Chancellor, Contra Costa Community College District
Dr. Helen Benjamin has made a real impact in her eight years as chancellor of the Contra Costa Community College district. She has held progressively higherlevel positions, including district vice chancellor of educational programs and services, interim president of Los Medanos College and president of Contra Costa College, since joining the district in 1990 as dean of language arts and humanistic studies and related occupations at Los Medanos College. She serves in a variety of professional and community organizations around the district. Her national posts include convener of the Presidents’ Round Table, an affi liate organization of the National Council on Black American Aff airs, and co-chair of the Congressional Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance. In addition, she serves on the board of Excelsior College located in Albany, N.Y. Benjamin has a bachelor’s degree in English and Spanish from Bishop College in Texas, where she graduated magna cum laude, and she earned her master’s and doctoral degrees from Texas Woman’s University in Denton, Texas.
President, Excelencia in Education
Sarita E. Brown serves as president of the nonprofit Excelencia in Education, established with the goal of accelerating Latino success in higher education. Brown has spent more than two decades at prominent national educational institutions and at the highest levels of government, working to implement effective strategies to raise academic achievement and opportunity for low-income and minority students. She started her career at the University of Texas at Austin by building a national model promoting minority success in graduate education. In 1993, Brown was appointed as executive director of the White House Initiative for Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans under President Bill Clinton and U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley. She later applied her talents and experience to the not-for-profit sector, and in 2004, she cofounded Excelencia in Education. In 2009, she was honored with the Harold G. McGraw Jr. Prize in Education for her “innovative thinking, strong leadership and accomplishment by example.” She holds a Bachelor of Arts in ethnic studies and a Bachelor of Science and Master of Arts in communication from the University of Texas at Austin.
