Advisory Board

Dr. Tate Hurvitz currently teaches the English portion of several linked courses, both at the developmental and transfer levels, in Grossmont College’s interdisciplinary learning communities program, Project Success. He is active at the regional level with Cal-PASS designing curriculum as well as training and collaborating with faculty from San Diego area campuses, working to improve curricular alignment among regional high schools, community colleges, and four-year universities. He is also a fellow at the San Diego Center for Ethics in Science and Technology, helping to plan and coordinate public outreach events and writing about current science and technology issues for local news outlets. He is proud to serve on the CLCC’s leadership counsel, maintaining and updating its website.

 

Sue Jensen has been an educator for 35 years. Her teaching experience began with a 10-year stint teaching high school. She not only served as department chair, but took an active role in district programs: Project Write, and Writing Across the Curriculum are two such examples. As an adjunct instructor at San Diego State University, she taught freshman students in the Writing and Rhetoric Studies Department and secondary school teachers in workshops designed to help teachers with reading and writing strategies to be used across the curriculum. In 1983, she began teaching at Grossmont College in El Cajon, California. At that time, she became involved with her office partner, Dr. Mary Donnelly, in a learning community they entitled Project Success. Their vision for improving success rates for “at-risk” students began with one link of developmental writing and reading and has grown to a program consisting of over 35 links of developmental reading and writing courses, as well as transfer level links. At Grossmont, Sue has also been involved in a variety of college committees: Academic Senate (Officer), Professional Development, and Matriculation are examples.

Sue Jensen has served as coordinator of Project Success since 1995. The Project has recently been designated one of 15 Promising Practices in California by the League of College Opportunity. She is presently the co-chair of the Student Success Committee on the Grossmont campus.

 

Professor Linda Mitchell has worked in Grossmont College’s Project Success program since her first semester in 1993. She teaches science fiction and fantasy literature, composition (pre-transfer level and honors), and college reading. All classes she teaches are linked to other classes as part of Project Success. She believes that learning community classes exemplify the best method for teaching college students whether they be basic skill or honors students. Her linked class partners have ranged from English composition or reading classes to Geology, Anthropology, History, and Humanities. In addition to teaching a full load of classes, she assists the Project Success Coordinator, Sue Jensen, gives learning community presentations nationally, and is a founding member of the California Learning Community Consortium advisory board. In Spring 2008, Grossmont College hosted the first annual CLCC Curriculum Planning Retreat, and she, along with Sue Jensen, planned and facilitated the three day event. When not working, reading is her passion, though fishing, hiking, cycling, dancing, camping, and travelling fill the rest of her free time.

 

Sue Parsons is currently the Director of Learning Communities and Teacher TRAC Programs at Cerritos College where she has also been an associate professor of Mathematics since 1985 and has taught in learning communities since 1995. During the 2006-2008, she participated with a college team as part of the National Learning Community Assessment project with Washington Center Evergreen. She was also honored to be part of the formation meeting for the California Learning Communities Consortium (CLCC) in fall 2007. Sue has extensive experience in developing and managing grants which currently include a California Community College Chancellor’s Grant, Boeing Foundation Grant, and a National Science Foundation Grant. She is active in her national mathematics organization, American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges, where she served as West Region Vice President, Co-PI on a NSF Teacher Preparation grant, and served as a Writing Team Chair for the AMATYC Beyond Crossroads Project. She is currently a commissioner on the National Association of State University Land Grant Colleges Science and Mathematics Teacher Imperative. She was also a founding member of the National Association of Community College Teacher Education Programs and served as the Associations second president.

 

Joshua Stein has been involved with and done research on learning communities and team-teaching since specializing in composition and rhetoric during coursework for his first masters degree at UC Riverside, where he was Assistant Director of Testing and ESL in the writing program. He has been a college teacher for sixteen years at various institutions in Northern and Southern California, including UC Riverside, Chaffey College, City College of San Francisco, Los Medanos College, and Napa Valley College; since 2003, he has been at Solano College in Fairfield, California, where he has helped create and participated in a range of developmental and transfer-level learning communities, including Puente. In his position as Coordinator of Basic Skills, he helped implement the transformation of all English 1 courses into learning communities in AY2008-09, attending the Washington Center’s Summer Institute in the process, as well as helping to coordinate the implementation process of Solano’s Pathways to Success First- and Second-Semester Experiences learning communities program. Josh has no spare time, but he hopes to find some at some point.

 

In addition to participating in the design and teaching of several learning communities at Cerritos College, Ana Torres-Bower coordinated the Learning Communities Program (LCP) for its first six years, later participated as LCs program scheduler, and developed/coordinated First-Year-Experience (FYE). Currently, she is faculty/program facilitator for the 13-year-old program. She has also been involved in LCs through the coordination of LCs conferences, institutes, and workshops; and in participation in state and national LCs professional organizations. Furthermore, she has developed grants, established LCs students’ scholarships, and was involved in LCs program evaluation at other institutions. Lastly, she has been involved in the California Learning Communities Consortium (CLCC) since fall 2007 as member of the leadership committee.

 

Dr. Marcellene L. Watson-Derbigny is the Assistant Vice President of Student Academic Success at Sacramento State. In this administrative role, she is responsible for overseeing services provided by the Educational Opportunity Program (EOP), the Faculty Student Mentor Program (FSMP), the College Assistant Migrant Program (CAMP), and the College Based Educational Equity Programs (CBEEP). As a part of her directorship, she also serves as the Coordinator of the EOP Learning Communities Program and has been instrumental in creating learning communities for students who are from underrepresented backgrounds. She has been instrumental in growing the program from 1 to over 25 different learning communities offered each fall. In addition, she has created a learning communities model designed to meet the needs of diverse students, who often enter the university setting with developmental writing needs. In collaboration with various sectors of the Sacramento State campus, she has created an academic, social, and faculty training component for the EOP Learning Communities Program. Marcellene is also an adjunct faculty member for the department of psychology teaching courses in cross cultural and social psychology and methods in research. She holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology with a Minor in Social Work, two Masters Degrees, one in Psychology and the other in Clinical Psychology, and a Doctorate in Educational Psychology with a Minor in Educational Administration. Her research and program development interests include: learning communities and first generation college students, leadership development among students, the power of collaborative practice in the learning community context, community building and student engagement strategies, the retention and graduation of students of color, and student empowerment through creative and comprehensive service provision.