At its meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2016, the Board of Trustees for the Peralta Community College District appointed Timothy Karas to serve as president of College of Alameda. Karas has been serving as Vice President of Instruction at the College since 2014. His tenure as President begins January 3, 2017.
After several months of searching for a new president at CoA, Peralta Colleges Chancellor Jowel C. Laguerre, Ph.D., concluded the final step in the process by conducting a campus visit to the College of Alameda last week to confirm the choice of Tim Karas, as he is known on campus, as CoA’s next leader.
“I look forward to welcoming Tim as a colleague in his exciting new role,” said Chancellor Laguerre. “I have great confidence that he will lead CoA to its greatest potential.”
“The CoA community is to be commended for having supported and shepherded its Vice President to the top leadership role at the College,” the Chancellor added.
Karas joined the College of Alameda in July 2014 as Vice President of Instruction. Prior to COA, Karas was Dean of Liberal Studies and Language Arts (2009-2014) and Director of Library Services (2005-2009) at Mission College in San Jose. Previously, he was a tenured faculty member at the College of San Mateo and participated on multiple committees, including the Academic Senate, Curriculum Committee, Technology Advisory Committee and College Council.
“I am honored to lead this outstanding institution and am thankful for the support of the College of Alameda family,” said Karas of his new position. “At CoA, students are motivated to explore, create, learn and lead with help from faculty and staff. I believe everyone can flourish with high-quality, affordable education.”
“I am confident that with the ongoing support of our city and community partners, the College of Alameda will uphold its dedication to serve successfully the educational needs of our community,” he added.
Prior to working in academia, Karas worked as a librarian for the City of Palo Alto and Redwood City.
During the past ten years, he has served on a half-dozen accreditation site visit teams. Karas served as Executive Board President of the Council of Chief Librarians: California Community Colleges, and was an Executive Board Member (2008-2014).
Karas has served on many civic committees and commissions, including the City of San Jose Library Commission, Bond and Parcel Tax Citizen Oversight Committees and Santa Clara County Sister County Commission, and has co-authored a chapter in the book Campus Partnership in Small Academic Libraries: Challenges and Rewards.
His educational background includes a Masters in Library and Information Science from San Jose State University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Geography from Humboldt Sate University. Tim is currently completing his doctoral studies at Fielding Graduate University.
Filed under: Announcements, College of Alameda, Peralta News. Tagged: Chancellor Jowel C. Laguerre, Dr. Jowel C. Laguerre, Jowel C. Laguerre, Timothy Karas
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