Pima Community College has appointed a longtime employee as a temporary provost after recently losing its third provost in three years.
Dolores Durán-Cerda, until recently the college’s assistant vice chancellor for faculty affairs, will serve as its acting chief academic officer.
Chancellor Lee Lambert announced the change in an email Thursday. Nearly a dozen faculty, staff and administrators were involved in the selection process, he said.
How long the acting provost will serve is unclear. Lambert said a national search will eventually be held for a permanent replacement but not until he finishes examining a possible reorganization of college operations.
Durán-Cerda, a former Faculty Senate president and longtime Spanish instructor at the college, was promoted to management in 2012.
She recently was part of the team that coordinated PCC’s efforts to shed a probation sanction imposed by its accreditor.
Durán-Cerda took over for former provost Erica Holmes, who was hired 15 months ago and recently resigned for “personal reasons” amid faculty complaints about her performance.
Holmes was the college’s third provost since 2012. She left with about nine months remaining on her $179,000 contract
and received a $150,000 settlement from the taxpayers.
