In 1972, Rowena Tomaneng’s parents moved their family from the Philippines to the Los Angeles area in hopes of finding better educational opportunities for their children.
Six years later, Thuy Thi Nguyen and her family were among “boat people” who left Vietnam, convinced that its Communist regime was far worse than the dangers at sea and the uncertainties ahead.
In the United States, Nguyen and Tomaneng grew up in racially diverse cities, found their professional calling at community colleges and have spent most of their adult lives advancing two-year institutions. Coincidentally, both women work in Northern California.
Each is a first-year college president. A lawyer by training, Nguyen presides over Foothill College. Tomaneng is president of Berkeley City College.
They are among a sliver of chief executives in higher education — encompassing not only community colleges but also four-year universities — who are Asian American or Pacific Islander (AAPI). It is worth noting, though, that both women are under age 50 and could conceivably steer institutions of higher learning for many years.
“We have a new generation of AAPIs who are serious about leadership,” says Tomaneng, a longtime English literature and composition instructor and self-described activist scholar, whose doctorate in international/multicultural education is nearing completion.
Paths into Their Presidencies
