Vance-Granville Community College announces that President Dr. Rachel Desmarais and our Board of Trustees will participate in the inaugural cohort of the Aspen Presidents & Trustees Collaborative. This year-long initiative, led by the Aspen Institute College Excellence Program, brings together 10 colleges nationwide to strengthen the alignment between board and presidential leadership, focusing on advancing long-term student success.
Through this collaboration, college leadership will engage with national experts and peer institutions, learning from best practices of Aspen Prize-winning colleges and leveraging Aspen’s Trustee Framework. The goal is to build sustainable governance practices that drive meaningful reforms in student success.
The Collaborative has partnered with colleges from across the country, including two in North Carolina:
- Cerritos College
- El Camino Community College District
- Forsyth Technical Community College
- Monroe Community College
- Northeast Wisconsin Technical College
- Santa Rosa Junior College
- Tulsa Community College
- UCNJ Union College of Union County
- Vance-Granville Community College
- Wor-Wic Community College
“Over the last decade, we’ve seen that community colleges make the most progress when presidents and trustees are unified in purpose and aligned in strategy,” said Josh Wyner, executive director of the College Excellence Program. “Through the Presidents & Trustees Collaborative, we’re advancing the field by working with colleges and statewide partners to strengthen that alignment—grounding governance in student success priorities, sustaining reforms through leadership transitions, and ultimately driving long-term improvements in student outcomes.”
By fostering deeper collaboration between presidents and trustees, the Presidents & Trustees Collaborative aims to embed student success into the very fabric of college governance. With support from Aspen and in partnership with leading institutions and statewide organizations, participating colleges will serve as national models for what it takes to sustain transformational change—and set a new standard for leadership and accountability across community colleges.
About the Aspen Institute
The Aspen Institute is a global nonprofit organization whose purpose is to ignite human potential to build understanding and create new possibilities for a better world. Founded in 1949, the Institute drives change through dialogue, leadership, and action to help solve society’s greatest challenges. It is headquartered in Washington, DC and has a campus in Aspen, Colorado, as well as an international network of partners.
The Aspen Institute College Excellence Program aims to strengthen higher education leadership and practice to improve student outcomes—with the ultimate goal of advancing economic mobility and developing talent for the good of each individual and society as a whole. For more information, visit their website or follow them on LinkedIn, Bluesky, and X.
The Aspen Presidents & Trustees Collaborative is made possible by the generous support of Ascendium.
