Latino College Presidents: In Their Own Words: Volume 13

In both 2007 and 2012 the American Council on Education (ACE) issued reports on the American college president. Each described the demographic characteristics of presidents and the demands of the job. Although these reports provided important information on college presidents nationwide, they focused too little on Latino presidents and the unique barriers those aspiring to the position face on the path to the presidency. Such drawbacks are not uncommon, considering the dearth of basic research on Latino leadership in higher education in general and Latino presidents in particular, along with the fact that many work in the relative obscurity of two-year community colleges. Moreover, such data as exist on Latino presidents tend to be outdated (de los Santos, Jr. & Vega, 2008).

With these large gaps in mind, we invited Latino presidents to describe their rise in academia in the context of their family and community. We reviewed their personal stories for common themes and identified six that we want to highlight: (1) strong family support for education; (2) commitment to education and character at an early age; (3) overcoming discouragement by gatekeepers, (4) the importance of mentoring; (5) the need of Latina presidents to address special issues; and (6) giving back to the Latino community. A description of each theme is presented later in the chapter, and we have integrated a few quotes from these presidents into our brief review of the literature.