Assistant Superintendent/Vice President of Instruction Dr. Lisa Aguilera Lawrenson assumed the role of acting superintendent/president after former Superintendent Omid Pourzanjani’s resignation was approved by the Board of Trustees on Sept. 28 during a special board meeting.
“On behalf of the Delta College Executive Cabinet, we would like to thank Dr. Pourzanjani for his leadership and service to the campus. We wish him well in his future endeavors,” said Lawrenson in a letter she sent out to the college community.
Lawrenson is meeting with campus leaders this week after assuming her new leadership duties to discuss campus initiatives, as stated in the letter she sent out following the board’s decision to put Pourzanjani on leave.
The letter also advised the community to watch for an invitation to an open forum in which the community can ask campus leaders about how Delta will continue moving forward after the change in leadership.
The forum was scheduled to take place on the morning of Oct. 8.
Before coming to Delta College in 2020, Lawrenson was a professor at South Puget Sound Community College and an executive administrator at American River College and Cosumnes River College.
Lawrenson admits she never thought she would become Delta’s superintendent/president, but is looking forward to taking on bigger responsibilities to help students.
“I’m truly honored to serve as acting superintendent/president. When I was a student at American River College I could never have imagined that I would someday be the acting president at Delta,” said Lawrenson. “But I am thrilled to be in this position. Helping students harness their strengths, skills and expertise and then guiding them through their educational journey is important work that really matters to me.”
Lawrenson has 28 years of experience as a community college professor, administrator and social justice educator/trainer in California and Washington.
For her first actions as acting superintendent/president, she is willing to hear from Delta’s students to help determine what decisions the college should make and what matters campus administration should focus on most.
“I would certainly welcome thoughts and suggestions from students about what the most important needs and challenges are,” said Lawrenson.
She also admits Delta’s response to issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic won’t be easy, especially now with a change in leadership.
“Change is always difficult, but it’s especially difficult now as we continue to work through the vaccine mandate and other issues,” said Lawrenson. “We will tackle these issues as we look forward to better days to come.”
Lawrenson will act as Delta’s superintendent/president for quite a while as the school isn’t currently sure about who could permanently take Pourzanjani’s place.
In the meantime, she is assuring that she will do everything to the best of her abilities to help Delta move forward with its goals.
“We will likely not know for some time who Delta’s new permanent superintendent/president will be,” said Lawrenson. “I’ll do everything I can during the time I have to advance the great mission of the college.”