17³Ô¹Ï

Announcement: Vice President of Instruction

Dear Campus Community, 

I am eager and excited to share some important news for the future of 17³Ô¹Ï. However, before doing so, I want to recognize the unwavering dedication of three campus leaders that stepped into acting and interim roles during a crucial time for 17³Ô¹Ï College and have helped us maintain our position as one of the best community colleges in the country.  

A very deep and appreciative thank you to Kurt Hueg for his pivotal leadership and dedication to 17³Ô¹Ï over the last two years, during which the college stabilized enrollment and recovered its sense of mission. A similar and very special thank you to Ram Subramanian for ably taking on the role of Associate Vice President of Instruction and leading mission-critical efforts on resource prioritization, program review, and scheduling. And a heartfelt thank you to Zachary Cembellin for stepping up from his faculty position to lead the STEM division. As a college community, we owe a great deal to these three individuals who carried much of the weight of the college when it was in transition. Please join me in expressing our collective appreciation for their time, effort, and energy.  Bravo, Kurt, Ram, and Zach! 

 We, as a college community, are also indebted to the VPI search committee for conducting a thorough and transparent search.  This is an important and exhaustive process, and I’d like to thank the hiring committee, led by Dr. Laurie Scolari, for their commitment to evaluating a robust pool of applicants. 

Now for the news. I am very pleased to announce that Dr. Stacy Gleixner will join the leadership team at 17³Ô¹Ï as Vice President of Instruction. Dr. Gleixner brings a wealth of personal and professional experience to 17³Ô¹Ï, having served students in Silicon Valley as a professor, mentor, role model, associate vice president, and, most recently, the vice president of instruction at West Valley College. As a first-generation college student and a woman in the field of engineering, her personal journey through higher education informs her leadership. Stacy is consistently praised by faculty, administrative colleagues, and classified professionals alike as someone that enlarges others and creates the conditions where people see their purpose and progress. In both the CSU and CCC systems, Stacy has an impressive track record of work squarely aimed at eliminating opportunity gaps. She is a leader that harnesses the power of trusting relationships to move work forward. Those strengths, combined with her reputation as an impeccable strategic planner and data-informed thinker, align well with the values and needs of our college.

As the Chief Instructional Officer and accreditation lead at West Valley College, she provided primary leadership on key college initiatives, including the creation of a strategic enrollment management plan focused on growth through increasing student retention and persistence, ensuring high-quality instruction and services, high-impact educational experiences, and supporting culturally relevant curriculum. She also co-led Guided Pathways implementation and large components of educational master planning. Moreover, she was the primary leader for West Valley College’s implementation of the Institute for Evidence-Based Change’s Caring Campus project.

As Associate Vice President at SJSU, Stacy worked collaboratively to align and scale campus-wide faculty professional development with the needs of the students. She also oversaw an impressive project aimed at increasing the number of first-year students taking a full course load. The provost at CSU, San Marcos, and a former colleague of Dr. Gleixner at SJSU, reported the initiative significantly increased the number of graduates completing a degree in four years, doubling the increase at other CSUs. 

Dr. Gleixner’s instructional resume is equally impressive. Before moving into administrative leadership, Stacy was a full professor in engineering at SJSU and is a research scholar with over 30 professional publications. She has deep industry ties in the area and was named a Silicon Valley Business Journal Women of Influence in 2016.  

Dr. Gleixner will join our college and further our spirit and legacy of innovation and national recognition for its excellence. Dr. Gleixner will start on August 30th, pending Board approval.

Please join me in thanking Kurt, Ram, and Zach and welcoming Stacy to our community.   

Yours in service, 

 

Dr. Kristina Whalen​

President