On Oct. 25, Dr. David Wain Coon assumed the role of San Jose City College’s acting president.

It is a role he will serve in until June. His predecessor, Rowena Tomaneng, was recently promoted to deputy chancellor for the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office.

“I’m here to support what Dr. Tomaneng started, and to support the leadership and the faculty in doing that,” he told the Times in a November interview.

Coon has served in a myriad of administrative positions at schools throughout the West Coast, as part of a career in education spanning over three decades. He most recently served as Evergreen Valley College’s president from 2005 to 2010 and as College of Marin’s president from then onward, before retiring last December to great fanfare.

“He’s just a great leader – smart, steady, respected by everyone he works with, and always focused on delivering results,” said Rep. Jared Huffman in a 2023 Marin Independent Journal article about Coon.

A native of the Pacific Northwest, Coon did his undergraduate studies in Washington, completing his Bachelor of Communications at Central Washington University, and his Master’s Degree in Education at Western Washington University before ultimately attaining a Doctorate of Education from Seattle University

Coon told the Times said he initially pursued a career in federal law enforcement, but that it “wasn’t a good match.” Education was the next choice, Coon expressed, because he had a “positive experience” in various jobs he held working for his college as an undergraduate.

Now a resident of the Bay Area, Coon told the Times that he moved to California in 2005 to serve as EVC’s president because he felt that it “was time for a change professionally.” Coon, who led EVC through the peak of the Great Recession, said that his proudest achievement during his tenure was bringing the college’s community closer together during a difficult period.

“It was pretty disenfranchised when I got there”, he said. “There was some tension between groups of people.”

He also stated that he, at the time, did not want to leave his position at EVC, but that also his next position at COM turned out to be “a gift.”

Over the next 13 years, Coon would oversee a revitalization of the school’s deteriorating infrastructure and divided campus culture, garnering praise both internally at the college and externally from local officials.

“David Wain Coon is the epitome of a collaborative leader who skillfully cuts through red tape and finds innovative solutions that improve the campus climate,” states a 2021 commendation from Marin County’s Board of Supervisors.

It wouldn’t be the last time he would receive recognition for his efforts.

As Coon’s tenure came to a close last fall, COM began the construction of a $116 million student center for one of its two campuses, funded by a $265 million bond measure whose passage in 2016 resulted from efforts led primarily by Coon.

COM’s Board of Trustees, the board in charge of making high-level decisions for the school, opted to christen the new building the “Dr. David Wain Coon Center for Student Success,” as a way of honoring Coon’s time as president.

“It was quite surreal,” Coon said. “I’m very honored, very humbled, that they would do that.”