Update: Long Beach City College president Reagan Romali has become one of four candidates to possibly take over as president of Miami Dade College.
On June 19 and 20, the candidates were interviewed via video conference, Miami Dade College’s Presidential Search Committee voted to send four candidates to the Board of Trustees, the final stage of the four-month process.
Romali will meet with the board on July 22 and 23 for in-person interviews, the new president is set to be announced on July 24.
The other three candidates up for the presidency: Paul Broadie of Gateway Community College and Housatonic Community College in Connecticut, Divina Grossman of the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences, and Lenore Rodicio, MDC’s executive vice president and provost.
Previously: Long Beach City College president Reagan Romali is one of seven candidates to potentially become the president of Miami Dade College, the second-largest college in the United States.
Miami Dade College currently has eight campuses in the Miami area and an enrollment of more than 165,000 students.
Romali’s new candidacy at Miami Dade College comes two years after she became the superintendent-president at LBCC.
Last August, the LBCC board of trustees approved a new four year contract and a 10 percent raise for Romali.
“This is a tremendous opportunity for Reagan, all the amazing work she’s done at LBCC, she could do Miami Dade,” president of the Long Beach Community College District Board of Trustees Sunny Zia said.
“Unfortunately, this amazing consideration for Regan does create some worry in me. Her amazing talent will no longer be present.”
Romali did not immediately return phone calls or messages on Saturday regarding her candidacy.
Outgoing president of Miami Dade College Eduardo Padron has been the college’s president since 1995 and announced his retirement in Feb.
The 17 presidential selection committee members at MDC gave their picks and then voted to eliminate the three candidates with the fewest votes.
Romali had the most with 16 votes, Carlos Turner Cortez of San Diego Community College District received 12 votes and Beverly Moore-Garcia, the former president of MDC’s Kendall and West campuses, got 11 votes.
Four other candidates were unanimously picked for interviews, Paul Broadie of Gateway Community College and Housatonic Community College in Connecticut, Divina Grossman of the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences, Frank Lamas of California State University, Fresno, and Lenore Rodicio, MDC’s executive vice president and provost and sole internal candidate in that group.
Candidates Carlos Padin Bibiloni of Universidad Metropolitana had seven votes, Fernando Miralles-Wilhelm of The Nature Conservancy received five votes and Bryan Reece of Norco College got two votes, were eliminated.
This announcement comes two days after LBCC Trustee Doug Otto announced his potential move to the Long Beach Unified School Board.