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May 21, 2026: Institutional Advancement

Home/Division: Institutional Advancement, Meeting 05-21-26/May 21, 2026: Institutional Advancement
2026-05-15T16:18:57+00:00 Print Page

May 21, 2026: Institutional Advancement

Area Report for Board of Trustees

VPIA wants to thank IA Division for representing the division and doing great work, especially while VP was in China with Highline Colleagues. Work toward supporting the core themes is documented below, including grant work on TRIO Talent Search and DOL Short Term Pell, website and social media posts supporting programs like HOST and math department, participating in community activities such as the Education and Workforce Summit and welcoming a new team member. 

Core Theme 1: ACCESS, Reduce Barriers and close equity gaps to access for all community members

  • Comms-Marketing and Foundation provided resource material and fiscal support for Highline Expo on 4/16, led by Outreach and Recruitment and attended by several hundred high school students from our local feeder districts. 
  • Web team recently launched the HOST website and are pleased to be preparing several more for launch this month. Currently, six additional departments are in the review phase prior to deployment. While our original goal for the year was to migrate 8–10 academic departments, we are especially encouraged to exceed this target, particularly with departments that previously did not have a web presence.
  • Foundation Scholarship applications for 2026-2027 academic year opened in early April through May 10. Scholarship reviewers include staff, faculty, foundation board members and volunteers. 
  • TRIO Talent Search grant was submitted, in collaboration with Dean Ay Saechao, TRIO Director Tony Au, Skyler Roth with IR and Dave O’Keeffe, Grants Manager and a large network of Highline College, Highline Public Schools, Tukwila School District and community partners. 

Core Theme 2: STUDENT LEARNING, Increase educational success, collaborate to improve

  • The Comms and Marketing team has also worked with Entry Advising, Math and English Departments to build a new Placement web presence that is helping students get started and placed in courses. The new Corequisite Math video has been added to the Math Department page to help promote the Math Plus Support courses.
  • Grants team is working with Academic Affairs / Workforce as part of a consortium of 23 colleges across the state for Dept of Labor (DOL) Workforce Pell Short Term Training Program. Highline’s focus is on IT. Consoritum participants are focusing on IT, Advanced Manufacturing and Shipbuilding. 

Core Theme 3: COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS, Create a more inclusive working environment and a more valued, visible relationship with communities we serve

  • Hosted campus visits from Senator Murray staff member at the excellent student focused Policy Camp on 4/21.
  • Several team members attended and supported the Seattle Southside Education and Workforce Summit on 4/30. VPIA moderated Education Panel and had a chance to be among a group of keynote speakers including Trustee Jesse Johnson. 
  • VPIA emceed the Federal Way Chamber of Commerce Business Lunch on 5/6 and connected with speakers from Valley Cities Counseling and organizers of Federal Way’s World Cup Kickin’It program.  
  • Work continues on plans to stand-up the new Center of Global Business Education in the wake of the funding cut to the statewide network of Centers of Excellence. Held meetings with the Port of Seattle and regional Chambers of Commerce to discuss ways to collaborate with these orgs for funding and program development. 

Core Theme 4: CULTURE & CAPACITY: Become an anti-racist college through intentional development of employees, facilities, and systems that support student success and close equity gaps

  • IA Members participated in HSI Symposium on 4/24 and in Highline’s Annual EDI Day on 5/1 to learn and incorporate elements of Moving Toward Servingness in our work.

Division Honors and Achievements

  • IA welcomes Martha White as new Program Specialist 3, with focuses on managing the Foundation’s donor data base and providing support for Foundation programming. Martha has strong experience in this work from UW and Sophia’s Way, an agency providing shelter and support for women. 
  • VPIA wants to thank all of IA for providing coverage and support while VP was in China on a trip with three faculty and Associate Director of Recruiting for ISP. The trip includes stops in Beijing. Yangzhou and Shanghai. We visited with three universities, our educational partners and presented to a group of education agencies. Trip was highlighted by the formal signing ceremony with Yangzhou Polytechnic University for working together on programming, faculty exchanges and student opportunities. 
  • Reminder you can always find great content on these social media channels: 

    Report submitted by Vice President of Institutional Advancement, Joshua Gerstman