Former Mt. Hood employee returns as Chief of Staff

Starting March 30, Mt. Hood will have a new chief of staff, serving as the right-hand assistant to President Debbie Derr.

Described in the job posting as the “president’s principal liaison,” the position is a new one to MHCC. Craig Kolins has been hired to function as a bridge between the administration, the students and the faculty.

He will replace Bill Becker, a former longtime MHCC administrator hired on a pinch-hit basis. The position is one part of an administrative reorganization engineered by Derr.

The announcement came soon after campus appearances at Mt. Hood by two finalists for the job: Kolins and Peter Williams, dean of science, technology, engineering and mathematics at Clark College, in Vancouver.

While the job may be a new one, Kolins isn’t new to Mt Hood: He worked here about 15 years ago, when Derr also worked at MHCC.

He comes to Gresham from Portland Community College, where he’s currently serving as the dean of instruction at PCC’s Southeast Campus.

Kolins said he is a first-generation graduate himself, and has spent “18 years working in community colleges… I’ve realized it’s where I want to be, working with students to give them opportunities beyond a high school diploma or a GED,” he said.

“I really believe that community colleges play a vital role in economic development” and “help people pursue their own dreams in terms of getting a livable wage job.”

He rejoins Mt Hood with a wealth of administrative experience in his 15-year run away from Gresham. “Since I left Mt Hood, my background has involved serving as the chief of student services and chief instructional officer at the campus level,” as well as “leading (three) of the (four) campuses at PCC as an interim campus president,” he noted. He also has had some experience in PCC’s “successful bond initiatives and bond development projects.”

That’s meaningful, with MHCC looking at passing a bond in the near-future.

Kolins said his budgetary goals are straightforward: Developing a budget “that will allow us to live within our state allocated budgets, and live within what we’re charging students for tuition,” he said.

The position is meant for an individual to take a hands-on role in day-to-day operations at Mt. Hood, while also leading evaluation and innovation of programs and practices.

All the while, visibility and availability are also priorities for the new chief of staff, he said.

“Dr. Derr has a lot of responsibility externally, to the college, to the community at the state level, and to the board, and I want to fill the role of show[ing] up at…student events and represent the president’s office when the president can’t be there,” said Kolins.

A practitioner of meditation, Kolins will hopefully bring a level of calm and stability to the campus for Spring Term and beyond.