President's Office
June 25, 2025
Celebrating Our Collective Progress on Cultures of Growth–A Reflection
As we gloriously conclude one academic year, we simultaneously prepare for another. Opening & FLEX Day 2025 will take place Thursday, September 18 and Friday September 19th. Join the party at 8:30 a.m. for registration and breakfast. Programming begins at 9:30 a.m. and concludes at 3:30 p.m.
The selected theme is “Empowering One Another Through a Culture of Care” and the featured keynote speaker will be Dr. Durryle Brooks. Dr. Brooks is a noted scholar on the Critical Theory of Love and his work has been showcased several times at NCORE. He is the author of (Re)conceptualizing Love: Moving Towards a Critical Theory of Love in Education for Social Justice. He is joining us on the big stage but also conducting a smaller workshop. Each day features myriad ways to grow professionally, connect with colleagues, and get excited for the coming year.
But before we place our sights on the next horizon, I’d like to reflect on the transformative progress made during THIS year. I want to extend my heartfelt congratulations and gratitude to every member of our community that is engaged in cultures of growth. We have made remarkable strides in creating authentic systems that support meaningful reflection.
To close out the last 12345 of AY 2024-2025, I’d like to celebrate five key themes that capture the essence of our work together. Here’s the 1-2-3-4-5.
1. Collaborative Professional Learning: Building Connections and Sharing Expertise
This year, 351 faculty engaged in professional learning around Regular and Substantive Interaction (RSI), with 281 participating in 48 culture pods. These pods became vibrant spaces for colleagues to connect, share pedagogical strategies, and openly discuss both triumphs and challenges. The Faculty Supporting Faculty and Online Learning team delivered over 100 workshops, reaching more than 1,000 participants. These efforts have not only deepened our collective expertise and support excellence in teaching, but have also strengthened our sense of community and belonging.
The Culturally Responsive Pedagogical Practice grant continued to support rich and relevant instruction fostering inclusion and belonging. This year 12 people completed the cohorted courses. To put the reverberation of these 12 colleagues into perspective, our professional development coordinator added, “At a conservative estimate of 30 students ‘touched’ per section x 2 sections per quarter x 3 quarters per year, that's at least 2,160 students per year who benefit from deepened instructor skill with CRP! (at the low end!).
Classified Professionals worked with college leadership to create an onboarding system for new professionals. These monthly sessions build community amongst classified professionals while onboarding new staff to Foothill’s culture, services, and people. And the Office of Equity and the Classified Senate built needs-focused professional learning.
As the Strategic Vision for Equity sunsets, the reflections contained at the 13-55 closing celebration show that the college is growing and learning. Conversations about equity have been normalized in meeting spaces such as MIPC, academic senate, classified senate and beyond. Survey results demonstrate individuals report increased confidence and new abilities to support strategic equity work.
2. Embracing Reflection and Assessment of Learning
Our revitalized Student Learning Outcomes (SLO) process centers on individual reflection and collegial dialogue, aligning with our commitment to a growth mindset. By encouraging educators to reflect on their practice and connect with peers, we are nurturing an environment where continuous improvement is the norm. Special thanks to the English, Dental Hygiene, and Graphics and Interactive Design departments for piloting this process and providing invaluable feedback.
We stayed curious and bold, even when a national anti-DEI agenda took root. During times when we convened together, we doubled down on critical questions. A clear example found at the annual Student Services Conference: Remember. Resist. Rise, where a day was spent exploring a decolonized approach to student services—across counseling, wellness, and beyond. The day included workshops, creative reflection, and ancestral practice, to envision new ways of serving our students with heart, justice, and joy.
3. Inclusive and Transparent Institutional Development
Foothill 2030 Strategic Planning has been an inclusive process that supported the co-authoring of The Blueprint for Success. The College used the State’s Institutional Effectiveness Partnership Initiative to jump start our strategic planning. With the facilitation of the Collaborative Brain Trust, faculty, staff, administrators, students, and community members participated in over thirty listening sessions. The input from these sessions were coupled with a deep dive into our quantitative data, to shape the goals and objectives outlined in the plan. The draft plan will be refined in the coming months to be presented for Board approval in the fall. Then the fun of moving from plan to action starts!
A concerted focus on revising Institutional Learning Outcomes (ILOs) informed by a new mission, vision and values provided an exemplar for how inclusive and transparent culture-building is done. The Academic Senate’s leadership team, coupled with open feedback opportunities for all, ensured that our whole-college learning objectives are shaped by the collective wisdom of our community. And people could see their work and purpose in the outcomes.
The Mission Informed Planning Council continues to improve its service to the college, and most importantly students. As you can see in this year-end summary.
4. Innovation and Support for Student Success
From leveraging new tools like Simple Syllabus, Harmonize, Hypothesis, Voicethread, and PlayPosit, to streamlining the SLO update process for over 500 courses, we have demonstrated our commitment to innovation in support of student learning. Our willingness to pilot new ideas, embrace technology, and provide robust support systems reflects our shared belief that we can leverage technology and better systems to lift our work and amplify our voice.
Foothill’s culture of innovation meant we grew and learned together as we embraced the AI challenge. The Emerging Technologies Institute hosted an AI learning community that met regularly throughout the year, learning about AI alongside robust conversations on ethical implications and equity considerations. We also had a group of faculty participating in the Coalition of the Willing — an AI Community of Practice exploring the possibilities, challenges, and realities of using AI in higher education. Numerous new courses have been created to help better prepare our students for how AI is changing their fields. We have entered into a partnership with Creating Coding Careers in developing apprenticeship, pre-apprenticeship, and workforce pathways around AI and other emerging technologies. Faculty, staff, and administrators collaborated on submission of an NSF grant: SAIL: Student AI Learning Through Practice and Projects. The results of that are still pending.
5. Community-Building and Engagement
This academic year, we built rituals of belonging for our employees. From building formal onboarding programs for our classified staff to building an informal employee culture of connection by calendaring employee walks, lunches, and friendly competitions into the fabric of our work weeks. We also didn’t allow the headlines to rob us of our joy. Instead, affinity groups like OLA leaned into the community to build awareness and support for undocumented employees through Noche de Comunidad, to name one example.
Thank you for your curiosity, and your demonstrated commitment to deep reflection. It’s a lived commitment to the values of community and collaboration. Let’s continue to build on this momentum as we move forward with a new core identity, one we authored together.
Yours in Service,
Kristina
Dr. Kristina Whalen
President