Allan Hancock College has 10 new full-time faculty members this fall. They will be teaching in STEM areas, transfer English and career education programs.
“I can’t wait to communicate to the students at Hancock how wonderful physics is.” said Brian Youngblood, a new physics instructor who most recently lectured at UCSB. “It’s an exciting opportunity.”
The total number of faculty members has grown by 23 since the Great Recession, bringing the head count to 161. Including retiree replacements, the college has brought on 60 new faculty members in the past five years.
According to Kevin G. Walthers, Hancock superintendent/president, the college’s investment in faculty has had a ripple effect.
“The state Board of Governors has set a goal to increase faculty diversity and you can see that happening here at Hancock,” he said. “Our intentional outreach effort is paying dividends in recruiting talented, new faculty members to the Central Coast.”
With the addition of more counseling faculty in recent years, the college has been able to increase its counselor-to-student ratio, Walthers said.
“Our counselors are key to students successfully completing a credential,” he said.
“We have moved from 977 students per counselor to 557. That’s a 43 percent improvement and places Hancock better than the state average,” he said. “This is how we change the odds for our students.”
To help welcome and acclimate the new faculty, they took part in a two-day orientation during which they were given a campus tour and instructed in Hancock policies, procedures and goals.
“We’ve thrown a lot of important information at them, but we’d really like to help our new faculty have a good idea of where the levers are at the college,” said Bob Curry, vice president of Academic Affairs at Hancock.
“The orientation also helps them build relationships across campus,” he said.
Many of the new hires will be replacing long-time faculty who recently retired.
“The new instructors have some very big shoes to fill, that’s for sure,” said Curry. “But it’s always great to see new faces and new energy on campus and continue to offer our students a high-quality education.”
“I was finishing my Ph.D. in English at the University of Texas at Austin before I started my job here at Hancock,” said Alejandro Omidsalar, who was recently hired as an English instructor.
“Aside from the beautiful weather out here in the Central Coast, I was very interested in finding a teaching position at a California community college, because I began my own higher education at a community college. My goal is to be a role model for my students in and out of the classroom,” he said.
In addition to bringing new faces from out of state, hiring from the pool of part-time faculty has continued to be part of the faculty hiring trend at the college. Nearly half the faculty hired over the last five years started as part-time faculty.
“I was a student at Hancock and I’ve worked here for more than 10 years as a part-time instructor. So Hancock has been a big part of my life,” said Wendy Hadley, who was recently hired as a full-time biology professor.
“I’m so grateful and excited to be full-time. As you can tell, I love this place. Hancock’s motto is ‘Start here. Go anywhere.’ But for me, it’s been ‘Start here, go anywhere, come back here and then stay,’ ” she said.
The new full-time faculty roster at Hancock includes: Kathy Beckelhymer, noncredit basic skills; Bethany Conner, licensed vocational nursing; Katherine Garcia, noncredit vocational education; Wendy Hadley, biology; Richard Jacoby, photography; Ron Lovell, culinary arts; Megan McComas, registered nursing; Alejandro Omidsalar, English; Susan Roehl, emergency medical services; Brian Youngblood, physics.
— Gina Herlihy for Allan Hancock College.