SANTA ROSA -- Dr. Frank Chong will succeed Dr. Robert F. Agrella as superintendent and president of Santa Rosa Junior College, following the current president’s 21 years in the position.
“I am grateful for the trust that the board of trustees has placed in me and honored to become part of the vibrant, growing Sonoma County community,” said Dr. Chong.
Dr. Chong, currently the deputy assistant secretary for community colleges at the U.S. Department of Education, will begin in his new role on Jan. 11. He was formerly the president of Laney College in Oakland and Mission College in Santa Clara, as well as the campus dean and dean of student affairs at San Francisco City College.
The Santa Rosa Junior College Board of Trustees selected Dr. Chong from a field of 42 applicants. A Presidential Search Advisory Committee assisted the board in the effort, along with the community college-focused search consulting firm Professional Personnel Leasing, Inc.
Rick Call, board of trustees president, said in a statement: “The board is confident that Dr. Chong is the best fit to lead Santa Rosa Junior College considering the current and future challenges facing our college. Higher education is changing and we feel Dr. Chong possesses the skills needed to help guide us through the next phase of our long history of success.”
The incoming president has a bachelor of arts degree in social welfare from University of California, Berkeley, and a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard University. He completed the Educational Management program at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education and earned a doctorate in educational administration, leadership and technology from Dowling College in Oakdale, N.Y.
