Thompson joined OCC in 1966, beginning as a member of the English, social science and counseling faculty. Through the years he served in various administrative capacities at OCC and was named the college’s sixth chancellor in 1996.

Dr. Spangler, who earned a doctorate in education from the University of California – Los Angeles (UCLA), has been involved with community colleges for more than 30 years. In 1965, she began teaching English at Los Angeles Valley College. After “graduating” from the classroom, she moved into the area of student services. In 1994, she moved within the nine-college district to Los Angeles City College (LACC) with 18,000 students as vice president; she became the president of LACC 1997. OCC, with its five campuses enrolls more than 74,000 students a year and is the 14th largest community college in the nation.

Dr. Spangler says she is “thrilled to be a part of OCC. For me, this is a capstone in a very long career dedicated to community colleges on all levels – in the classroom and in administrative roles - but always focused on helping prepare students to join the workforce and to be productive members of the community.”

That focus on preparing students for career and community life has guided Dr. Spangler through the years. “Serving students by providing them with the most current curricula that are sensitive to what the community wants and needs is vital. So is connecting the college to the community” through partnerships and alliances with business and industry, with other educational institutions, and with governmental and civic bodies, she says.

It’s easy to find successful examples of such connections at Los Angeles City College. One is a program that prepares recruits to the Los Angeles Police Department to be productive members of the police force, Dr. Spangler explains. Another is the college’s revitalization of many of its technical programs, including dental technology, now recognized as one of California’s outstanding programs and the only one in the country where students can move from LACC’s two-year program directly on to UCLA to complete a program in Aesthetic Design.