At the beginning of the spring 2020 semester, many staff and faculty members were promoted at Contra Costa College, fulfilling new roles and carrying out new duties.

One of those newly promoted staff members is Director of College Advancement Sara Marcellino, who previously held the title of CCC Foundation development officer.

Marcellino explained there was a big fundraising advancement in summer and fall of 2019 where she made plans to continue not only raising money, but spending it, too.

She works with the members of the CCC Foundation Board of Directors — all volunteers — and sorts out useful ways to spend the foundation’s money.

When Marcellino first started at CCC, the Board only consisted of eight members, but now she’s almost doubled that number to 15.

Many wonder how she was able to recruit another seven people — but the simple fact is she went out and talked to them.

“My focus for this foundation is on people, because we are constantly trying to connect the college to the community,” Marcellino said.

According to Marcellino, approximately 5 percent of philanthropy in the U.S. comes from businesses, 20 percent comes from foundations and 75 percent comes from individuals.

Marcellino’s course of action was to talk to philanthropists, connect them to CCC and receive donations from them.

“From the beginning, that was my strategy, and it paid off,” Marcellino said.

Most donations come from individuals, and Richmond and the West County are no different, she said.

In 2016, the CCC Foundation had about $67,000 in scholarships.

Now, it has over $235,000.

Marcellino is still a fundraiser, but in order to fundraise, the Foundation also needs to spend money.

Marcellino wisely makes those decisions on what their money should be spent on.

Another staff member who was promoted is administrative assistant Jacqueline Oré, who was previously the senior accountant clerk.

Oré has been working at CCC for eight years, first working for Admissions and Records.

She was then hired as senior accountant clerk and now holds the title of administrative assistant III.

She works in the Payroll Office and oversees the payroll, Buildings and Grounds, custodial and human resources divisions.

If someone wants to rent a room at CCC, she is in charge of organizing that and she also oversees campus events.

She is the person who makes sure tables and chairs get set up for events and get put away properly at the end of the day.

Two more recently promoted staff members are interim nursing department chairpersons and directors Jacki Wright and Dr. Angela King-Jones.

The two share the positions of director and chairperson but are both interim as the duo will be retiring at the end of the semester, along with nursing Administrative Assistant Janie Franklin.

The nursing department is in flux, Dr. King-Jones said, and a lot of the faculty are tenured.

The problem is many are retiring.

Wright actually became chairperson in summer 2019 and has been working at CCC for 10 years.

She specializes in labor and delivery and graduated from CCC’s nursing program when she was a student here.

As co-director, Wright makes sure their budget is taken care of and ensures their students can go to hospitals for work study.

She makes sure their accreditation process from the California Board of Registered Nursing is up-to-date and everything is orderly and running smoothly in the department.

Dr. King-Jones schedules clinical sites for their students to gain work experience.

They currently have 15 clinical sites, including various hospitals such as Kaiser Permanente Richmond Medical Center and even a hospice center.

Dr. King-Jones said the goal of the nursing program is to turn out great, competent and caring nurses.

The five position changes are down from last semester which saw about 24 new faculty and staff hires, who were either promoted from within the college or are joining CCC as first time or full-time hires.