Estrella Mountain Community College

NCA Visiting Team

Dr. Linda
L. Avant

Dr. Wayne
E. Giles

Dr. Olga N.
Hernandez-Patino

Mr. David
McShane

Dr. Sheila
Ortego
Dr. R. Paul
Urbanick

Dr. Marilyn J. Schlack, Team Chair
President
Kalamazoo Valley Community College

Team Chair Dr. Marilyn Schlack has been President of Kalamazoo Valley Community College since October 1986. Prior to her presidency, she served as Dean of Instruction and Associate Dean of Instruction at KVCC. Dr. Schlack received a Doctorate in Education from Western Michigan University and a Bachelor of Arts and Master degrees from the University of Michigan.

Over the years, Dr. Schlack has served on many local, state and national professional and community organizations. Some of the current and former local affiliations include the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts Board of Directors, Fifth Third Bank Board of Directors-Southwest Michigan, Downtown Tomorrow, Inc., the Kalamazoo Community Foundation, and she served as Chairman of the Kalamazoo County Chamber of Commerce.

Nationally, she has served on the American Council on Education’s International Education Commission, the Board of Directors for the American Association of Community Colleges, and the Commission for Nation of Lifelong Learners.

Dr. Marilyn
J. Schlack

Dr. Wayne
E. Giles

Dr. Olga N.
Hernandez-Patino

Mr. David
McShane

Dr. Sheila
Ortego
Dr. R. Paul
Urbanick

Dr. Linda L. Avant
Associate Vice President for Academic Support and Development
Oklahoma State University – Okmulgee

Dr. Linda L. Avant is Associate Vice President for Academic Support and Development at Oklahoma State University—Okmulgee. Dr. Avant is responsible for implementation of philosophy and vision, shepherding academic integrity and assuring academic accountability. Prior to her current role, she served as the college’s Assistant Provost for Student Services, overseeing curricular and student service areas of the college. This included the college catalog, vocational-technical schools and related projects such as articulation and cooperative enrollment agreements. During this time, she was awarded with OSU-Okmulgee’s Outstanding Staff Award.

Dr. Avant received a Doctorate in Education from Oklahoma State University, a Master’s in Education from Southwestern Oklahoma State University and her Bachelor’s degree from Cameron University. Dr. Avant is a member of the Higher Education Alumni Council, Region X School to Work Coordination Council and has received numerous outstanding educator awards recognizing her contributions to the field.

Dr. Marilyn
J. Schlack

Dr. Linda
L. Avant

Dr. Olga N.
Hernandez-Patino

Mr. David
McShane

Dr. Sheila
Ortego
Dr. R. Paul
Urbanick

Dr. Wayne E. Giles
Chancellor
Metropolitan Community Colleges

Dr. Wayne E. Giles has served as Chancellor of the Metropolitan Community College district of Kansas City, Missouri, a multi-campus system with approximately 43,000 annual student enrollment, since 1992. During his tenure as Vice Chancellor, Dr. Giles also served as Interim President of Penn Valley Community College, one of the MCC colleges, for 13 months.

Prior to coming to Kansas City as MCC’s Vice Chancellor of Educational Services in March 1983, he was Vice President for Instructional Services at Spoon River Community College, Canton, Illinois; and before that, Director of Adult and Continuing Education in the Department of Adult, Vocational and Technical Education of the Illinois State Board of Education. He has been a sales representative, high school and college business instructor, and adjunct graduate professor.

Dr. Giles earned a Ph.D. in Education from St. Louis University, majoring in higher education administration, and a B.S. and M.S. in Education at Southern Illinois University, majoring in business education.

His writing has been featured in educational journals and he has been honored by several professional organizations with which he has been affiliated. Dr. Giles is a member of the American Council on Education (ACE) board of directors and the ACE Commission on International Education. He is also on the Missouri Training and Employment Council, a past chair of the Missouri Community Colleges Association (MCCA) Presidents/Chancellor Council, and a former member of the American Association of Community Colleges board of directors and Jackson County Economic Development Commission. Dr. Giles is on the board of directors of: Kansas City Economic Development Corporation, Labor-Management Council of Greater Kansas City, Carondolet Health System, KC REACHE–a distance education consortium, member of the Mayor’s Economic Development Roundtable-Kansas City, Missouri, and past President of RC-2000–an organization of presidents and chancellors of urban community colleges across the nation.

Dr. Marilyn
J. Schlack

Dr. Linda
L. Avant

Dr. Wayne
E. Giles

Mr. David
McShane

Dr. Sheila
Ortego
Dr. R. Paul
Urbanick

Dr. Olga N. Hernandez-Patino
Chair—Human, Health and Public Service Careers Department
Lansing Community College
Dr. Olga N. Hernandez-Patino is chairperson for the Department of Human, Health and Public Service Careers Department at Lansing Community College in Michigan. Prior to joining Lansing in 1999, Dr. Hernandez-Patino spent 24 years with the University of Puerto Rico, where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences in 1973. After receiving her B.A., Dr. Hernandez-Patino went on to earn her Master’s in Bilingual Education from the University of Harvard and her Doctorate in Developmental Psychology from Michigan State University.

During her tenure at the University of Puerto Rico, Dr. Hernandez-Patino served numerous roles including Associate Dean of Students, Associate Dean and then Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Co-director for the Minority Research Center for Excellence (NSF), as well as professor.

