Los Medanos College Narrows Field to 3 Finalists for Vice President of Instruction

Pittsburg, Calif. – Los Medanos College today announced three finalists for the position of vice president instruction: Deonne Kunkel, Ph.D., Lauren Servais, A’kilah Smith, Ph.D.

LMC faculty, classified professionals, managers, and students are invited to attend open forums on Wednesday, Nov. 13 to meet and hear from the finalists.

Open Forums
Wednesday, Nov. 13 in the Student Union Conference Center (SU-108)

12:45 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. – Smith
2 p.m. to 3 p.m. – Kunkel
3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. – Servais

Attendees will have the opportunity to provide feedback using comment cards, which will be reviewed as part of the deliberation process.

After the forums have concluded, video recordings of all three candidates will be available for viewing via InSite for members of the campus community who are unable to attend to view and provide feedback. The deadline for feedback will be specified in a post-forum email, which will include links to the videos and electronic comment cards.

Finalist nominations resulted from the work of the Application Screening Committee, Screening Interview Committee, Final Interview Committee, and Human Resources, IT&S, and Facilities.

Finalist biographies

A’kilah Smith has dedicated her career to college and community leadership, focusing on advancing student success, equity, and inclusion. From 2002 to 2017, she taught mathematics and held various leadership roles at Los Medanos College (LMC), including Math Department chair, Faculty Senate president, Umoja Scholars program coordinator, faculty research lead for the Faculty Inquiry Network Grant, interim dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and dean of Math and Sciences. During her tenure, Smith engaged at both the state and national levels, presenting at the Strengthening Student Success Conference, American Educational Research Association, National College Access Network Conference, and the Umoja Summer Learning Institute.

Following six years as an educational consultant in Georgia, Smith returned to California to serve as director of Curriculum Development and Training for Youth UpRising, a nonprofit in East Oakland focused on youth empowerment through enhanced physical and mental wellbeing, community connection, educational attainment, and career success. In this role, she developed educational and career programs, managed grants and budgets, and hired, trained, and evaluated facilitators and staff.

Smith now serves as interim vice president of instruction at LMC, where she leads the implementation of CalGETC, Common Course Numbering, and Course Materials Cost Publication. She serves on the District Negotiations Team, Sabbatical Leave Committee, and is a member of the California Community College Chief Instructional Officers.

Equity is central to her work; she actively supports the Black Student Support Initiative, AB1705, and is guiding LMC’s expansion of Credit for Prior Learning through the Mapping Articulated Pathways Initiative.

Smith holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Spelman College, a master’s degree in mathematics from Howard University, and a Ph.D. in educational leadership from Saint Mary’s College.

Deonne Kunkel is a creative, experienced leader who supports the best in others with an eye to infrastructure and systems of interaction. As an advocate for change, she has twenty years of experience building community college programs and services to serve students furthest from opportunity.

Kunkel holds a bachelor’s degree in education from Brigham Young University, a master’s degree in literature from Mills College, and a Ph.D. in leadership from the University of the Cumberlands. Her masters research concentrated on language, gender, and power in mixed language Spanish/English texts and slave narratives and her Ph.D. focused on the traits and behaviors of leaders who foster organizational citizenship in community college shared governance settings.

Kunkel is a systems thinker who uses her expertise in language and leadership to engage students, classified professionals, faculty, and administrators in the liberatory work of institutional transformation.

Kunkel began her community college career as a part then full-time instructor then later transitioned to a program and grant coordinator, academic dean, and institutional leader. Her work at the institutional level includes developing the campus wide infrastructure for Academic Learning Support at Chabot College, leading two academic divisions, Social Sciences and Arts, Media and Communication as well as Chabot College’s revenue-generating Performing Arts Center, a Public Government Education broadcasting station serving the Cities of Hayward and Fremont, and the Early Childhood Education Lab School.

