14 Questions: Kristina Holton
Kristina Holton
Occupation: Dean of Science, Engineering and Mathematics at Linn-Benton Community College and Board Director of the AWCC and local School Board in Junction City
Age: 43
Hometown: Junction City, Oregon
Family: Married, 2 daughters
Education: Bachelor of Science in Mathematics; Master’s in Mathematics Education; Doctorate in Educational Leadership – all from Oregon State University
Years at LB: Seven years
Occupation: Dean of Science, Engineering and Mathematics at Linn-Benton Community College and Board Director of the AWCC and local School Board in Junction City
Age: 43
Hometown: Junction City, Oregon
Family: Married, 2 daughters
Education: Bachelor of Science in Mathematics; Master’s in Mathematics Education; Doctorate in Educational Leadership – all from Oregon State University
Years at LB: Seven years
Before teaching at LB: Lane Community College Math Resource Center Director, Interim Dean of Math and Engineering at LCC, middle school and high school teacher, and instructional coach
Favorite Teams: Linn-Benton Roadrunners, Oregon State University
Favorite Sports: Tennis, cross country, swimming, and football
Other Interests: Skydiving (soon), music, traveling, hanging out with friends/family, leadership, math, active in American Association for Women in Community Colleges – AAWCC local and state level
During my Q&A with Holton, I asked a questions about her role as a dean, and how she came to Linn-Benton, her journey to becoming a dean, and what she enjoys outside of Linn-Benton, including her role in the American Association for Women in Community Colleges.
Though, there is one thing to say that I was bummed to hear, she does not like surfing!
LB math instructor Shannon Harbert has worked with Holton since 2007. She praised her ability to navigate the complexities of their large math department, which has 12 full-time faculty and numerous part-time instructors — a much larger group than other departments on campus. Harbert also highlighted Holton’s skill in handling interpersonal dynamics, scheduling, and faculty appraisals.
Harbert said she admires Holton’s grace, understanding, and mediation abilities, noting she remains unbiased and genuinely interested in both the professional and personal lives of those she supervises. She said Holton also enthusiastically participates in "pi days" and "math awareness days," bringing a lot of energy and baking homemade pies.
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- What attracted you to mathematics?
Well, I decided fairly early on maybe when I was at high school that I wanted to pursue mathematics. Mostly because it was the subject that came easiest to me, since I enjoyed math. I was pretty good in the subject, as I excelled in math through elementary school, middle school, and high school. I like the problem-solving nature of it.
I would consider myself a rule follower and there's a lot of rules or formulas in math and I like that there's definition and appreciation of the rules you follow. If you can follow the rules, you can apply a formula to follow the rules and be able to get to an answer. And then there's a definite right or wrong so it's more concrete in that sense. For my kind of logical linear brain mindset, math works really well.
- How long have you been teaching?
I had to stop and think about that; I was prepared to answer this! I'm just finishing up my 20th year so that means I started in 2005, so this is my 20th year!
Favorite Teams: Linn-Benton Roadrunners, Oregon State University
Favorite Sports: Tennis, cross country, swimming, and football
Other Interests: Skydiving (soon), music, traveling, hanging out with friends/family, leadership, math, active in American Association for Women in Community Colleges – AAWCC local and state level
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If you were enrolled in a math class during winter term 2025, and had Kristina Holton for an instructor, you might not have known that Holton is the dean of science, engineering and mathematics at Linn-Benton Community College. If you were in her class, you might agree that she excelled in thoroughly explaining everything and if you still didn’t understand something, she went the extra mile of explaining it more.During my Q&A with Holton, I asked a questions about her role as a dean, and how she came to Linn-Benton, her journey to becoming a dean, and what she enjoys outside of Linn-Benton, including her role in the American Association for Women in Community Colleges.
Though, there is one thing to say that I was bummed to hear, she does not like surfing!