Dr. Hernandez-Patino possesses a solid background in research and investigation, and has collaborated on such projects as Culture’s Moral Visions and Psychological well-being: Studying the Influence of Individualism; Perception of Risk by Residents of a Flood Hazard Area in Puerto Rico (U.S. Dept. of the Interior Grant); and Management and Adaptation of HIV/AIDS Epidemic by Puerto Rican Families Residing in the Island (University of Puerto Rico/Institutional Research Fund).

Dr. Hernandez-Patino is active in community work and been involved in mentoring, breast cancer fundraising and awareness, Hispanic health fairs, managerial training programs, as well as others. She has served as consulting editor for the Infant Mental Health Journal, Coordinator for the Arts and Culture Program at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez and evaluator for the Commission on Higher Education Middle State Association of Colleges and Schools.

Dr. Marilyn
J. Schlack

Dr. Linda
L. Avant

Dr. Wayne
E. Giles

Dr. Olga N.
Hernandez-Patino

Dr. Sheila
Ortego
Dr. R. Paul
Urbanick

Mr. David McShane
CIO/Vice President Information Technology
William Rainey Harper College

Mr. David McShane assumed his current position in July 1992, after serving as Dean of Information Systems at Schoolcraft College in Livonia, Michigan for seven years. Prior to Schoolcraft College, he was Executive Director of Computing Systems at Wayne-Westland Community Schools for fourteen years and Director of Computing Systems at Washtenaw Community College for four years.

Mr. McShane was recruited for the newly created position of Chief Information Officer (CIO) at the vice president level for Harper College. Primary to this role was the development and management of a strategic technology plan, the creation of an organization to support the Technology and Information Resources for the entire College, and to design and implement a network infrastructure necessary to integrate via voice, video and data.

Holding both a Master’s degree in Business Administration and a Bachelor of Business Administration from Eastern Michigan University, Mr. McShane has also completed course work toward a Doctoral degree in Educational Technology. He is an active member of many associations including CRIM (Center for Research in Information Management at UIC), CIO, ACUTA, CAUSE and EduCause, has served on many boards such as the Illinois Community College Board MIS/Research Advisory Board, NetIllinois, Rolling Meadows Municipal Area Network (RMMAN), selected as a member of the advisory board for Community Colleges to Microsoft and is the Technical Editor of the Michigan Community College Journal.

Dr. Marilyn
J. Schlack

Dr. Linda
L. Avant

Dr. Wayne
E. Giles

Dr. Olga N.
Hernandez-Patino

Mr. David
McShane

Dr. R. Paul
Urbanick

Dr. Sheila Ortego
Executive Assistant to the President
Santa Fe Community College

Dr. Sheila Ortego is Executive Assistant to the President at Santa Fe Community College in New Mexico. Dr. Ortego’s responsibilities include providing leadership in institutional, strategic, and master planning. She provides presidential assistance in the areas of capital outlay projects, institutional research and special human resources issues.

Dr. Ortego provides intermittent service as Acting Dean of Administrative Services. She has been with Santa Fe Community College since 1985, and has held numerous positions including Division Head, Computer and Communication Technologies; Division Head, Professional and Technical Studies; Director, Corrections Education Program. Dr. Ortego is also an instructor with the University of Phoenix Online Campus.

Dr. Ortego received her Ph.D. from the University of Mexico in American Studies, an interdisciplinary program focusing on Sociology and Minority Studies. She also earned a Bachelor, with honors, and Master’s degrees from the University of Mexico. She is a graduate of the League for Innovation’s 1998 Executive Leadership Institute and received an Editor’s award for ‘Outstanding Editorial Service’ to the Journal of Correctional Education. She is a member of the NSF National Visiting Committee, Santa Fe Small Business Incubator Board, Northern New Mexico Consortium for Excellence in Education and volunteers for Literacy Volunteers of America.

Dr. Marilyn
J. Schlack

Dr. Linda
L. Avant

Dr. Wayne
E. Giles

Dr. Olga N.
Hernandez-Patino

Mr. David
McShane

Dr. Sheila
Ortego

Dr. R. Paul Urbanick
Humanities and Fine Arts
City Colleges of Chicago—Harold Washington College

Dr. R. Paul Urbanick is the chair of Humanities, Fine Arts and Music at Harold Washington College in Chicago, and has served as a consultant-evaluator for the NCA for five years. Dr. Urbanick joined the City Colleges of Chicago in 1975 and taught at Kennedy King College before joining the staff of Harold Washington College in 1985.

Having graduated Phi Theta Kappa from Northwestern University with a Bachelor’s in Applied Violin, Dr. Urbanick received a full fellowship and appointment as a teaching assistant for his Masters' degree, which he subsequently completed in 1972. Dr. Urbanick also received a Doctorate in Music for Performance Violin from the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago

Dr. Urbanick has served as Director of Strings for the Chicago Suzuki Academy, and adjunct Professor of Violin at North Park College, Northeastern Illinois University and the American Conservatory of Music. He has performed under the management of American Artists of Dallas and his public performances include the Chicago Chamber Orchestra.

Dr. Urbanick is a member for the Board for the Chicago Humanities Festival, Society of American Musicians Board, St. Paul Federal Arts Competition Board, and American String Teachers Association Community College Humanities Association. He maintains an active performance agenda and has received numerous professional honors including the Society of Arts and Letters award for excellence in performance and the Wade Fetzer Scholarship.