By Greg Hardesty, contributing writer
Jeannie G. Kim turns to the whiteboard in her office at Santiago Canyon College.
On it are columns of color-coded goals she wrote down as she approaches the completion of her first year as president of the community college in Orange.
“It’s a little ambitious,” Kim says with a laugh. “When I showed my plan to members of my executive staff, it took their breath away.”
But Kim, the college’s seventh president and the first Asian American in the role, is determined to get SCC, currently ranked No. 7 out of the state’s 116 community colleges by BestColleges.com, to No. 1 in a few years.
“It’s a transformative plan,” she says, “but I want us to be No. 1. And these goals will help get us there.”
Don’t bet against her.
With 34-plus years in administrative roles in higher education, Kim has a track record of success.
And she has the DNA to do her best whatever the task, as well as a desire to give back to the educational system that has served her and her large extended immigrant family well.
“I know what higher education can do,” says Kim, who was 5 years old when she immigrated with her father and two younger brothers to Southern California, joining her mother who arrived two years earlier on an immigrant visa to work as a nurse when the country had a shortage of them.
“I know the power of higher education,” says Kim. “I experienced it myself, and so did my family. I’ve seen it work again and again and again.”
Community service
Kim started at SCC on Jan. 18, 2023 – her first stint as president of a community college.
She came from the Riverside Community College District, where she served as the interim vice chancellor of educational services and strategic planning and associate vice chancellor of grants and economic development.
Before that, she held administrative positions at Occidental College, UCLA, Cal State Dominguez Hills, Cal State Fullerton and Riverside City College.
It has been an impressive career for a girl who had to make a beeline for the bathroom at home because she didn’t know how to ask in English where the restroom was when she started kindergarten.
That humbling experience led to her being chosen to help tutor other youngsters from South Korea who were new to the school — the beginning of Kim’s deep experience in building social and cultural networks in education, particularly for historically underserved and underrepresented students.
Kim was raised in La Mirada and graduated from La Mirada High School, where she was junior class president.
Leadership came naturally to her.
A natural leader
Initially attending UCLA with plans to become a pediatric physician, Kim went through six majors before earning her undergraduate degree in cultural anthropology.
She was super involved at UCLA, serving her senior year as community service commissioner at a time when community service at universities was being prioritized. Kim was involved nationally and helped start the movement at UCLA.
That experience became the building block of her educational philosophy to not rely on established ways of doing things or a one-size-fits-all-students approach — a mission she’s brought to SCC.
On a hiring tear
Kim, who earned a master’s degree in cultural anthropology from CSUF and a doctorate in higher education policy, evaluation and reform from Claremont Graduate University, goes over some goals on the whiteboard.
Currently, with an annualized full-time equivalent enrollment of 8,500 and a headcount over 15,500 for this fall term, she wants to grow FTES enrollment to 10,000 by June 2026, which would free up an additional $1 million in state funding for the college by bumping it from a small community college to a medium-size institution.
She wants to increase to 25 the number of apprenticeship programs SCC offers, from an already robust 11.
She aims to jump-start the SCC Foundation and alumni association, among other goals.
“In order to do this,” Kim says, “there’s a lot of strategy that has to be employed.”
Since being hired, Kim has been on a hiring tear, bringing aboard a historic 13 tenure-track faculty and six long-term substitutes who are considered tenure-track faculty their first year.
She also has hired key administrative positions, including a vice president of academic affairs and a vice president of student services.
A great hire
Willie Hagan, president of Cal State Dominguez Hills from 2012-2018, says SCC is fortunate to have Kim.
He worked with her for several years when Kim was director of research and development and he was vice president of administration at CSUF and later hired her to join his leadership team in the president’s office at Dominguez Hills.
“I say this about very few people, but Jeannie is near genius,” Hagan says. “She is one of the smartest people I know. Her ability to weave together massive amounts of information and data into understandable and pursuance narrative is incredible.”
While at Cal State Dominguez Hills, Kim contributed to building successful relationships with various federal and state agencies and key community leaders, Hagan says.
“What was fun about working with Jeannie was her great sense of humor combined with her strong intellect,” he says. “Another great thing about Jeannie was that she was never afraid to argue with me. She kept me on my toes and was always eager to learn the rationale behind positions that differed from hers.”
‘SMART goals’
Kim is a single mother of three adult children.
She takes care of her profoundly disabled son, Nathaniel, 25, at home.
Daughter Elizabeth is studying school counseling at New York University, and daughter Kaitlin graduates this month from UC Santa Cruz, two quarters early because she attended SCC as a high school student through concurrent enrollment.
Kim studied classical piano when young and plays occasionally. She hopes to soon be able to spend more time playing and indulging in another passion, surfing, which she took up a few years ago when she turned 50. She owns a longboard.
For now, though, most of Kim’s energies are devoted to building up SCC.
“I’m very much a ‘SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound) goals’-directed person,” she says, “and goals have to be measurable.”
Her whiteboard doesn’t lie.
“I’m all about new ideas and innovation,” Kim says, “and that’s what we have to be doing here.”
