President's Office

Reports to the Board of Trustees

June 9, 2025 Board Meeting

Each month, President Kristina Whalen gives a report on college activities, honors and achievements during the regular meeting of the Foothill-De Anza Community College District Board of Trustees.

View Board Reports Archive

Recognition

Laurie Scolari Invited as the Keynote for the ACBO Conference

Laurie Scolari, Vice President of Student Services, and Laurie's digital AI-generated twin pictured above, presented  “AI in Action: More Creativity, Less Busywork” at a General Session of the annual Association of Chief Business Officials (ACBO) conference on May 19 in Lake Tahoe. Their talk focused on how AI can unleash our creativity and was well received by the assembled Business Officials. Congratulations Laurie.

---

Acceptance into the SEM Academy

Building an Annual Schedule for Student Success and Degree Planning 

President Whalen is thrilled with Foothill College’s recently formed Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) team, which held its kick off meeting May 23, with some members participating in the SEM Academy in Irvine June 6 and 7.

The team includes representation from FA, Academic Senate, Classified Senate, deans, and AVPs. It is a big team, but the broad membership represents all constituencies at the college, and their shared expertise and specialized knowledge augurs well for a successful project.

SEM coaches include Paul Murphy, former VPI and AVP of Institutional Effectiveness at Allan Hancock College and Darcie Drummond, Biology Professor, El Camino College.

Thank you to the following Foothill colleagues for participating in this important effort. 

• SEM Co-Chairs Kurt Hueg, AVP of Instruction, and Ben Kaupp, Tools to Transition to Work Instructor, Curriculum Committee Chair
• Elaine Kuo, Director of Institutional Research 
• Julie Jenkins, Anthropology Instructor, Department Chair; FA Executive Council 
• Sara Cooper, Biology Instructor, Department Chair 
• Fei Zheng, Academic Services Coordinator 
• Alex Collins, Senior Administrative Assistant, Business and Social Sciences Division 
• Amber La Piana, English Instructor, Department Chair 
• Hilary Gomes, Art Instructor, Department Chair 
• Jordan Fong, Art Instructor, Curriculum Committee Member 
• Zachary Cembellin, Dean, STEM Division 
• Valerie Fong, Dean, Language Arts and Ethnic Studies 
• Simon Pennington, Associate Vice President College and Community Relations, Marketing and Communications 
• Eric Reed, Computer Science Instructor, FA Conciliator 

Recent Events

May 22 • Research & Service Leadership Symposium

Foothill College hosted the eighth annual all-day Research and Service Leadership Symposium (RSLS) last month. Thank you to Lisa Schultheis and Allison Herman for once again designing and directing an unforgettable day!

A huge thank you also to Dean Mark Barnes and the Library, STEM Center, and WLC teams, for supporting the event (a big shout out to Jeremy Peters for his closing ceremony rap!), to ETS and our Facilities teams for ensuring the technology worked perfectly and campus looked beautiful, to all the faculty mentors who helped guide the 164 (!!!!) presentations to fruition, to the volunteer room monitors for keeping the presentations on track, to the judging panel for helping select the finalists, to the Foothill Foundation for helping fund the event, to Pacific Dining for keeping everyone well fed and refreshed, to the Palo Alto Unified School District for their participation and support, and most importantly, to the 277 participating students whose work inspired and impressed us all. 

Read about the the winners of the Judges' Award for this year's three categories — Research, Service, and Creative Arts.

---

May 29 • Foothill Innovation Challenge

The 2025 Foothill Innovation Challenge was an exciting display of student creativity and problem-solving this year! Students showcased bold, sustainable business ideas aimed at tackling real health, business, and social issues.

During the Competition Round, participants presented their concepts in a poster board session, and the top six teams pitched their solutions Shark Tank-style to an expert panel of judges, including executives from Google, Tesla, LYT.ai., and Cleanlab, and our very own Board President, Peter Landsberger. 

Innovation, impact, and inspiration were all on full display.  

• 1st Place: ElderShield - Sanjan Joshi, and Liam Wong ($1500 prize) 
• 2nd Place: SayMore - Solyana Fantahun, Devansh Kanda, and Zahra Mohammed ($700 prize) 
• 3rd Place: GloriAI - Janelle Palomo ($300 prize) 

Thank you to organizers Michelle Wu and Angie Dupree! 

---

June 4 • Pride Center: Official Ribbon Cutting

Thank you to everyone who joined students, faculty, and staff to celebrate the opening of the Foothill College Pride Center and helped raise the Pride flag as we kicked off a month of LGBTQIA History Month events. Thank you to local political leaders and community leaders, colleagues and students from De Anza, and Trustees Pearl Cheng and Peter Landsberger for helping us celebrate. 

Strategic Updates

White Paper with SVLG on AL Curriculum 

Building Tomorrow’s AI Workforce: Pathways From Community College To Career is a new white paper detailing an innovative, first-of-its-kind AI curriculum developed for community colleges in California. This initiative, led by the Silicon Valley Leadership Group’s Institute for California AI Policy (I-CAP) and the SVLG Foundation, in partnership with the Foothill-DeAnza Community College District, addresses the critical AI talent shortage in the Bay Area while also focusing on increasing diversity in the tech sector. Thank you to Zach Cembellin for helping to lead this initiative.

Read the white paper here.

Blueprint for Success 2030

First Draft of our Foothill 2030 Goals and Objectives Available to Read

The Foothill College Education Master Plan (EMP) was rebranded as the "Blueprint for Success 2030" beginning in 2025. College goals and objectives are identified in the document and will help prioritize institution- and program-level strategies to support students more effectively. The Blueprint for Success 2030 Draft is available for download here, along with a feedback form.

Thank you to all the members who served on this year's Educational Master Plan Update Committee and to Stacy Gleixner, Ajani Byrd, Elaine Kuo, Laurie Scolari, Bret Watson, Voltaire Villanueva, and Doreen Finkelstein for leading this work.

Invitation to the Board

65th Annual Commencement  • Friday, June 27  • 10 a.m.

Please join us to celebrate our 2024-2025 graduates with their family and friends.  For all year-end events, see our 2025 recognition and celebrations  listing.