Who will lead Fresno-area community colleges? How residents can question the finalists

State Center Community College District has whittled down its candidates for chancellor and is inviting the public to learn more about the three finalists through a virtual forum in late October, district officials said Monday.

After months of searching, the finalists are Beatriz Espinoza, a consultant at Laredo Community College in Texas; Omid Pourzanjani, the superintendent/president at San Joaquin Delta Community College District in Stockton, and Carole Goldsmith, the current president of Fresno City College.

The district will give each candidate an hour on Oct. 25 from 1 to 4:30 p.m. to present their vision and take pre-submitted questions. The deadline to submit a question is Oct. 20 at noon. The forum will be presented through a webinar on Zoom and livestreamed on YouTube.

Feedback from the public will be collected on an online form to be activated the day of the event and must be submitted by Oct. 26 at 4 p.m.

Former Yuba Community College District Chancellor Doug Houston has been leading State Center since Paul Parnell retired over the summer.

Who are the candidates?

Espinoza has worked in education for over 30 years, first as a researcher, faculty, counselor, administrator, and chief executive officer. She later worked as a dean, vice president, vice chancellor, and college president.

She grew up a migrant farmworker and “learned early on that going to college was the path to a better future,” according to her biography from the district.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and master’s and doctorate degrees in rehabilitation psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Espinoza earned a post-doctorate degree in community college leadership at the University of Texas at Austin and was a Kellog Fellow with Minority-Serving Institutions/Hispanic Association of College and Universities. She has written journals articles, book chapters and presented at regional, state, and national conferences about diversity, equity, and inclusiveness.

Pourzanjani has worked as a professor, academic senate officer, department chair chief instructional officer, vice chancellor, and superintendent president, among others. He has concurrently worked in high-tech private industries as an executive leader.

He graduated from Santa Monica College and holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in computer science and engineering from CSU Long Beach and a doctorate in education from UCLA.

He describes himself as an immigrant, ESL student, and first-generation college student who attributes his ability to move from low income to middle income due to his career technical education and an associate degree from a community college.

Goldsmith has been the president of Fresno City College since August 2016, and before that was president of West Hills College Coalinga. She also worked as the vice chancellor of educational services and workforce development during her 13-year tenure at West Hills.

She’s lived in Fresno County for nearly four decades and earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Fresno State, a master’s in educational administration from National University, and a doctorate in higher educational leadership from the joint doctorate program at Fresno State and UC Davis.

Under her leadership, Fresno City College has broken a three-year record-breaking graduation rate and has collaborated with faculty and staff in the redesign of the college organizational structure to better foster equity and efficiency, according to her biography from the district.

She has implemented new practices to improve transparency at the college and guided college and community discussions that ended with $17 million in funding for the development of the West Fresno Campus.