On Oct. 25, Dr. David Wain Coon assumed the role of San Jose City College\u2019s acting president.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m here to support what Dr. Tomaneng started, and to support the leadership and the faculty in doing that,\u201d he told the Times in a November interview.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s president from 2005 to 2010 and as College of Marin\u2019s president from then onward, before retiring last December to great fanfare.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s just a great leader \u2013 smart, steady, respected by everyone he works with, and always focused on delivering results,\u201d said Rep. Jared Huffman in a 2023 Marin Independent Journal article about Coon.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Coon told the Times said he initially pursued a career in federal law enforcement, but that it \u201cwasn\u2019t a good match.\u201d Education was the next choice, Coon expressed, because he had a \u201cpositive experience\u201d in various jobs he held working for his college as an undergraduate.<\/p>\n
Now a resident of the Bay Area, Coon told the Times that he moved to California in 2005 to serve as EVC\u2019s president because he felt that it \u201cwas time for a change professionally.\u201d Coon, who led EVC through the peak of the Great Recession, said that his proudest achievement during his tenure was bringing the college\u2019s community closer together during a difficult period.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was pretty disenfranchised when I got there\u201d, he said. \u201cThere was some tension between groups of people.\u201d<\/p>\n
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 \u201ca gift.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over the next 13 years, Coon would oversee a revitalization of the school\u2019s deteriorating infrastructure and divided campus culture, garnering praise both internally at the college and externally from local officials.<\/p>\n
\u201cDavid Wain Coon is the epitome of a collaborative leader who skillfully cuts through red tape and finds innovative solutions that improve the campus climate,\u201d states a 2021 commendation from Marin County\u2019s Board of Supervisors.<\/p>\n
It wouldn\u2019t be the last time he would receive recognition for his efforts.<\/p>\n
As Coon\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
COM\u2019s Board of Trustees, the board in charge of making high-level decisions for the school, opted to christen the new building the \u201cDr. David Wain Coon Center for Student Success,\u201d as a way of honoring Coon\u2019s time as president.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was quite surreal,\u201d Coon said. \u201cI\u2019m very honored, very humbled, that they would do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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Coon has garnered universal praise for his leadership at previous colleges, and will be leading the school until June.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":88943,"featured_media":17873,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,1773,1778,5,833],"tags":[],"staff_name":[1832],"class_list":["post-17863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-life","category-feature","category-investigations","category-news","category-profiles","staff_name-virgil-aspen"],"yoast_head":"\n