Two top leaders have announced their retirements from Portland Community College.
Bryan M. Vance / OPB
Dear Reader,
For more than 100 years, OPB has offered reliable news and connection. Through wildfires, elections and economic downturns, OPB has been there to inform and connect our communities. Today, journalism faces new obstacles.
But this work is only possible because of people like you — readers who turn to articles like this and continue to engage with independent journalism in our community. If OPB has been a part of your life, if it has helped you see your community or the world more clearly, please consider making a contribution today.
— The OPB Team
Please select an amount to give. Your contribution ensures that fact-based reporting, cultural connection, and stories that strengthen our community remain freely available to everyone.
Two of Portland Community College’s top leaders are retiring.
PCC President Mark Mitsui will leave the state’s largest college in June 2022. Executive Vice President Sylvia Kelley will retire this December.
“We’re fortunate, and so grateful, to have had President Mitsui and Executive Vice President Kelley at the helm during a time of significant growth and change at the college, in our immediate community, and in our nation,” Mohamed Alyajouri, chair of PCC’s board of directors, said in a statement.
Mitsui has led the college since 2016. Kelley has been the executive vice president since 2014.
The community college’s board of directors will lead the hiring process for the next president. That will include selecting a search firm, establishing a timeline and soliciting input from the community.
The goal is to announce a new president next April. Simultaneously, the college will conduct an internal search for an interim executive vice president.
The new president will conduct a national search to hire the next permanent execute vice president.
The college said Mitsui and Kelley shared news of their departures Thursday to the PCC board of directors. They announced their decision at a quarterly all-college management meeting on Friday.
“PCC is a bridge to opportunity, a bridge to a better life for countless members of our communities regardless of what zip code a student is born in. Nearly a quarter of all students, about 28,000 a year, who face equity barriers in Oregon’s higher education system, pursue upward mobility through PCC,” Mitsui said in a statement. “It has been a true privilege and honor to serve as the president of PCC, a college with a heart for justice, dedicated to student success and learning, and willing to constantly improve itself to meet the future, today.”
