Accreditation 2019

James Preston is the Vice President of Educational Services and Accreditation Liaison Officer (ALO) at West Hills College Lemoore. He has worked in the education field for 24 years including time at both the k-12 and community college level. Prior to his current position at the college he served as the Dean of Educational Services for five years and was a faculty member in English and Education for 12 years which included a term as the Academic Senate President. James is passionate about program development, professional development, and student success. The past year he has been working on key college initiatives such as Open Educational Resources, Teacher Preparation Pipeline, Career Technical Education Academies, and effective AB 705 implementation.

Renée DeLong serves as the Dean of Counseling at Orange Coast College. She oversees programs including general counseling, Transfer Center, Transfer Opportunity Program (TOP), EOPS, CARE, CalWORKs, Guardian Scholars, Puente, UMOJA, Counseling Latin@s for Equity and Engagement at OCC (CLEEO), instructional counseling, and counselors in Career, Financial Aid, Global Engagement/International Students, and Veterans. Renée is the lead manager for the Guided Pathways Intervention Design Team at OCC and participates on many academic and student services committees on campus. Prior to her arrival at OCC last year, Renée served twelve years as the Dean of Counseling and five years as the Director of the CalWORKs/PACE Weekend College program at Cerritos College. She has been a faculty member for both counseling and psychology.

Dr. DeLong has extensive accreditation experience. She was a member of the accreditation committee and standard lead at Cerritos College for three accreditation cycles. This will be her eighth ACCJC peer review visit where she has served colleges as diverse as those seeking candidacy, reaffirmation, and one college outside of the United States.

Dr. DeLong is a proud community college graduate and holds degrees in psychology, theology/marriage and family therapy, and an Ed.D. in Educational Administration and Leadership.

Professor of Communication Studies, SLO Coordinator, Academic Senate President. Mr. Howerton has nearly 20 years of professional experience in the California Community College System. He has been with Woodland Community College (WCC) since 2007.  He is a tenured professor of Communication Studies and holds a BA in Theatre/Communication Arts (University of Memphis), a MA in Communication Studies (CSU,Chico), and an Ed.S in Higher Education/Adult Learning (Walden University). In addition to his program responsibilities, he has served continuously as WCC’s SLO Coordinator since 2008. During his tenure with WCC and the Yuba Community College District (YCCD), he has served and led numerous governance committees including WCC’s College Council, Communication Resource Committee, Curriculum Committee, Staffing Committee, Accreditation Steering Committee, and YCCD’s Institutional Effectiveness Resource Team. Currently Christopher is a co-chair for his college’s Planning and Institutional Effectiveness Committee, and serves as President of WCC’s Academic Senate. Christopher has serve on prior accreditation teams for ACCJC and on a Project Resource Team under the Institutional Effectiveness Partnership Initiative (IEPI).  For the state senate (ASCCC) He was appointed to the following sub-committees: Educational Policies (2017-2018), Accreditation (2018-2019), and Standards and Practices (2019-2020). Finally, he is excited for this opportunity to visit and learn more about Cuyamaca College.

Dr. Joumana Mcgowan is the Associate Vice President of Instruction at Mt. San Antonio College. She plans, organizes, and provides administrative direction and oversight for the instructional unit composed of eight divisions.

Prior to being appointed as the Associate Vice President of Instruction, Dr. Mcgowan served in numerous capacities within academia including: Dean of Business, Dean of Instruction (CTE and Business), Academic Senate President, Business Management Department Chair and Tenured Business Management Professor.

After a varied career as a restaurateur, software developer and technical consultant, in 1996 I applied for a full-time CIS teaching position and was fortunate to be hired by the CIS Department as an instructor.

I am currently teaching in the Computer Information Systems, Computer Networking Technologies and Computer Science areas. I teach courses in traditional, hybrid and online formats. I have been teaching online for approximately 20 years.

Besides my work in the classroom, I was department chair for 16 years, I am the current Co-Chair of the Distance Education Committee, Co-Chair of the Student Learning Outcomes committee, Co-Chair of the Technology Committee, a member of the President’s Accreditation Advisory Group, the District’s Learning Management System Work Group, the District’s Distance Education Council and a past member of DVC’s curriculum committee (6 years).

Outside of the college, I have worked with the ACCJC as a visiting team member (this is my eight visit). I enjoy working with visiting teams because it gives me an opportunity to see the successes of my colleagues across the state, how they respond to challenges at their colleges and what they are doing to achieve the mission of community colleges in the state.