The vice president had a very short-lived job transition between the district and Contra Costa College during the fall semester up until this current spring semester.

Tammeil Gilkerson briefly switched from her role as vice president to the role of diversity, inclusion and innovation officer for a term of one year, while interim vice president Jane Harmon occupied the vacancy.

“In late June of last year I was asked by Chancellor (Helen) Benjamin to serve as the diversity, inclusion and innovation officer for the district for one year,” she said.

Gilkerson began her tenure in the new role in August of last year.

However, due to a serious illness that Dr. Harmon’s husband was diagnosed with in early December, she had to immediately leave the college to tend to her family.

“My husband was diagnosed on Dec. 11, so I had to leave to take care of him. But I felt confident in the deans (and the enrollment management task force) to continue on the initiatives that we started,” Harmon said.

Gilkerson said she is resuming her permanent role to help provide leadership and support to the college.

“I am pleased to be back in my role as vice president and I plan to work collectively with the entire CCC team on enrollment management and many of the key initiatives connected with our college-wide strategic plan, including supporting our continued equity and student success initiatives,” Gilkerson said.

With Gilkerson returning, it is business as usual from the administrative perspective.

When asked about current collaborations with Gilkerson, President Mojdeh Mehdizadeh said, “The plans haven’t changed.  The college continues to move forward with meeting the objectives identified under our (2015-2020) strategic plan.”

In executing goals and objectives, Gilkerson was instrumental in helping several departments on campus understand the transfer degree program requirements in order to submit their subject area for a degree pathway program, Senior Dean of Instruction Donna Floyd said.    

Dr. Floyd said, “Gilkerson is a great team leader, very hands-on person, and she helps to facilitate change.”

“She helped others with curricUNET, a database curriculum system, and she was instrumental for making it (understandable) and the implementation of it was brought on by her determination and persistence for others to better understand it,” Floyd said.

Mehdizadeh shared a similar sentiment.

“Tammeil is a highly dedicated and smart individual. We are lucky to have her as our vice president. She is creative, solutions focused and student-minded.”

“One of her major contributions is with the implementation of our curriculum management system and process. She worked diligently with faculty, staff, and other administrators to implement a systematic approach to our curriculum development and approval process,” Mehdizadeh said.

Floyd said Gilkerson would be the initial person for faculty when identifying course numbers, lining up transfer degrees with state transfer program requirements and works with faculty, if need be, in order to fully flesh out information on occasion.

Harmon said, “I appreciated the focus on students at CCC. It wasn’t just lip service. (Everyone at CCC) ensures better student success and completion. It is in people’s DNA to really care.”