Hartnell College trustees choose a permanent superintendent/president from Sacramento.

The Hartnell Community College District Board of Trustees voted yesterday, Tuesday, March 15, to select a new permanent superintendent/president with experience working at Hispanic Serving Institutions, Michael Gutierrez, president of Sacramento City College. The vote was 7-0.

That Gutierrez has worked at four federally designated Hispanic-Serving Institutions and is himself Latino were probably key drivers in his selection to lead Hartnell, which has the same designation and a student population that is over 60 percent Latino. In 2019 the board hired Patricia Hsieh over protests from some who argued the search did not include enough Latino candidates. Hsieh was out less than a year later.

Gutierrez was one of two Latino candidates, in a field of three finalists chosen after a nationwide search and vetted by a 17-member Hartnell selection committee made up of faculty, administrators, students and community members.

He was the only finalist without a "PhD" by his name, although he is currently completing a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of the Cumberlands, according to his biography provided by Hartnell.

Gutierrez grew up in south San Antonio, Texas where he attended an impoverished high school and was a first-generation college student, according to his biography. He attended Princeton College where he received bachelor's degrees in history and Latin American studies. He earned a master's in public affairs  from the University of Texas, Austin.

He will replace interim superintendent/president Steven Crow, formerly vice president of administrative services, who has served since in that role since Jan. 17, after the previous interim, Raúl Rodríguez, left to take a job as chancellor of the Evergreen Community College District in San Jose. The tentative start date is July 1.

“I’m excited about the opportunity to join Hartnell College and become part of the Salinas Valley community,” Gutierrez said in a press release. “I really can’t wait to get started and make connections with the students, employees and people throughout the Hartnell district.”

Currently president of Sacramento City College since 2017, he previously served as executive vice president of Eastfield College in Mesquite, Texas, from 2009 to 2017, according to a press release.

He serves on the board of the National Community College Hispanic Council and is a board member for the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), including as co-chair for the AACC Commission on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

Gutierrez has also served as chair for the Advisory Board for Ensuring Equity in Policy Implementation in California’s Community College at the USC Race and Ethnicity Center. 

In 2019 Gutierrez survived a near-fatal car accident, which—he said in his on-campus presentation at Hartnell last week—taught him about "the power of leading through listening." The lesson through the outpouring of support he and his family received from the community in the wake of the accident.

“The community and college response, the random acts of kindness, it was humbling for me,” Gutierrez said, “and it really started to change how I listened by being in the moment. I thought I was a good listener already, but clearly I could have gotten better, and I have gotten better.”

He promised those who attended the presentation in person and online that he "will lead by listening—by being present—and understand that by doing everything together, knowing that we need to this collectively, we are more powerful together, we will connect with our community and succeed in what we want to do.”