EL CAJONEL CAJON — Jessica Robinson, vice president of student services at Cuyamaca College, has been selected by the Aspen Institute College Excellence Program to participate in a 10-month fellowship designed to prepare future community college presidents.
Robinson is one of 40 educators across the nation and one of two from San Diego County chosen for the 2021-22 class of the Aspen Rising Presidents Fellowship. Tina King, assistant superintendent and vice president for student affairs at Southwestern College, was also chosen for the fellowship.
The Aspen Institute is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C. Its website says that its mission is “to foster leadership based on enduring values and to provide a nonpartisan venue for dealing with critical issues.”
According to a news release from Cuyamaca College, the fellowship was created to respond to a growing need for a new generation of leaders in community college istration. Nationally, the group reports, nearly 80 percent of sitting presidents plan to retire in the next decade.
While the traditional pathway to the presidency has often excluded women and people of color, the news release said, the incoming class of Aspen Rising Presidents Fellows is composed of 68 percent women and 70 percent people of color.
Cuyamaca College President Julianna Barnes nominated Robinson for the fellowship, describing her as among the top 1 percent of leaders she has ever worked with in more than 20 years with community colleges.
She cited Robinson’s focus on social justice and equity as qualities that indicate she could become a future college president.
“With equitable access and success as the north star, Jessica has taken student services to new heights,” Barnes said. “Jessica has proven to be a successful leader in the community colleges and has the characteristics needed to ultimately be a successful CEO.”
The leadership program will begin in November. It partners participants with current and former community college presidents such as Barnes as mentors.
Participants will learn strategies to lead internal change, improve student outcomes in and after college, and create external partnerships with K-12 schools, four-year colleges, employers, and other partners.
Robinson told Cuyamaca College officials that she has devoted her career to attaining equitable success for community college students — a goal borne from her personal history as a first-generation college student and a Latina.
“This desire to develop possibilities for student success comes from my background, coupled with my ion for working with others to break down institutional barriers,” she said.
Robinson earned her associate’sdegree from Cuyamaca about 20 years ago, and went on to receive her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social work and a doctorate in educational leadership from San Diego State University.
She was named vice president at Cuyamaca in 2018 after working more than 15 years at SDSU, most recently as assistant dean for student affairs and interim associate dean for academic affairs.
Robinson’s past honors and awards include the SDSU President’s Leadership Award for Faculty and Staff Excellence, finalist for San Diego Magazine’s “Woman of the Year” and SDSU’s Undergraduate and Graduate School of Social Work’s “Student of the Year.”
