Brown Table Talk with President Olivo

In this episode we transform the ¿Qué pasa, HSIs? microphone into a brown table talk with one of our favorite HSI leaders Dra. Cynthia Olivo, who is the 10th president of Fullerton College. Dra. Olivo’s career spans nearly three decades, serving in many roles including Assistant Superintendent and Vice President of Student Services at Pasadena City College and Associate Director of Admissions and Student Recruitment at California State University, San Bernardino. In this plática we learn about how she has served as a champion for equity and academic excellence for students, how she has worked towards organizational change, poco a poco, with minor tweaks, and how culture, ceremony, and celebration are core tenets of her leadership. She also shares best practices for coalition building across racial-ethnic groups as informed by an organization she co-founded, The Coalition. Throughout our plática Dra. Olivo shares her personal history as the granddaughter of migrant farmworkers, the daughter of a single mother, a first-generation college student, and a third-generation Chicana who went from EOP student to college president.

Guest: Cynthia Olivo (She, Her, Ella), Presidenta, Fullerton College

Social Media: @drcynthiaolivo

APA Citation: 

Garcia, G.A. (Host). (2024, April 7). Brown Table Talk with President Olivo. (No.406) [Audio podcast episode]. In ¿Qué pasa, HSIs?. https://www.ginaanngarcia.com/podcast/306

Attachments / Show notes: 

• https://www.fullcoll.edu/president/
• https://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2019/09/25/higher-educations-racial-inequities-000978/
• https://edsource.org/2021/to-close-racial-equity-gaps-make-it-simpler-for-community-college-students-to-transfer/657575
• https://www.thecoalitioncc.org/