Mac’s Story
I come to ACCJC and my work with our institutions as a former faculty member, administrator, and college president – but I also come as a product of public education. My father worked in a steel factory and my mother earned a certificate at our local community college that allowed her to work in a dental office. Her education, and their hard work, allowed my family to move out of a trailer park in an unincorporated area of Southwest Missouri. As an elementary student, high school student, undergraduate student, and graduate student, public education provided something for me that was otherwise out of my reach: an opportunity to earn a living wage in a career that provided me deep personal and professional satisfaction.
Early in my career, I worked as a social worker in Compton, California at a time when the Department of Child and Family Services was struggling to ensure the well-being of foster children in Los Angeles County, and spent a year in a residential treatment center serving people with substance use disorders and their children. From there, I went on to teach and lead in one of California’s largest clinical psychology programs and eventually had the opportunity to serve in administrative roles at multiple institutions.
Education was always the lifeline for me and my family, and the foster children, clients, and families I worked with, to find a better life. As the higher education community, and society overall, increasingly recognizes those we have left behind, it’s important to acknowledge the faculty, staff, and campus leaders who are making a difference. It’s important to acknowledge that education remains the greatest engine of social mobility. It’s important to acknowledge that education is a basic right in our country that can help deepen our understanding of our world and those who live in it. And, it’s important to acknowledge that education works, has worked, and will continue to work as long as we all support this critical public good.
ACCJC On The Move is an opportunity for all of us to experience the power of education and the people it impacts.
