SALINAS VALLEY — Aspen Institute College Excellence Program (Aspen) has announced that Jackie Cruz, VP of Advancement at Hartnell College and executive director for the Hartnell College Foundation, and Gayle Pitman, Hartnell’s VP of Research, Effectiveness and Success, as two of 40 leaders in the nation selected for the 2025-26 Aspen Rising Presidents Fellowship.
“I am incredibly honored and grateful to be selected as an Aspen Rising Presidents Fellow, joining 39 remarkable leaders from community colleges across the country,” Cruz said. “This prestigious program is not just an opportunity for leadership growth—it’s a collective commitment to driving reforms that improve student completion, degree attainment and postsecondary success for the communities we serve.”
Rigorously selected from among over 120 applicants, fellows will learn from—and apply to their own contexts—lessons from over a dozen years of Aspen research about how to lead an institution to higher and more equitable levels of student success.
“I’m proud and honored to represent Hartnell College with Dr. Jackie Cruz in the Aspen Rising Presidents Fellowship,” Pitman said. “This fellowship offers a unique space to reflect on what it means to lead a college through innovation and change, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to grow alongside a national network of leaders and changemakers.”
Many sitting community college presidents plan to retire in the next decade, creating an opportunity for college trustees and system heads to select leaders who have the skills and knowledge to achieve better outcomes for students. Aspen Presidential Fellows represent the next generation of diverse college leaders, including by institution and geography, representing 19 states and ranging from small rural to large urban colleges.
The fellows will work closely with highly accomplished community college presidents and thought leaders over 10 months to learn from field-leading research, examine demographic and labor market conditions in their communities, assess student outcomes at their colleges and advance a clear vision for excellent outcomes for all their students while in college and after they graduate.
“Our research on excellent colleges reveals that they have a few big things in common: They have presidents who focus on a few large-scale reforms that transcend enrollment and completion goals and centrally focus on whether graduates are set up to succeed in the next stage of their lives—either the world of work or at a university where they aim to earn a bachelor’s degree,” said Josh Wyner, executive director of the College Excellence Program. “This cohort of fellows is clearly committed to advancing student success and has the talent to lead transformational reforms. We are really looking forward to our year with them in the fellowship and bringing their talents into our alumni network.”
Rising Presidents Fellows are chosen based on their commitment to student success, the extent to which they exhibit the characteristics of excellent presidents revealed in the research, and interest in pursuing a college presidency within five years of completing the fellowship. As Aspen Presidential Fellows, they join a network of over 430 forward-thinking peers—197 of whom are sitting college presidents—who are applying concrete, grounded, and innovative strategies to meet student success challenges at their colleges.
“Thank you to the Aspen Institute College Excellence Program for this opportunity to learn, grow and collaborate with mission-driven leaders who share a passion for transforming lives through education,” Cruz said.
The Aspen Rising Presidents Fellowship is made possible by the generous support of the Burton Family Foundation, Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies, College Futures Foundation and the Mellon Foundation.
“I look forward to strengthening the leadership skills needed to create meaningful, lasting impact, and to advance social and economic mobility for our students and community,” added Pitman.
For more information, visit aspeninstitute.org.
