from external sources:

U.S Dept of Ed: Student Support Services: Bridges to Success (PV) -$1,188,115 over 5yrs
Hall Family Foundation: Pathways Project (PV) - $40,000 over 2 years
Ewing Marion Kauffman Found: PLTW (District) -$30,000
Mo. Dept. of Higher Ed: Default Prevention (District) -$25,000
Mo. Dept. of Econ Dev/Mo. Arts Council: Storytelling (MW) - $10,356
Stanley H. Durwood Found: Latino Early Childhood Teachers Project (PV) - $7,000

The next board meeting will be held on Sept. 30 at the Administrative Center.

MCC-Maple Woods Dean of Instruction selected as HLC evaluator

Mindy McCallum, Dean of Instruction at MCC-Maple Woods, was recently selected as a consultant-evaluator for the Higher Learning Commission’s (HLC) Peer Review Corps. She will play an active role in the accreditation process of other community colleges and two-year institutions throughout the region, serving as an on-site evaluator of programs, processes and operations of institutions up for re-accreditation through the HLC.

McCallum will serve under the Program to Evaluate and Advance Quality (PEAQ) in her role as consultant-evaluator. Consultant evaluators must be full-time administrators or faculty members of a North Central Association (NCA) accredited institution. Currently, institutions are evaluated every 10 years after affirmed accreditation. Institutions engaging in the process must complete a self-study, a comprehensive visit by a team of evaluators and have the findings reviewed by an HLC Review Committee before accreditation or reaccreditation is awarded. MCC-Maple Woods recently completed the reaccreditation process in 2006.

The consultant-evaluator position, which is voluntary, will place McCallum on one to two evaluation teams per year, which will visit institutions and gain a comprehensive overview of its faculty, staff, administrators, programs, facilities and other key areas. Working as a team, the evaluators will collaborate and submit a report to the HLC with a recommendation to grant, renew or suspend the institution’s accreditation.

McCallum is especially looking forward to one of the perks of the evaluation procedure, which is the opportunity to observe institutional practices at other community colleges and consider their implications at MCC.

“It really is like professional development, in that I have the opportunity to see how other institutions do things,” she said. “There is also the opportunity to view different approaches and practices in action and to bring them back for consideration at MCC.”

McCallum will attend a training session later in the fall to learn the ins and outs of the peer review process. After completing the training, she will be able to serve on HLC accreditation teams for the North Central region. MCC currently has another HLC consultant-evaluator, Leo Hirner, Director of Distance Education Services at the Administrative Center.

MCC-Maple Woods’ Dusty Mills to serve MoCPA

Dusty Mills, administrative assistant for student development at MCC-Maple Woods, was recently appointed as newsletter coordinator for the Missouri College Personnel Association (MoCPA) for 2010-2011.

MoCPA is an association for student affairs professionals across the state of Missouri. MoCPA promotes the learning and development of students enrolled in institutions of post-secondary education through the ongoing professional development of college student affairs administrators and student development educators.

Walter-Mack appointed to Chief of Staff

Kathy Walter-Mack has been appointed to a key leadership role at MCC. Walter-Mack will serve as chief of staff to the chancellor. She will be responsible for facilitating communication between the chancellor and employees, leading the district’s diversity efforts, developing community contacts and providing legal counsel, among other duties.

Walter-Mack’s appointment comes as Mark James assumes the role of MCC chancellor. James has served as vice chancellor of administrative services since January 2009 and was appointed to chancellor designee by MCC’s board of trustees in January 2010.

“Kathy has played a significant role for MCC as director of urban affairs and inclusion,” said James. “Her extensive legal and policy experience in the field of education and ties to the Kansas City metropolitan area made her an obvious choice to serve as my chief of staff.”

Walter-Mack has served as director of urban affairs and inclusion at MCC since April
2009 and previously had provided legal services to the district. She will assume the role on July 1.

Goodall appointed president of MCC-BTC

MCC’s Board of Trustees appointed Debbie Goodall as president of MCC-Business & Technology at the Dec. 10 board meeting. After serving as interim president since June 2008, Goodall will assume the role of president on Jan. 4, 2010.

Goodall has led efforts to meet MCC’s strategic goals, managed the campus budget, established partnerships with industry and educational institutions and represented MCC’s priorities with workforce development initiatives.

Before her appointment to interim president, she served in several other roles at MCC, including district director of career and technical education, dean of student development and community relations at BTC, and director of the Career Education Consortium. Goodall has been with MCC since 1995, when she began as marketing coordinator at Penn Valley.

Goodall holds an undergraduate degree in journalism and English from the University of Colorado – Boulder and a master’s degree in vocational, industrial and technical education from the University of Central Missouri. She has also completed post-graduate work in speech pathology and audiology.