Photos courtesy of GCCCD.
The Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District has named its finalists in the search for a successor to Chancellor Cindy Miles, who will retire at the end of the year.
The two candidates chosen Tuesday by the governing board are Lynn Ceresino Neault, vice chancellor of Student Services at the San Diego Community College District, and David Potash, president of Wilbur Wright College, a community college on the northwest side of Chicago.
Before trustees make their decision, however, the campus communities and public will have opportunities to listen in during question-and-answer sessions with the finalists, and fill out feedback forms afterward.
Each candidate will get their own open forum at both campuses.
The public forums for Neault are set for Monday, Nov. 4, from 10-11 a.m. in the second-floor atrium of the Health and Sciences Complex, Building 34, at Grossmont College, and from 3:15-4:15 p.m. in the Samuel M. Ciccati Theatre in the B Building at Cuyamaca College. The public forums for Potash are set for Tuesday, Nov. 5, from 9:30-10:30 a.m. in the second-floor atrium of Building 34 at Grossmont College, and from 2:45-3:45 p.m. at the Samuel M. Ciccati Theatre at Cuyamaca College.
Both candidates are veteran administrators in higher education.
Neault has served nine years at her current post as vice chancellor and in a number of prior roles with the San Diego Community College District, where she began working as a graduate student in 1983 as an administrative analyst in Institutional Research. From 2013-2015, she served as interim president of San Diego City College. During her time as an administrator with the district, Neault has also served as director, associate director and coordinator of Student Services.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in political science, a master’s in public administration, and a Ed.D. in education – all from San Diego State University.
Neault’s state-level advocacy efforts include membership on the California Community Colleges’ Consultation Council, the Intersegmental Transfer Task Force, and the SB 1440 (Associate Degree for Transfer) State Oversight Committee. She was president of the California Chief Student Services Officers Association executive board in 2008, continuing her service on the board until 2011.
Potash brings more than 20 years of higher education administrative experience. He was appointed president of Wilbur Wright College, one of the seven City Colleges of Chicago, in 2013. From 2008-2013, he served as chief academic officer and as a professor of American history at Curry College, a four-year institution in Milton, Massachusetts. Prior to that, he served for 10 years in the City University of New York system, three years as associate provost/vice president of Academic Affairs at Hunter College and for seven years as the executive director of Academic Services, then associate provost at Baruch College, where he also was an adjunct faculty in the history department.
He began his career in higher education in 1986 as a budget coordinator at New York University, where he worked for eight years, including a year as an adjunct professor in expository writing before leaving as an associate director of the Draper Program in Interdisciplinary Studies.
Potash earned his bachelor’s in English and philosophy from Rice University in Houston, Texas, his master’s in history from NYU and his Ph.D., also in history, from Cambridge University in the United Kingdom.
He lists current affiliations with the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U); Educause, the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, and the Democracy Commitment, a national organization dedicated to advancing democracy in America’s community colleges. He is an advisory board member of the Community Colleges for Democracy Leadership, and was on the ETS (Educational Testing Service) National Community College Advisory Council from 2015-2018.
Grossmont College is at 8800 Grossmont College Drive in El Cajon; Cuyamaca College is at 900 Rancho San Diego Parkway in Rancho San Diego.
— Staff report
This story was updated 10/17/2019 to show Dr. Neault holds a Ed.D in education.