May 17, 2010
HACC’s president, Dr. Edna V. Baehre, Ph.D., announced today that she has accepted a position as president of Napa Valley Community College in California.
Napa Valley Community College (NVCC) has more than nine thousand students at its two campuses in Napa and St. Helena, Calif. The college is situated in the heart of the Napa Valley wine region and – like all community colleges – serves a diverse ethnic and socio-economic population.
“I wasn’t looking for a new job,” said Baehre – HACC’s longest serving president, “but NVCC reached out to me through a recruiter and I decided to take a look at the opportunity.”
The entire process took just a few weeks, Baehre said, and concluded with a brief trip to California last week for both initial and final interviews.
“The Napa Valley board had carefully screened the available candidates and wanted to make a thoughtful but quick decision,” she said.
Baehre said that she is still in the process of negotiating some of the finer details of her contract, but that both she and the college have reached an agreement in principal.
Baehre had been named as a finalist for a presidential position at a Maryland community college about two years ago, but ended up withdrawing her candidacy at the last minute. This time, however, she felt that the situation at Napa Valley Community College was too good to pass up.
“I do have mixed feelings about accepting the new position,” said Baehre, who came to HACC in 1997. “I will leave behind many friends and a very vibrant community college, but NVCC is a good fit for me personally and I really fell in love with the Napa community which reminds me very much of my native Germany.”
With her departure – planned for late summer – HACC will be launching a search for its seventh president.
HACC’s board has a procedure in place for interim leadership headed by Vice President of Academic Affairs and Provost Ronald Young. He will serve as interim president – aided by the college’s other vice presidents – pending the selection of a new leader for HACC. The board already is in the process of forming a search committee and will launch a national search for a new president within a few weeks.
“I am confident that HACC will have no problem in attracting some very highly qualified applicants and I am pleased to be leaving the college in the hands of some very capable interim leaders,” Baehre said. “I could not be more pleased with my tenure at HACC and will always wish the very best for the college.”
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