Spotlight on Community Colleges

Simply put, America's confidence in higher education is considerably declining, with a recent Gallup poll finding that only 38% of U.S. adults only “had a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in our postsecondary system, down from 57% a decade ago. It also found that currently one in every four adults has little or no confidence in our institutions. 

Joining us to disentangle a lack of public trust in our higher education institutions, and community colleges specifically, are three guests who possess distinct connections to this topic. Dr. Jeremy C. Young is senior advisor for strategic initiatives at the American Association of Colleges & Universities (AAC&U). He is also the principal author of a recent AAC&U report titled “The Trust Agenda: A Framework for Advancing Public Trust in Higher Education." Dr. Mike Gavin is President and CEO of The Alliance for Higher Education, in addition to having past served as president of Delta College in Michigan. Finally, Dr. Erin Doran (our podcast co-host) is the forthcoming president of the Council for the Study of Community Colleges and oversees the upcoming conference that features a conference theme connected to this topic of public trust. Our three guests discuss not only what accounts for the general public's declining trust of these educational institutions, but also offers some possibilities behind how the narrative may change.

Here are some resources referenced in the episode:

AAC&U’s The Trust Agenda Report: https://www.aacu.org/initiatives/advancing-public-trust-in-higher-education/the-trust-agenda

Alliance for Higher Education Website: https://allianceforhighered.org/

CSCC 2027 Annual Conference: https://www.cscc.pitt.edu/annual-conferences/

Be sure to rate, review, and subscribe to Spotlight on Community Colleges wherever you listen to podcasts! You can also now find our episodes as video podcasts on YouTube!

With adult learners accounting for more than a half of community college students, their experiences and considerations must be more thoughtfully recognized.

On this episode of Spotlight on Community Colleges, guests Dr. Emily VanZoest (Visiting Research Scholar at the Belk Center for Community College Leadership and President of Reframed Strategies Inc, a higher education research and evaluation firm) and Ellen Flowers-Field (Vice President of Continuing Education and Workforce Development at the College of Southern Maryland) center the roles of adult students and their unique needs while pursuing their academic goals. 

Be sure to rate, review, and subscribe to Spotlight on Community Colleges wherever you listen to podcasts! You can also now find our episodes as video podcasts on YouTube!

During the Council for the Study of Community Colleges annual conference in April 2026 in Salt Lake City, Spotlight on Community Colleges recorded a live episode featuring a panel of wonderful guests. This conversation focused on the idea of "The Community College in Tumultuous Times: Reflections and Future Possibilities," a period for making sense of the changes unfolding in our institutions over the past 12-18 months. The panel not only reconciles the massive disruptions related to funding, diversity efforts, and institutional value, but also offers some hope of what to embrace in the future amid such uncertainty. 

Panelists included Dr. Lorenzo Baber (Professor of Higher Education and Director of the Office of Community College Research and Leadership at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Dr. Deneece Huftalin (former President of Salt Lake Community College), and Dr. Darin Jensen (Associate Dean and Professor at Salt Lake Community College). 

Thanks to the Lumina Foundation for their support of this episode. 

Spotlight of Community Colleges will return for its third season starting this August.

Be sure to rate, review, and subscribe to Spotlight on Community Colleges wherever you listen to podcasts!

According to the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA), about 60% of community colleges offer sports programs. This translates to approximately 60,000 student-athletes in community colleges around the United States participating in more than two dozen sports. According to Eddie Comeaux and Eric Davidson, student-athletes have higher GPAs than their non-athlete counterparts; community colleges often provide their athletes with positive, holistic academic support; and while community college athletics programs have expanded in the last twenty years, their overall support for female athletes and their programs has remained stagnant. Yet this component of community college life often remains on the sidelines.

Deconstructing community college athletics are three guests who know this world well: Dr. Dan Kinney, President of Iowa Western Community College, a college which has garnered 18 NJCAA National Championships; Dr. Brett Monaghan, Vice President of Championship, Membership, and Sports Governance at the NJCAA, and former athletic director at Indian Hills Community College; and Alaura Sharp, the Head Women’s Basketball coach at Appalachian State and a former community college athlete and coach.

Be sure to rate, review, and subscribe to Spotlight on Community Colleges wherever you listen to podcasts!

The American Association of Community Colleges estimates that about 40% of headcount enrollment at community colleges is in non credit-bearing courses and programs, yet much remains unknown about noncredit education.

