Diane Noriega

Diane Noriega has been MHCC District board chair for the past two years, and is running for re-election to the board. She has been involved with education from a faculty level and has worked as an administrator, and was elected to the Mt. Hood board in 2011.

Noriega said she feels right at home on the board, and that she believes in the mission of community colleges.

“I think (it) is such an important part of the overall health of the community, and it’s such (an) opportunity for our students coming out of high school, coming back to school for retraining, polishing up their skills,” she said.

Noriega said she has a passion for the college, and said that one of her major accomplishments so far is hiring President Debbie Derr, who had “five years experience as a president coming in” to the job.

Another accomplishment is getting all “(labor) contract negotiations resolved last year with no negative press in the media,” she said. The exchanges were civil and fair, she said.

Noriega helped with bringing the cost of running the Aquatics Center to a manageable level, bringing the school’s annual investment from about $750,000 to about $275,000 in four years.

“As of this spring, we’ve made it (the Aquatics Center) an auxiliary to the college. It will have its own budget, and it will be expected to have a business plan and operate within its means,” she said.

Noriega, too, is concerned with the physical condition of MHCC. “It’s an old campus and there’s a lot of things that need to be improved, so I think that we’re going to put a lot of energy into trying to get a (general obligation) bond passed,” she said. If the measure is approved, improvements would be made to all three Mt. Hood campuses, she said.

“We need to get the college to a place where we’re in the 21st century technologically; looking at all of our distance learning options and ensuring that our students have access by every means to student services, curriculum, and programs. I think that takes a while because that takes a financial investment, and it also means changes to the actual infrastructure,” Noriega said.

“It’s been so gratifying to be able to represent the campus and see what a good school we are and how we measure up across the country. That’s been just an incredible rewarding experience.”