During its regular monthly meeting, the Dallas County Community College District’s board of trustees approved the appointment of Dr. Kathryn Eggleston as the new president of Richland College. Eggleston has served as Richland’s interim president since January 2010, following the retirement of Dr. Stephen Mittelstet.
“When we began this national search process many months ago, I shared with the search committee that the next president of Richland College should have a proven track record in academic leadership, management of a successful and complex institution, governance structure skills, resource management, external leadership, multicultural commitment and personal effectiveness,” said Dr. Wright Lassiter Jr., DCCCD’s chancellor. “Before making my recommendation to the board, I also considered institutional ‘fit.’ I believe that Dr. Kay Eggleston meets all of those qualifications and is the best leader for Richland College at this time in its history.”
“I am honored and humbled to be selected by Chancellor Lassiter to become the fourth president of Richland College,” said Eggleston. “As Richland College begins its 40th year of service to students in our community and beyond, I accept the responsibility and privilege of leading and guiding this exceptional institution. Together, with the college’s dedicated faculty and staff, we will strive toward new heights in fulfilling our mission: to be the best we can be – to learn, teach and build sustainable local and world community.”
She added, “Community colleges are central to the success of our communities and to our nation’s future. Richland College will remain dedicated to transforming lives, one at a time, more than 20,000 strong.”
The search process began in March 2011 – the first search for a new president at Richland College in more than 30 years. DCCCD received a total of 35 applications; 12 were selected for first-round interviews, and two members of that group later withdrew. The search committee presented a list of four finalists to the chancellor; one withdrew, and the other candidates then were interviewed by Lassiter and senior district staff members. The chancellor then took his recommendation to the DCCCD board of trustees for its approval.
Eggleston, who has 13 years of senior leadership experience at community colleges, also briefly served as interim superintendent of Richland Collegiate High School, an exemplary charter high school located on the college’s main campus in Dallas.
During her tenure as interim president at Richland, Eggleston reorganized college operations and reduced the college’s operating budget of $55 million by $4.3 million. The college launched a second collegiate charter high school curriculum; restructured its governance; and secured approval from the Texas Education Agency for several amendments to the high school’s charter.
During that period, Richland College also secured grant support for several national education practice initiatives, including Achieving the Dream, Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Community College Collaboratory, American Association of Community Colleges Plus-50 and Baldrige/National Institutes of Standards and Technology.
Prior to her service at Richland College as interim president, Eggleston served as executive vice president and chief operating officer from September 2008 to September 2009; vice president for institutional effectiveness and economic development from January 2002 to August 2008; and vice president of community and economic development from February 1998 to December 2002.
Eggleston also served in several administrative positions at El Centro College: executive dean of health and legal studies from September 1997 to January 1998; dean of health occupations from August 1980 to August 1995; assistant dean of health occupations from August 1977 to July 1980; and faculty member and curriculum chairperson for the Associate Degree Nursing program from August 1973 to May 1977.
She currently serves on the American Association of Community Colleges’ National Commission on Communications and Marketing; is a voting proxy member of the Malcolm Baldrige Foundation’s board of directors; is an invited speaker at Malcolm Baldrige Quest for Excellence quality conferences at the state, regional and national levels; and is an outreach ambassador for international benchmarking visits to Richland College by groups from Australia, Singapore, Russia, New Zealand, Scotland and educational institutions across the U.S. Richland College received the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in 2006 (the first community college in the country to earn that honor); as a result, Eggleston has spoken to numerous audiences about the award and the process which Richland College followed to earn it.
Eggleston has shared her expertise and service with organizations such as the North Texas Community College Consortium’s board of directors; the Quality Texas Foundation; the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (on several consortia and committees); the Southern Council on Collegiate Education for Nursing; the Texas Council of Deans and Directors; and many others. She also has published several articles and is an invited speaker for convocations, conferences and other higher education events.
She serves on the board of directors for the both the Richardson and Garland Chambers of Commerce. A charter member of Altrusa International Inc. of Downtown Dallas, Eggleston received that organization’s Outstanding Woman of Today Richardson Award in 2007. She also was honored with the Carl M. Nelson Administrative Leadership Award by the Texas Association of Community Colleges in 2007.
Eggleston earned her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Minnesota State University-Mankato; her master’s degree in nursing from Texas Woman’s University; and her doctorate in management and administrative sciences from the University of Texas at Dallas.