On this episode of Spotlight on Community Colleges, we talk about what we know about noncredit occupational training in community colleges - and what we still don’t know. We are going to hear from our colleagues in the colleges about where they are putting their noncredit occupational training efforts, and we will ask about the major challenges and opportunities they are experiencing. Finally, we are going to talk about how everything may or may not be expanded or upended by the implementation of “Workforce Pell” later this year. 

Joining today's episode are three experts on noncredit workforce education. Dr. Mark D’Amico is a Professor of Higher Education at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, as well as one of the founders of the Noncredit Research Collaborative. Ms. Molly Dodge is Senior Vice President for Workforce and Careers at Ivy Tech Community College in Indiana. Dr. Andrew Gardner serve as Associate Vice President for Workforce Strategies for the North Carolina Community Colleges. 

Be sure to rate, review, and subscribe to Spotlight on Community Colleges wherever you listen to podcasts!

There's a lot to love about community colleges, and one of those components is the employees who themselves are in, healthy romantic relationships. The two-body problem, as it is commonly referred to, entails how spouses or significant others must account for finding similarly specialized role in the same geographic area, or if possible, the same institution.

On today's episode, we welcome on one dual-career couple to discuss their situation that blends life, career, and love. Dr. Corina González-Stout serves as an associate professor of history at Northwest Vista College in San Antonio, Texas. Her husband is Dr. Brian Stout, a professor of biology, also at Northwest Vista College. 

Be sure to rate, review, and subscribe to Spotlight on Community Colleges wherever you listen to podcasts!

Today on Spotlight on Community Colleges we focus on issues related to campus climate in community colleges. In other words, how might faculty, staff, administrators, and other constituents perceive institutional policies, practices, and routines that influence satisfaction, efficacy, and success. 

Deconstructing this complicated and nuanced topic is a panel of guests who have a deep understanding of campus climate. Dr. Audrey (AJ) Jaeger serves as the W. Dallas Herring Distinguished Professor of Community College Education and Executive Director of the Belk Center for Community College Leadership and Research at NC State University. The Belk Center administers  the PACE Climate Survey for Community Colleges. Dr. Daniel West is the Associate Director of Research and Evaluation at the Belk Center. Focusing primarily on employee engagement and professional development, Daniel is responsible for administering and helping colleges interpret the PACE Climate Survey for Community Colleges. Finally, Dr. Jason Hurst serve as president of Cleveland Community College in Shelby, North Carolina.

Be sure to rate, review, and subscribe to Spotlight on Community Colleges wherever you listen to podcasts!

On this episode of Spotlight on Community Colleges we take a peek into the world of community college fundraising! Guests Dr. Everrett Smith (Associate Professor, University of Cincinnati) and Charles Silver (Development Director, Scottsdale Community College) join in the conversation to share the research on community college fundraising and the unique considerations that practitioners face, respectively. Along the way they offer thoughts on how community colleges engage in meaningful collaborations, programs, and efforts that bolster giving.

If you are seeking to make a donation during this giving season and are wondering where your contributions can make a big impact, consider creating a charitable gift to your local community college. 

Be sure to rate, review, and subscribe to Spotlight on Community Colleges wherever you listen to podcasts!

This episode of Spotlight on Community Colleges centers some of the most understudied yet vital members of the higher education community: community college trustees. These are the incredible folks who volunteer their time to act as fiscal stewards of their institutions, guide institutional mission and strategy, monitor operations, hire the CEOs, and ensure that their colleges and students can flourish.

Sharing insights on this episode include three guests with a wide range of perspectives on community college governing boards and the people who serve on them: Ms. Geralyn Presti (former attorney and current Chair of the Board of Trustees at Cuyahoga Community College); Dr. Susan Kater (Assistant Professor of Higher Education Leadership at Idaho State University and a Director of the Center for the Study of Community Colleges [CSCC]); and Mr. David Conner (Associate Vice President for Strategic Communications at the Association of Community College Trustees [ACCT]).

Be sure to rate, review, and subscribe to Spotlight on Community Colleges wherever you listen to podcasts!

You can check out the ACCT-CSCC report via this link.

The community college financial aid landscape is fraught with challenges related to income verification and making satisfactory academic progress, but also opportunities associated with supporting students' payments and financial literacy training. This episode of Spotlight on Community Colleges deconstructs the current realities of community college financial aid.

Today's guests discuss the various dimensions of financial aid. They include: Dr. Devon Graves (Assistant Professor of Community College Leadership at North Carolina State University); Dr. Matthew Mayhew (Professor of Educational Administration at The Ohio State University); and Dr. Courtney De Roche (Postdoctoral Scholar at The Ohio State University). 

Be sure to rate, review, and subscribe to Spotlight on Community Colleges wherever you listen to podcasts!