ACE announced today that Brice W. Harris, chancellor of the California Community Colleges, will be presented with the ACE Lifetime Achievement Award at ACE2016, the Council’s 98th Annual Meeting, March 12-15 in San Francisco.
A nationally recognized higher education leader, Harris has spent his career working to improve student success and access in American community colleges. He will retire in April after more than three years leading the California system, which has 2.1 million students attending 113 colleges.
Harris will receive the award at ACE2016’s Opening Plenary, scheduled for 5-6 p.m. (PST) on Sunday, March 13. During the same session, he also will keynote the Robert H. Atwell Plenary, which each year focuses on a timely higher education topic and was named by the ACE Board of Directors for the former ACE president who served from 1984-96.
“It is a privilege to give Chancellor Harris the ACE Lifetime Achievement Award,” said ACE President Molly Corbett Broad. “His body of work expanding access to postsecondary education has made a profound impact on the lives of millions of students who have been able to gain the college degrees and credentials that are so vital to success in today’s global economy.”
Prior to leading the nation’s largest higher education system, Harris served 16 years as the chancellor of the Los Rios Community College District in the Sacramento region. Harris also has been president of Fresno City College (CA) and a faculty member and vice chancellor in the Kansas City, MO, community college system.
He is a current member of the ACE Board of Directors, past chair of the board of the California Community College Chief Executive Officers and past member of the board of the American Association of Community Colleges. Harris understands the important connection between community colleges and the economy and currently serves as a member of the board of the California Chamber of Commerce.
Harris studied at the Harvard University Institute of Educational Management, received his doctorate in education at Nova Southeastern University (FL), his master’s in communication from the University of Arkansas, and his bachelor’s in communication from Southwestern Oklahoma State University.
ACE2016 begins at 5 p.m. (PST) Saturday, March 12, with events that include an international welcome and networking reception, a reception for presidents and chancellors and the ACE Women’s Leadership Dinner. It is the country’s premier higher education event, offering an environment of open dialogue where hundreds of senior higher education leaders will network, hear from newsmakers and share ideas for tackling common issues in practical ways.
[SOURCE :-acenet]
