Spotlight Interview with Ernie Lara
Dr. Ernie Lara, the new president of Estrella Mountain Community College, has been a great champion of diversity throughout his tenure with Maricopa. When asked about his passion for this work he stated, “What I am really about is recognizing the importance of the people, the employees and the students. My goal as a leader is to work with employees to have the opportunities and resources to help students be successful. We need to gather the data to make sure we are doing what we need to do to identify what students learn and how they apply it, so our students are prepared to go out to the workforce or to transfer. It is really basic. Just about employees and their relationships, working with faculty and staff to help students succeed. Currently CEC is reading The Leadership Challenge. It emphasizes that our work is about relationships. Let people know the value they bring, the inclusiveness and diversity that they bring.”
Dr. Lara began his career as Counseling Faculty with GCC. He was initially director of the Learning Enhancement Center where the experience allowed him to see the importance of building strong relationships between faculty and student support services for student success.
Dr. Lara took the knowledge he gained from his years at GCC when PVCC opened in 1987. He spoke with genuine excitement and enthusiasm about the experience of building a new model for student life that focused on student development. He described pulling together all of the resources “the campus can bring to bear” to promote student success, and reflected on the all the elements involved including the physical environment of the college as well as the partnership all employees share in supporting education in every role in the organization.
At PVCC, an emphasis on employee development began emerging, resulting in one of the forerunners of Individual Employee Development Plans. This project recognized employees as continual learners, creating opportunities, and fostering linkages that asked employees to consider how their role supports education at the college.
The employee development project fostered Dr. Lara’s interest in diversity, emphasizing the importance of diversity training for all members of the community, bringing it to the students in classroom, to support activities, student life, etc.
In 1991, Dr. Lara helped open Estrella Mountain Community College where he found more diversity in the student body, and recognized that the college needed to respond to its different populations. Dr. Lara began to work with the Diversity Advisory Council with the particular focus on identifying and promoting effective strategies in the classroom for diverse students.
Dr. Lara explained that one of the first actions at Estrella was to identify the core values of the new institution. These values were identified and the language crafted by the whole college creating understanding and ownership for everyone. Diversity was one of the five values, recognizing that perspectives are shaped by our backgrounds and experiences and promoting positive attitudes towards each other.
Estrella also created indicators for each of their five core value and completes a core values survey every two to three years. As an outcome of the last survey, four core values teams are currently operating, “reviewing the identified areas we really needed to focus on: communication, fairness and equity, accountability, and diversity.” Each of the four vice-presidents coordinates one of the teams and provides progress reports to the leadership council.
“Therefore,” Dr. Lara stated, “It is so natural to be part of DAC because it is part of what we do at Estrella. DAC represents all groups with different issues, different perceptions, making sure we give people the opportunity to sit at the table and give input, representing different voices that we are listening to. That is how we promote inclusiveness.”
When asked about the importance of the Diversity Advisory Council, Dr. Lara stated that DAC was important because of, “accountability, someone asking us the questions. We are involved in so many agendas. When the Governing Board asks for monitoring report and asks what are you doing, you have to respond. What is monitored is what gets done. If it is not monitored or measured, it gets lost. It is important that someone is looking. It is important to look at who is represented on DAC, a Governing Board member, a President, A Vice-Chancellor, Vice Presidents, people from the highest levels in the organization to including representatives of every possible group. This can be good and can be bad but needs to be intentionally large to represent us all. We need to ask, what issues are important to you. We need to know not just numbers but the voices behind, reminding us to continue to look and to monitor.”
Dr. Lara concluded with the following thought. “The thing that undergirds my background is organizational theory. People will help to support what they help to create. That is why it is so critical that all voices are heard. This is your institution. How do we improve it? We need to involve people and trust the process.”