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DR. DING-JO CURRIE TO TAKE THE HELM AS PRESIDENT OF COASTLINE COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Dr. Ding-Jo Currie has been selected as the new president of Coastline Community College, one of three community colleges in the Coast Community College District. Coastline is an innovative institution specializing in providing flexible, accessible and non-traditional educational opportunities for residents of Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach, Seal Beach, Westminster and surrounding areas.
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CONTACT:
Erin Cohn
District Director,
Public Affairs
(714) 438-4605
May 20, 2002
NEWS
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The Coast Community College District Board of Trustees selected Dr. Currie to replace Dr. Leslie Purdy, who retires this June.
"I am confident that Dr. Currie will continue the tradition of excellence and innovation at Coastline," said Board President Walter G. Howald. "With her experience and enthusiasm, she will be able to build upon Dr. Purdy's success in developing the college's reputation as a trendsetter in the area of distance education, as well as continuing to expand its community based programs."
Dr. Currie's career includes 22 years in the California Community College system. Since 1997, she has held the position of assistant superintendent/vice president for economic and community development at Rio Hondo College in Whittier.
Dr. Currie said she is excited to come to Coastline Community College, which has an international reputation for developing new ways to deliver college courses to students. At Rio Hondo College, she oversaw the development of the Virtual College and California Virtual Campus Regional Center. Rio Hondo's Virtual College recently was named the number one provider of online courses in the state among California's colleges and universities, offering a record 121 such classes.
"I am very honored to have the opportunity to serve Coastline Community College," she said. "It is known as the premiere institution nationwide in providing non-traditional and innovative ways of bringing education to students. I am looking forward to working with Coastline's capable, blue-ribbon team of educators to become first in educating future citizens and the workplace of the future."
Dr. Currie is committed to the community college mission of making higher education accessible to all kinds of students, both locally and internationally.
"I am passionate about community colleges because we are about open access," she said. "We are an open door for all citizens - not just locally, but the citizens of the world. We are a global society now, and Coastline Community College has the capability to make an impact on the world of students. Technology is advancing quickly, giving us the opportunity to use it to create new learning systems and distribute them to the students of the world."
A long-time resident of Huntington Beach, Dr. Currie is also looking forward to getting more involved in providing education in her local community.
"As president of Coastline Community College, I will have the opportunity to become engaged and involved in my own community, which will give me a greater level of personal satisfaction," she said.
Before she came to Rio Hondo, Dr. Currie served as an assistant to the vice president of instruction and the matriculation coordinator at Saddleback College (1991-1997), and the coordinator of the Refugee/GAIN program at Long Beach City College (1983-1990). Her education includes a B.S. from Manchester College (Indiana) in both math and psychology; an M.S. in counseling from Wright State University (Ohio); and a Ph.D. in International/Intercultural Education from
USC.
Dr. Currie will begin her new position July 1.
The Coast Community College District is the seventh largest community college district in the nation in credit enrollment, serving nearly 60,000 students each semester. The district is comprised of Coastline Community College headquartered in Fountain Valley, Golden West College in Huntington Beach, Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, and KOCE-TV, the district's public broadcasting station.
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