Informed & Inspired

A two-time graduate of San Diego State University will now lead San Diego’s largest community college. Ashanti Hands (’94, ’14), an alumna of the Community-Based Block (CBB) master’s program and Ed.D. in Community College Leadership (CCLEAD) has been appointed president of San Diego Mesa College. 

Collective gift offers financial support to doctoral students studying disability in the CCLEAD program.

An overheard conversation inspires a CCLEAD alumna to create a nonprofit serving refugee families.

When one hears Dr. Martha Garcia’s story, there are similarities with other Latinas who have made it despite challenging odds — farm worker parents who didn’t complete high school and spoke only Spanish, the first in her family to go to college, and a single mother.

As a new year draws near, the finish line has come into view for Karen Stills and Yolanda Cataño. Both candidates in San Diego State University’s Ed.D. program with a concentration in community college leadership (CCLEAD) are on track to complete their doctorates in May. Their long journeys as students are almost complete.

As the semester draws to a close, the San Diego State University College of Education bids a fond farewell to three longtime members of the COE family. Dr. Marilee Bresciani Ludvik, professor of postsecondary educational leadership; Dr. Jacki Booth, lecturer and study abroad coordinator in the Department of Child and Family Development (CFD); and Sylvia Hernandez, credential analyst in the Office of Student Success (OSS); will be retiring from SDSU at the end of the year. 

As a counselor and assistant professor at Palomar College, Dr. Hossna Sadat Ahadi is a champion for racial equity and social justice on her campus. Her motivation, she says, comes from the kinship she feels with the students she meets on a daily basis. 

Ángel Gonzalez, a doctoral candidate in San Diego State University’s Ed.D. in Community College Leadership program, has been named recipient of the Graduate Rising Star Award by NASPA Region VI.

Meet Angel Gonzalez, a doctoral student in the Ed.D. in Community College Leadership program. Learn about his passion for advancing equity and his dreams of a life in higher education in the first installment of the COE Stories video series.