President's Office

Reports to the Board of Trustees

Dec. 8, 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

Awards & Achievements

President Whalen Elected Vice Chair/Incoming Chair of the Mountain View Chamber of Commerce

Kristina would like to thank Peter Katz, Chamber President and CEO, and Laura Blakely, current Board Chair, for their support. Before assuming the Board Chair role in 2027, Kristina will serve as Vice Chair/Incoming Chair, alongside Jessica Hill, General Manager for Shoreline Amphitheatre/Live Nation, who will serve as Board Chair starting Jan. 1, 2026.

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PRIMUS, a professional mathematics journal, selected Math Professor’s co-authored paper as one of the Editors' Picks for 2026

Congratulations to Mathematics Professor Jeff Anderson and Bryan B. Nguyen, a former Foothill student, for recognition for their paper on Linear Algebraic Nodal Analysis. The paper provides interdisciplinary learning activity to engage students. Read the full article here.

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Foothill College in the News

The 2025 Google + Foothill Case Competition Winners

Congratulations to Businesss Professor Laurence Lew for another successful Foothill Case Competition, now in its seventh year.  The event gives students an opportunity to present business ideas to a team of Google employee judges. The students are tasked with posing digital-focused business ideas that tackle modern social problems. This year's event was covered by the Los Altos Town Crier. Read the online story here.

Pictured: The winning NAVA Call team members (L to R) Preet Patel, Sodai Matsumoto, Haobo Yang, and Shrinath Desai holding their $1000 award check with VP of Instruction Stacy Gleixner and Laurence Lew.

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Applause for R.U.R. Rossum's Universal Robots 

Foothill Theatre Arts fall production of R.U.R., directed by Bruce McLeod and adapted by Bo List from the original play written by Karel Čapek in 1921, was a huge hit with nearly 900 patrons experiencing the show during its run Nov. 7–23. The adaptation explored the impact of artificial intelligence on our society, with a panel discussion following the Thursday, Nov. 13, faculty and staff night performance. Prior to each performance, patrons were invited to experience a variety of exciting preshow activities presented by Foothill's Robotics Club, Engineering Club, AI Club, and the Emerging Technologies Institute. A special thank you to our on campus STEM partners for making R.U.R.'s preshow special and thought-provoking! Read more about the play here.

Events

LEAD Education Session • November 5

Dr. Kristina Whalen served as a panelist at the Los Altos Chamber of Commerce LEAD Los Altos Education Session, hosted at the Krause Center for Innovation in November. Picture above, she was joined by Sandra McGonagle, Superintendent for the Los Altos School District (LASD, Gay Krause, KCI Executive Director, and Kip Glaser, Principal for Mountain View High School. Since 1995, the LEAD program has been the Los Altos region’s flagship civic leadership initiative, empowering leaders from Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, and surrounding communities. The current leadership program includes monthly interactive sessions, co‑led by expert civic leaders and public officials.

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NOVAWorks Launch Lab  • November 6

Dr. Kristina Whalen was invited to attend a gathering with NOVAWorks at Rootstock Wine Bar in Mountain View to discuss Driving Economic Mobility Through Local Leadership - A Conversation with City, County, and State Leaders. Pictured: South San Francisco Mayor Eddie Flores, Assemblymember Marc Berman, and San Mateo County Assistant County Executive Iliana Rodriguez were all present. Photo courtesy of Nova Works.  

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Celebrating Sophomore Athletes • November 8

The Foothill Community gathered at the Football stadium for a Saturday afternoon tailgate party to celebrate our sophomore athletes and their families. To make the day extra special, Foothill beat San Jose City College 43-7! Thank you to Trustee Terry Godfrey for joining in the fun. Plus, a special shoutout to Kinesiology and Athletics Dean Mike Teijeiro and his team of coaches, trainers, and classified support staff.

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Foothill Wins Pepsi Sequoia Bowl • November 22

The mighty Owls Football team capped their second season in the top Coast Conference Football league in Northern California with an overtime win 29-28 at College of the Sierras.

Congratulations to Coach Mike Ravio and Assistant Coach Brandon Younger, their staff and the student athletes!

Strategic Updates

SNAP Assistance 

Thank you to our fantastic student services team for coordinating additional food donations this past month. The Owls Nest served an additional 107 students with nutritious food to replace the assistance usually provided under SNAP during the first three weeks in November. Kudos to Catalina Rodriguez, Dean of Student Affairs, and Sonia Sanchez Santoyo, Owl's Nest Program Coordinator, (pictured) for leading this effort.

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Launch of Implementation Teams for Blueprint for Success

Our four Foothill vice presidents — Stacy Gleixner, Laurie Scolari, Teresa Ong, and Bret Watson — have formed their four Goal teams, and each Goal Objective lead has also formed their teams. Work has started to implement our 2030 Blueprint for Success plan, and we’ll be updating the Board on our work and progress at regular intervals. Thank you to the faculty, staff, and administrators who are working on these important objectives.

To view the four 5-year Blueprint for Success goals and related objectives,  visit our Blueprint for Success Goals and Objectives page.

Invitations to the Board

Poet Laureate Convocation • January 27

Please join us at Foothill College on Tuesday, Jan. 27 at Noon–2 p.m. (room location TBD) to officially recognize Marvin Hernandez Flores as Foothill College’s first Poet Laureate.  To learn more about Marvin and hear his poetry reading and address at our 2025 commencement ceremony, visit our Student Poet Laureate page.