DURAN, RICHARD

President, Oxnard College, Oxnard, CA

Dr. Durán, a native of Colorado, has over 30 years’ experience in higher education administration at various levels of responsibility, including serving as founding President of Tohono O’odham Community College, a tribal college in Arizona, and teaching in higher education at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Dr. Durán holds a B.A and M.A. in Education from Adams State College and a Doctorate in Educational Administration from the University of Northern Colorado. He has held many positions in academe, including faculty member, dean of instruction, Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Student Development, and President of Pima Community College’s Desert Vista Campus. He became President of Oxnard College in California in March 2007. Throughout his career, he has emphasized student access, retention, and the development of new partnerships as his foremost priorities.

In addition to his many accomplishments in the field of higher education, Dr. Durán has completed Harvard University’s “Institute for the Management of Lifelong Education.” Further, he was chosen as a Kellogg Fellow in Leadership Development in conjunction with the League for Innovation, as well as being named a Fellow in the National Community College Hispanic Council Hispanic Leadership Fellows Program during the 1990s.

Dr. Durán has made numerous professional presentations throughout the country on topics such as assessment, teaching/learning styles, workforce issues and diversity. He has been active throughout his career in Colorado, Wisconsin, Arizona and California as an acknowledged civic leader with a long and successful history of effective working relationships with local and state government leaders and organizations. He continues this service in the Oxnard area and has worked with a number of professional organizations in the past, including the Arizona Community College Presidents’ Council, National Community College Hispanic Council, American Association of Community Colleges Workforce Commission, Arizona Commission for Postsecondary Education, and the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. It is through these and other organizations that he continues to work collaboratively to facilitate community growth and self-sufficiency among the citizenry.