PRESIDENT DERR RECOUNTS CAREER IN ACADEMIA

Mt. Hood Community College’s first female president is retiring after five years.

Ever since a young age, Debbie Derr has fought gender biases and exceeded expectations for her success.

She was born into a family that for two generations passed down the family business (one that builds hydroelectric power plants in Canada) to the first-born, a son – so, when Derr was born those plans were turned on their heads.

Being determined by nature, Derr exceeded such expectations, and she graduated as a first-generation college student with a bachelor’s degree in business from Linfield College at just 21 years old. She didn’t stop there. She would earn a master’s degree in counseling from Portland State University, and later, a doctorate degree in education from Oregon State University.

Through the years, Derr would try her hand as a businesswoman, teacher, counselor, advisor, college vice president, and finally she worked her way up to college president.

When she became its president in 2013, MHCC had already been a “home away from home” for Derr, she noted.

She had worked as a vice president, Transition and TRIO counselor, and advisor at Mt. Hood for 15 years before leaving in 2002 for other colleges.

Derr said during her first stint at Mt. Hood, her children used to swim at the aquatic center, go to the school-provided preschool, and every employee in her office recognized them. They would always drop by her office to say Hi and talk, and she said it was a place where she saw her kids grow up.

Derr left to become vice president at Madison Area Technical College in Wisconsin, then, six years later, entered one of her most controversial jobs: president of North Iowa Area Community College, based in rural Mason City.

As that school’s first female president, she met a lot of resistance, she said. Even after she was chosen, staff members came to her with their grievances about a woman leader, she recounted. Despite the early pushback, she spent the next five years leading the community college.

Derr said Mt. Hood was much more welcoming to its first female president, and that there was never a time when she felt disrespected or disapproval for being a woman. During the hiring process when she spoke at the introductory public forum, she was able to be more at ease with familiar faces in the crowd. Because of so many memories with staff and her children at MHCC, taking the position and moving back to Oregon was like “coming home,” she said.

One of Derr’s most admirable qualities is that she is so personable and always puts family first, said Craig Kolins, a longtime friend and colleague and current Mt. Hood chief of staff/executive dean of arts and sciences.

Kolins also previously worked at MHCC, when Derr was filling her many roles, and she was the main motivating factor for his return: When she took the president job, she asked if he would return to work as her VP.

One of her most valued traits is also the reason Derr is retiring, on June 29: family first.

Due to an illness in her family, she decided to retire and turn her full attention to support, she said. Her successor, Lisa Skari – Mt. Hood’s 11th president and its second female leader – will take over the job on July 23.

“The decision to leave the college has not been an easy decision for me,” said Derr. “But it is a decision that supports how important my family is to me.”