Announcing West Valley College President Dr. Jennifer Taylor-Mendoza

Dear Colleagues,

Please join me in welcoming Dr. Jennifer Taylor-Mendoza as West Valley College’s 13th president. Dr. Taylor-Mendoza has more than twenty years of experience in our system and has served as a classified professional, tenured faculty member, director, dean of academic support and learning technologies, and vice president of instruction. She is co-author of Minding the Obligation Gap in Community Colleges: Theory and Practice in Achieving Educational Equity. President Taylor-Mendoza is also an Aspen Institute Presidential Fellow. She is currently the president of the College of San Mateo. A proud community college alumna, President Taylor-Mendoza holds a B.A. in Psychology, California State University, Los Angeles, an M.S. in Counseling, California State University, Northridge, and a Ph.D. in Education, Claremont Graduate University.

Following a national search, our team compiled an extremely talented, diverse, and experienced pool of finalists, but Dr. Taylor-Mendoza distinguished herself from the beginning as THE candidate to both lead the college through this challenging time by building a strong leadership team, and also improving organizational capacity in order to meet our enrollment, student success, and campus climate goals. Dr. Taylor-Mendoza is one of the most brilliant, hardworking administrators in our system and I have every confidence she will help the college realize its vast potential.

Thank you to the search committee for your timely and thoughtful work over the summer, and to the leadership of the academic, classified, and student senates who so carefully advised me during the final interviews. This was truly a team effort and I couldn’t be happier for the college to begin a new day with a leader of Dr. Taylor-Mendoza’s quality at the helm.

Following ratification of the appointment by the Board of Trustees tomorrow, Dr. Taylor-Mendoza will officially begin on August 24th. We will hold an invocation for our entire community to celebrate this appointment in September. In the interim, I will continue to oversee the daily operation of the campus.

Here’s to the start of a great academic year. I look forward to seeing all of you in the fall. Until then, please enjoy the summer with your family and friends.

Bradley J. Davis
Chancellor
West Valley-Mission Community College District