CBT: The College Brain Trust - Consultants

Donald B. Berz

After receiving his higher education degrees in Political Science from the University of Colorado (Boulder), and from the University of California (Berkeley) in Political Science, Don has served 48 years in California at a number of higher education institutions, including UC Berkeley. He has served as a professor of Political Science, an assistant dean, an executive dean of a college, a vice chancellor, an acting chancellor, and he retired in June of 2004 after 15 years as Executive Vice President of Chaffey College, a community college of 20,000 students in California.

Since he retired, Don has engaged in a number of consultancy assignments for a variety of community colleges and has assisted in searches for filling executive level administrator positions at a number of colleges. A particular area for which he has garnered both statewide and national attention is the leadership he has provided for helping community colleges address their challenge of student success. He has assisted colleges in developing a “culture of evidence”, refocusing their “energies” and resources, engaging in new and effective strategies for improving student achievement and thereby bringing about systemic change for transforming students’ goals into outcomes.

Currently he has been serving as Executive Vice President of Academic Affairs at Long Beach City College in California (a student body of approximately 30,000 students) where he has been providing leadership for developing and implementing the college’s Student Success Initiative, which has earned for the college, the State of California’s 2009 Student Success Award. When serving as the Executive Vice President, of Chaffey College he also provided the leadership for its Basic Skills Transformation Project, which in 2002 and in 2008 earned the California’s Student Success Award, as well as the Exemplary Program Award sponsored by the California Community Colleges Board of Governors. Moreover, in 2009, Chaffey College was recognized with the “Hewlett Leaders in Student Success Award” and in 2010, the MetLife Foundation Community College Excellence Award for Service to Students (presented at the AACC Annual conference in Seattle).