She is a strong advocate for K-12 and work-based learning partnerships as an avenue to equity. She developed the campus infrastructure for K-12 data-sharing and dual enrollment as the coordinator of the Career Pathways Trust grant and led the creation of regional industry pathway action teams in Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering, Health and Community Wellness, Administration of Justice, and Information Communication Technology.

Kunkel’s shared governance work includes serving on the executive team for Chabot College’s 2023 ACCJC site visit where she was instrumental in compiling and editing the self-evaluation report, training and supporting Accreditation Steering Committee standards teams, and implementing improvement plans that led to a clean reaffirmation. She has chaired the planning and budget committee, served as a campus leader in enrollment management, and served on the executive team for the Black Excellence Collective where she supported the work to institutionalize the Chabot College Equity Professional Growth (CCEPG) program in collaboration with faculty leaders.

Her collaboration with Student Services includes co-chairing a presidential task force to better integrate student and academic services and developing the First Year Experience program. Outside of institutionalizing the CCEPG, she is perhaps most proud of her work with faculty and Stay Woke Collective student leaders to install an outward-facing mural featuring students and her efforts to develop the infrastructure and funding for a student-led film on the prison industrial complex that received a film festival award and a student-led film and fundraiser for A.B.O. COMIX, a non-profit collective that amplifies the voices of justice impacted members of the LGBTQ+ community.

Kunkel is the recipient of a Chancellor’s Award from the Chabot Las Positas Community College District. She actively participates with other community leaders in Rotary fundraising activities that support the Tibercio Vasquez Health Center, Covenant House, and community grants and co-chairs a community-based literacy committee that provides student-selected culturally relevant books to K-12 learners.

Kunkel lives in the Bay Area and has an adult son in engineering. As able, she continues to teach part-time at the community college to stay connected to the heart of the instruction, students, and the art of anti-racist pedagogy and practice.

Lauren Servais’s life was transformed by education, and in her 20-plus years as an educator, Lauren has endeavored to pay the transformation forward. Anchoring in her intersectional identity as local to Hawai’i, mixed, a daughter and granddaughter of immigrants from China, Samoa, and the Philippines, and a speaker of Hawai’i Creole, Servais succeeded as a student by understanding the power of her home community. Lauren earned her bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Hawai’i, master’s degree in English literature from the University of Colorado, and master of education in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Washington. Servais is working on a doctorate in education focused on educational leadership and policy studies.

Servais cultivates her community practices and values, while weaving them into a framework of critical pedagogy, critical race theory, and culturally sustaining practices. As dean of Arts & Humanities at College of Marin, Servais strives to facilitate the building of community across the college that embodies the best of what we hope to witness in student learning.

Servais has been tenured twice – first as founding faculty at Cascadia Community College and second at Santa Rosa Junior College. She has participated in institution-building, accreditation, college-wide learning outcome teams, Academic Senate, and more. She has also served as English Department chair, chair of Department Chairs Council, Puente Co-coordinator, Asian and Pacific Islander American Student Success co-coordinator, New Faculty Professional Learning co-coordinator, equity coordinator, and more. Additionally, Servais has facilitated professional learning across California as a coordinator with 3CSN; in this capacity, she developed and facilitated Equity 101 and Equity 102, which were asynchronous online courses introducing educators to equity principles and practices.

About Los Medanos College (LMC): Los Medanos College is one of three colleges in the Contra Costa Community College District, serving the East Contra Costa County community. Established in 1974, Los Medanos College has earned federal designations as a Minority-Serving and Hispanic-Serving institution. It offers award-winning transfer and career-technical programs, support services, and diverse academic opportunities in an inclusive learning environment. With exceptional educators, innovative curriculum, growing degree and certificate offerings, and state-of-the-art facilities, the college prepares students to succeed in their educational pursuits, in the workforce, and beyond. LMC’s Pittsburg Campus is located on 120 acres bordering Antioch, with an additional education center in Brentwood.

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