Denver, CO, April 12, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- At its retirement ceremony for outgoing Colorado Community College System (CCCS) president Dr. Nancy J. McCallin, the Foundation for Colorado Community Colleges announced the creation of a new $170,000 endowment to honor, recognize and celebrate Dr. McCallin’s fourteen years of service to the Colorado Community College System. The Nancy J. McCallin Endowed Scholarship will provide scholarship funding for CCCS students.
The event was attended by donors, friends, and community leaders, as well as System college presidents, executive staff, members of the State Board for Community College and Occupational Education, members of the board of the Foundation for Colorado Community Colleges, and the CCCS CEO Advisory Cabinet.
Dr. McCallin was lauded for her investment in fundraising and her commitment to access to education. Under Dr. McCallin’s leadership the System launched its most ambitious fundraising effort, The Campaign for Colorado Community Colleges. Originally envisioned as a $10 million campaign, it ultimately generated $26.5 million for student scholarships at the 13 CCCS colleges. Thanks to this campaign, thousands of students received scholarships enabling them to access a college education that might otherwise have been out of reach.
“Dr. McCallin’s extraordinary leadership over the past 14 years has had a transformative effect on Colorado’s Community College System,” said Michael Beasley, the longest tenured member of the Foundation for Colorado Community Colleges board. “Her achievements form a lasting legacy that will benefit community college students for years to come, and this endowment further expands those benefits.”
Dr. McCallin was also recognized for her numerous contributions to higher education in Colorado, which include the creation and strengthening of statewide transfer agreements; the expansion of concurrent enrollment in college courses for high school students, which is estimated to have saved Colorado families more than $100 million in tuition costs since 2009; and the passage of Amendment 50, which created a dedicated ongoing revenue stream for classroom instructional costs, lowering the tuition burden for students.
“It has been an honor to work with Dr. McCallin,” said Dr. Russell J. Meyer, Chair of the State Board for Community College and Occupational Education. “As an economist, she has an intuitive understanding of the importance of strategic investments in community colleges, and that private support is critical to the System’s continued success.”
Dr. McCallin will step down at the end of July. Before taking the helm at CCCS in October 2004, she served for nearly six years as the executive director of the Governor’s Office of State Planning and Budgeting, a cabinet level position. Prior to that, Dr. McCallin was chief economist for the Legislative Council of the Colorado General Assembly. From 1981 to 1989, she was an economist with United Banks of Colorado, Inc. (now Wells Fargo).
Dr. McCallin earned a Bachelor of Arts from Claremont McKenna College, and a Master of Arts and a Doctor of Philosophy in Economics from the University of Colorado-Boulder.
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About the Foundation for Colorado Community Colleges
The Foundation for Colorado Community Colleges seeks to advance the mission, vision, goals, and objectives of the Colorado Community College System. Specifically, the Foundation actively seeks contributions from public and private sources to make scholarships available statewide, advance key programmatic initiatives, provide training and support for CCCS college foundations, and develop partnerships with community stakeholders to implement state of the art programs that meet the workforce needs of the 21st century.
About the Colorado Community College System
The Colorado Community College System (CCCS) is the state’s largest system of higher education, serving 137,000 students annually at 13 colleges and 39 locations across Colorado. Our open access mission ensures all Coloradans who aspire to enrich their lives have access to quality higher education opportunities. The System Office provides leadership, advocacy and support to the colleges under the direction of the State Board for Community Colleges and Occupational Education (SBCCOE).
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