SCC picks three president finalists
Spokane Community College has selected three finalists for the job of president, and they’ll appear in a series of public forums April 1-3.
The finalists are the interim president, Joe Dunlap; North Idaho College administrator Eric Murray; and Ivan Gorne, an administrator at Bates Technical College in Tacoma, SCC announced Wednesday.
Officials hope to make a decision later in April, with the new president taking office by July 1. The successful candidate will replace Steve Hanson, who retired last September.
Greg Stevens, chief human resources officer for Community Colleges of Spokane, said a search committee sifted through applicants and identified the three finalists. Among a range of qualifications, the candidates were chosen with an eye toward some challenges facing the college, including managing the sometimes volatile enrollments that go with open admissions, working through budget issues, and addressing the growing demand for work force training, Stevens said.
Here are brief sketches of each candidate:
• Dunlap, who was SCC’s vice president of learning from 2004 to 2007, replaced Hanson on a temporary basis. He held administrative positions before that at Clover Park Technical College in Lakewood, Wash., and Mount Hood Community College in Gresham, Ore. He was a founding director of the School of Aviation Sciences at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo.
A graduate of Whitworth College, Dunlap also has a master’s degree in business administration from City University in Bellevue, and a Ph.D. in education from Oregon State University.
•Gorne has been vice president for student services at Bates Technical College since 2006. He held similar positions at Highline Community College in Des Moines, Wash., and Southern Oregon University in Ashland, from 1998 to 2006. He previously held several administrative posts at Edmonds Community College over more than 20 years. He has bachelor and master’s degrees from Pacific Lutheran University, and a law degree from PLU’s law school.
•Murray has been NIC’s vice president for student services since 2006. Before that, he was dean of student affairs at the University of Montana-Western in Dillon. His bachelor, master’s and doctoral degrees are from UCLA.