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Dr. Karén Clos Bleeker Named Community College of Denver President

DENVER – Dr. Karén Clos Bleeker, Vice President of Educational Services/Chief Academic Officer of the Temple College District in Temple, Texas, has been appointed president of the Community College of Denver by Dr. Nancy McCallin, president of the Colorado Community College System (CCCS). Bleeker was one of three finalists forwarded to McCallin by an independently formed presidential search committee consisting of students, faculty, administrative staff and community members.

Bleeker will assume the presidency at Community College of Denver on April 1. "Dr. Bleeker is a dynamic leader with a proven track record of serving her College, students, and community by creating and significantly improving programs that advance a supportive climate for students, faculty and staff," said McCallin. "I know she will support CCD and its faculty and staff as they continue the excellence for which they are known."

McCallin added, "Her work to take college programs to the next level, combined with her work with underserved students, and her many successes in Developmental Education make her an outstanding choice for CCD." After an extensive community-based search and interview process was initiated in October, Bleeker emerged from a field of 45 candidates.

"I would like to thank Barbara McDonnell for serving as interim president since June 2007," said McCallin. "Barbara has helped CCD through a challenging time and I now look forward to her returning full-time to her role as our executive vice-president and chief legal counsel."

"I am very excited about working with the many communities served by the Community College of Denver," remarked Bleeker. "The pride CCD takes in providing diverse higher education opportunities to many different learning populations is impressive. I look forward to joining this team which has proven to be so vital to the economic future of the Mile High City."

Prior to her four years leading the academic operations of the Temple College District, Bleeker served five years as the Chief Academic Officer of Barton County Community College. Before that, she was the Assistant to the Chancellor of the West Valley-Mission Community College District. During her tenure at Temple, the college has experienced dramatic enrollment increases, finding itself among the top three colleges in the state for growth. Additionally, The Community College Times recently ranked Temple College 22nd out of 50 for growth among comparably sized community colleges in the United States.

Temple College is located in a metropolitan area of 350,000 that lies between Austin and Waco. Because Temple, Texas is a city which has more physicians per capita than any other in the nation and has a major campus of Texas A&M’s Health Science Center College of Medicine, Bleeker’s former college compares well with CCD, which has many excellent programs in the allied health fields.

Bleeker received her Ed.D. in Educational Administration from the University of Texas at Austin’s Community College Leadership Program in 1997. She holds two master’s degrees. One is in Adult Education from the University of Incarnate Word and another is in Counseling from the University of Texas at San Antonio. During her graduate studies, she received fellowships from the American Association of University Women as well as the Roueche Fellowship, the W. K. Kellogg Fellowship and the Sid W. Richardson Fellowship awarded by the nationally-ranked Community College Leadership Program.

The Colorado Community College System Comprises the state’s largest system of higher education serving more than 107,000 students annually. CCCS oversees career and academic programs in the 13 state community colleges and career and technical programs in more than 160 school districts and seven other post-secondary institutions.