Chesapeake Campus Provost Lisa Rhine selected for Aspen Presidential Fellowship

Lisa B. Rhine, provost of Tidewater Community College’s Chesapeake Campus, has been awarded the prestigious Aspen Presidential Fellowship for Community College Excellence. The Aspen Institute, an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C., today announced that Rhine joins the inaugural class of the Aspen Presidential Fellows, a diverse group of 40 extraordinary leaders with the drive and capacity to transform community colleges to achieve higher levels of student success.

Over the next decade, the majority of current community college presidents are expected to retire. At the same time, increasing numbers of students are flocking to community colleges to earn degrees that lead to good jobs, but too few actually graduate. The Aspen Presidential Fellowship for Community College Excellence aims to equip college leaders with the tools they need to dramatically improve student outcomes.

The Fellowship is a highly selective year-long program to prepare leaders aspiring, or recently appointed, to the community college presidency. Fellows will participate in a series of innovative seminars and ongoing mentorship focused on a new vision for leadership, delivered in collaboration with Stanford University faculty and top community college leaders.

“We are thrilled with Dr. Rhine’s selection as an Aspen Presidential Fellow,” said TCC President Edna Baehre-Kolovani. “I’m confident that Lisa will bring back information that we can quickly employ for our own student success programs.”

Rhine was selected through a rigorous process that considered her abilities to take strategic risks, lead strong teams and cultivate partnerships, and focus on results-oriented improvements in student success and access.

Rhine joined TCC in August 2013. She brings more than 27 years of experience in student services and academic affairs at the community college and university level.

Since coming to TCC, Rhine has worked to build strong partnerships with Chesapeake Public Schools representatives, creating three new dual enrollment pathways for high school students to complete college courses and credentials concurrent with high school graduation.

Rhine also established an industry-education partnership with representatives from the City of Chesapeake Department of Economic Development and the Chesapeake Public Schools to support the educational and employment needs of manufacturing industries. This resulted in a city-wide manufacturing summit, the mechatronics dual enrollment pathway, the mentor match of students with industry mentors and the annual manufacturing month celebrations each October.

Through donations of equipment and internal mechanisms for support, Rhine and her staff created a precision machining laboratory on Chesapeake Campus to support growing programmatic needs in manufacturing.

Rhine also realigned the academic structure and allocated resources to add a Science, Technology, Engineering and Math division to the campus.

She chaired the steering committee for the Quality Enhancement Plan required by Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) resulting in a five year plan to improve student career readiness.

Prior to joining TCC, Rhine served as interim vice president for student affairs at Northern Kentucky University. She also held various positions in student services functions for 11 years at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio.

She also held positions in academic affairs at the University of Dayton and at Wittenberg University before returning to student services at Northern Kentucky in 2008. She holds a doctorate in educational administration from Capella University and a master’s in special education from the University of Dayton. She earned her bachelor’s in rehabilitation counseling from Wright State University and has a certificate in deaf studies from Sinclair Community College.

The 2016-2017 Aspen Presidential Fellows hail from 17 states and 30 community colleges of varying sizes and will begin their program in July 2016 at Stanford University with anticipated completion in spring 2017.

The Aspen Presidential Fellowship for Community College Excellence is funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, ECMC Foundation, Greater Texas Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, and the Kresge Foundation.