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April 22, 2022 Update

Friday, April 22, 2022

Dear Colleagues, 

This past Friday we hosted an employee recognition at the Planetarium to honor Coast retirees as well as our nominees and winners of Coast Colleagues of the Year. As I noted during the ceremony, I believe that the heart of Orange Coast College is its employees - the classified professionals, faculty and managers who exemplify OCC's mission and support students with compassion and care. This has been especially evident over the past two challenging years of the pandemic, as employees at OCC have found new and innovative ways to support students both in person and virtually.

This spring OCC will bid farewell to several retirees, including Jaki Kamphuis, who is the Faculty/Tutorial Services Coordinator at the Student Success Center and Lynne Cottrell, who is the program director and an instructor in the School of Allied Health. You can view a full list of retirees. We want to wish all of our retirees the very best in their new adventures and thank them for their years of service to our students and college.

I also want to take a moment to recognize our winners and nominees for Coast Colleagues of the Year. This year's winners are:

  • Classified Professional of the Year - Tim Winer, Public Safety Technical Officer, Campus Safety
  • FT Faculty Member of the Year - Dr. Rebecca Sims, DSPS Counselor/LD Specialist, Counseling Division
  • Manager of the Year - Rozanne Capoccia-White, Dean of Enrollment Services, Student Services Wing

See full list of nominees.

Since 1990 OCC has honored and recognized employees, via the Coast Colleagues of the Year award, who "demonstrate the highest level of dedication, commitment to student success, excellence in instruction and the College's mission." Awardees are nominated by their colleagues and students for this prestigious designation, and in recent years winners have been chosen by the College's employee representative groups. This peer-to-peer recognition is one of our most revered traditions, and contributes to a sense of community and connectivity on campus.

Please join me in congratulating all of the Coast Colleagues of the Year nominees and winners.

Sincerely,
Angelica L. Suarez, Ph.D.
President