California Community Colleges tabs ‘innovator’ as 1st female chancellor
California’s community college system, the nation’s largest, hired its first female chancellor Thursday, when the Board of Governors announced Sonya Christian as its 11th permanent leader.
Daisy Gonzales has been interim chancellor since August.
Christian, 56, has been chancellor of the three school Kern Community College District since July 2021. She is the immediate past chair of the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, and serves on the statewide Campaign for College Opportunity and the Public Policy Institute of California’s higher education advisory council, among other boards.
The state’s $14 billion community college system has 116 schools and 1.8 million full- and part-time students.
“Dr. Sonya Christian is one of our nation’s most dynamic college leaders, with a demonstrated record of collaboration and results in the Central Valley,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement.
Jolene Koester, interim chancellor of California State University, called Christian an “innovator with a long and impressive track record of expanding opportunities for California’s students.”
Board of Governors President Amy Costa said the board chose Christian after a seven-month nationwide search after Chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley stepped down in August after six years. Christian will take over on June 1.
The board credited Christian with leading a statewide coalition in 2015 that won philanthropic funding for a 20-college project helping students transfer more easily into four-year universities. The state eventually invested $150 million in the project statewide.
The board also applauded Christian’s efforts to establish a renewable energy lab in her college district.
Christian said in a statement that she was honored to have been chosen to lead “the most important system of higher education in the country” and noted that California’s colleges “continue to face many challenges.”
Unlike the CSU and University of California systems, which are governed by their statewide administrators, community colleges and districts are run largely by local trustees, but within accreditation regulations. The state chancellor’s role is generally to help implement statewide programs that satisfy legislative goals for speeding up the attainment of degrees and credentials, and improving transfer rates to universities.
A graduate of the University of Kerala in India, Christian will also be the first person of South Asian heritage to lead the community college system. She earned her master of science in applied mathematics from the University of Southern California and her doctorate from UCLA.
She joined the math faculty at Bakersfield College in 1991, then serving as department chair and dean, until leaving for Oregon in 2002. At Lane Community College in Eugene she served in various administrative roles, then returned to the Central Valley in 2013 as president of Bakersfield College before becoming district chancellor in 2021.
The selection of Christian is an “absolute win for students,” said Michele Siqueiros, president of the Campaign for College Opportunity, which advocates for California students seeking higher education.
Noting that the community college system is composed of 70% students of color, Siqueiros said that choosing Christian “reflects a desire to stay focused on ... eradicating racial equity gaps.”