Accreditation Team
Michael Claire, who began his association with the San Mateo County Community College District as a student, became the ninth president of College of San Mateo (CSM) in 2006. During his career with the district, Mr. Claire has worked at all three of its colleges, including positions as an instructor, program developer, division dean and vice president of instruction.
From 2004-2006, he served as the vice president of instruction at CSM, responsible for planning, developing and evaluating the college's instructional offerings. During his tenure, the college added programs in biotechnology, process control, emerging technologies and insurance administration. He also initiated a program to deliver college programs at local high schools.
He served for eight years as dean of technology at CSM. While in that role, he developed a digital media program, network cabling curriculum, paramedic program in collaboration with local fire departments and new apprenticeship courses with the electrician's union. Under his leadership and in conjunction with local police chiefs, a full-time police academy was established at CSM.
Mr. Claire earned an A.A. degree from Cañada College and a B.S. degree in business administration and an MBA from California State University, East Bay. He is also a certified public accountant. Locally, he has served as a board member for a number of business and educational community organizations, including the Peninsula Partnership Leadership Council, the San Mateo Chamber of Commerce, the Notre Dame High School Board, and the San Mateo Credit Union.
Dr. Hilary Goodkind is CSM’s dean of planning, research, innovation, and effectiveness (PRIE). Hilary has worked at a variety of educational institutions as a researcher and a faculty member and has an extensive background in education, research, strategic planning, organizational development, and community involvement.
Hilary spent six years at Lane Community College in Oregon where she conducted organizational assessments and cultivated business and community relationships. She was part of a research team charged with refining the admissions system for the Oregon university system, and was an Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of Education at Oregon State. After moving back to California, Hilary provided research, strategic planning, and other consulting services to many educational institutions including Stanford University, Diablo Valley College, the Foothill-DeAnza Community College District, the San Mateo County Community College District, and the University of Oregon. She also served as an elected trustee for the Happy Valley School District for six years.
Hilary has worked with more than 100 businesses, non-profits, and government agencies including Goodwill Industries, NASA-Ames Research Center, Santa Barbara Workforce Investment Board, San Mateo County Workforce Investment Board, Hospital Council of Northern and Central California, Hewlett Packard, National Semiconductor, Oregon Medical Labs, Sony, Extreme Networks and others. She served as the west coast director for the Center for Quality of Management, a consortium of 124 multi-national corporations, and currently serves on the board of NOVA, a nationally recognized workforce investment board.
Hilary has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from U.C. Santa Cruz; a master’s in educational policy and management from the University of Oregon; and a doctorate in education, leadership, technology, and administration from the University of Oregon.
Dr. Don Miller serves as Vice President of Instruction at College of Alameda. Prior to his current position, he worked as Interim Vice President of Academic Services and as a Dean of Academic Services for the Division of Arts and Humanities, as well as learning communities (Umoja, Puente, etc.) at Las Positas College. He has served on previous ACCJC accreditation teams and has carried out university program review site visits. He spent 8.5 years as chair of large multicultural, multilingual departments of modern and classical languages at private and public universities, including CSU, Chico. Dr. Miller spent 20 years as an instructional faculty member in Spanish programs teaching courses in introductory and intermediate language, grammar, speech and debate, social justice (human and civil rights in the Spanish-speaking world), etc. He has also led credit-bearing academic programs to Mexico and Cuba.
Denise Schulmeyer is a Communication Professor at Grossmont College. Additionally, she serves as the campus Institutional Student Learning Outcomes Coordinator and Accreditation Faculty Co-Chair, and is the Academic Senate President-elect. She previously served as the campus Professional Development Coordinator. She is also an active volunteer with the San Diego County Sheriff's Department Search and Rescue team where she serves as a ground pounder and as an FAA licensed Remote ("drone") Pilot.
Jerry Saviano has taught English at Honolulu Community College for nineteen years. In that time, he’s served as Division Chair as well as Faculty Senate Chair. Jerry has been active in helping improve articulation across the University of Hawaii system. In addition, he’s helped lead campus efforts to improve success with underprepared students and participating in many campus and system efforts to improve student success overall. At Honolulu Community College, he regularly serves on standard accreditation committees. In 2016, Jerry served on the site visit team for Evergreen Valley College. In 2013 and 2017, he served as assistant to the site visit teams for Los Angeles Mission College and San Diego Mesa College. Jerry has a PhD in English from the University of Hawaii.
Catherine Prince, Dean Instruction and Strategic Program Development. With an AA in Mathematics from Sacramento City College, a BA (Psychology) MA (Education) from CSU Sacramento. After leaving a career in nonprofit management, Catherine started at Santa Rosa Junior College as the Career and Transfer Center Manager and in her first five years, held the following positons: Interim Director of Assessment, Interim Director of Workforce Development, and Director of High School Equivalency Program (HEP) before being hired as the Dean of Instruction and Strategic Program Development. In this current position, she oversees the Social and Behavioral Sciences division, the HEP Program, serves as PI on two NSF STEM grants, and manages Federal Grant Development for the district. An accomplished grant proposal writer, she has brought over $10 million in Federal Grants to the district.
Dr. Jeff Stephenson is the Vice President of Student Services at American River College. He has 21 years of higher education experience including serving as the Associate Vice President of Student Services (Grant Programs), Dean of Counseling and Student Services, and also as interim Dean of Equity and Educational Pathways. He was the program director of the Funeral Service Education Program at ARC, and a professor of mortuary science at Carl Sandburg College in Galesburg, IL. Jeff is a former department chair, curriculum committee chair and currently serves on numerous committees on the campus. He oversees all student services areas at American River College and has been deeply involved in the Guided Pathways work at the college. He has served on four previous accreditation teams. Prior to entering in the field of higher education he was a licensed funeral director and embalmer. Jeff is currently holds a doctorate in education in Leadership for Higher Education from Capella University, a master of education from Western Illinois University, and a bachelor degree from the Cincinnati College of Mortuary Science.
Greg Nelson has been involved in higher education for more than 19 years. He began his career with the Technical College System of Georgia before moving to California in 2011. He served as Vice President for Administrative Services at San Jose City College before joining the administrative team at College of Marin as the Assistant Superintendent/Vice President of Administrative Services. Greg holds a master’s degree in business with a concentration in public administration and a BS in Political Science & Statistics. He also holds certification in government accounting (CGFM) and project management (PMP). He also teaches at Sonoma State University and College of Marin as Adjunct Faculty within the business program.
Erik Cooper is currently the Dean of Planning, Research, and Resource Development at Sierra College. Erik is the Accreditation Liaison Officer for Sierra’s Fall 2019 ISER and site visit. He has been on several site visit teams and helped write 3 ISERs at 2 institutions. Prior to working at Sierra College, he was the Director of Planning, Research, and Student Success at Yuba College and was the Tutoring Center Coordinator at Western Washington University.
Stephanie Droker joined the commission staff in August 2016. Dr. Droker was the vice president of educational services and accreditation liaison officer at West Hills College Coalinga from 2012-2016. Previous to her administrative experience, Dr. Droker served as faculty of political science and interdisciplinary studies at West Hills College Lemoore. During her faculty tenure, she served as academic senate president, curriculum committee representative, faculty lead of the college’s institutional self-evaluation report, and strategic planning committee chair. Senior Vice President Droker supports the Commission’s Substantive Change Committee, serves as a liaison to the US Department of Education, and is the staff lead for several of the Commission’s initiatives.