AUSTIN, Tex. – The theme of improving student success in community colleges took center stage Monday at the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development (NISOD) 32nd Annual International Conference on Teaching and Leadership Excellence in Austin, Texas.

The second day of the conference convened with NISOD associate director Coral Noonan-Terry saying the accomplishments of conference honorees Dr. Belle Wheelan, president of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) Commission on Colleges, and Dr. Diane Troyer, senior program officer of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, reflect values that honor the “humanity of teaching”. 

The first African-American woman to serve as president of SACS, Wheelan received the 2010 John E. Roueche NISOD International Leadership Award. A graduate of the Community College Leadership Program at the University of Texas at Austin and a former community college president, Wheelan said becoming a college administrator was an honorable goal.

“We should be there for the student’s success and nothing else,” she said upon accepting the award.

Troyer, who also accepted the 2010 Suanne Davis Roueche Distinguished Lecturer Award, followed with a keynote address that outlined the latest initiative by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to improve student success at community colleges.   

“After 10 years of focusing on pre-K through high school education, we realized that it was not enough to impact the cycle of poverty,” Troyer said.

As a result, she said, the foundation turned its focus to postsecondary education by committing $100 million in grants to community colleges, which is part of the foundation’s Postsecondary Success Initiative. The goal of the initiative is to double the number of low-income U.S. students who complete a degree or credential by age 26.

“We’ve done a tremendous job of creating access to community college but we’ve learned that access does not translate into completion, particularly among low-income and first-generation college students,” Troyer said.