LB math instructor Shannon Harbert has worked with Holton since 2007. She praised her ability to navigate the complexities of their large math department, which has 12 full-time faculty and numerous part-time instructors — a much larger group than other departments on campus. Harbert also highlighted Holton’s skill in handling interpersonal dynamics, scheduling, and faculty appraisals.
Harbert said she admires Holton’s grace, understanding, and mediation abilities, noting she remains unbiased and genuinely interested in both the professional and personal lives of those she supervises. She said Holton also enthusiastically participates in "pi days" and "math awareness days," bringing a lot of energy and baking homemade pies.
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- What attracted you to mathematics?
Well, I decided fairly early on maybe when I was at high school that I wanted to pursue mathematics. Mostly because it was the subject that came easiest to me, since I enjoyed math. I was pretty good in the subject, as I excelled in math through elementary school, middle school, and high school. I like the problem-solving nature of it.
I would consider myself a rule follower and there's a lot of rules or formulas in math and I like that there's definition and appreciation of the rules you follow. If you can follow the rules, you can apply a formula to follow the rules and be able to get to an answer. And then there's a definite right or wrong so it's more concrete in that sense. For my kind of logical linear brain mindset, math works really well.
- How long have you been teaching?
I had to stop and think about that; I was prepared to answer this! I'm just finishing up my 20th year so that means I started in 2005, so this is my 20th year!
- What made you want to teach and teach math in particular?
I had opportunities through high school working with younger kids through Girl Scouts and some community opportunities, and organization opportunities. So for me putting together the subject that I enjoyed, which was math, and actually working with children. It made sense to become a math teacher.
When I was a sophomore in high school, I really decided that I would have a career in math and I actually got to teach my very first math class.
My Algebra 2 teacher in high school had to be gone one day and she and I were talking about teaching math and I was like, “I want to be a math teacher” and after some thought, she said, “Well, I have to be gone one day in the afternoon, how about you teach the lesson?”
It was the same class that I had that morning, so I learned everything that morning. After I got to teach the lesson to my peers I was like, “Yeah, I enjoy this!”
So then everything I did from that point forward, I studied and all the things I did were to put myself in a position to teach. However, my initial goal was high school math.
I taught math and then I taught high school and then middle school in Eugene for the next six years. I taught a little bit of elementary too, but that was through summer school. I was also an instructional coach. So I worked with other teachers on how they were teaching math and then I started teaching nights at Lane Community College in Eugene. And as soon as I started teaching at the community college, I was like, “Wow, this is what I really enjoy!”
So from that point forward, I kind of positioned myself to have the opportunity to be at the community college full time. I accepted a position in 2012. It was a math faculty position, but I was also the director of the Math Resource Center.
So if you think about all of the tutoring and outside of classroom support, that's what we did. Testing and tutoring, all of that we did through the Math Resource Center. I got to oversee that and it was a nice position because I would still teach every term and I would get to support all of the leadership, organization, and day-to-day management of the tutoring and testing.
After that, I then became the interim dean over math and engineering at Lane Community College for a short while before the position came open here at Linn-Benton. I have been here now seven years!
- What’s the difference between teaching middle school versus college?
I think kind of the fundamental premise of teaching mathematics is probably not all that different, right? Like the level and complexity of math might be different, but the fundamental premise of teaching math is not all that different. I think the real difference lies in what you get to see in terms of student impact.
So I do believe that teaching you get to have an impact on a student's life no matter what level it is you're teaching, but at the community college level, you really get to see how your support, your teaching really impacts their future success and what their career and life goals are.
Most of my middle schoolers, I'll be honest with you, didn't know what they wanted to do in the future, right? They are thinking about what they're going to do that weekend. Not so much about what they're going to do when they go to college or what careers they're going to have.
So I really think the main difference for me was understanding that the classes I was teaching, the students I was supporting, I was having a real impact on their future, being able to achieve their career goals, whatever it was.
My thought process was I felt like when I was in the classroom with a group of students, I could have influence on that group, right? Say 30 students in class, I knew I could have a big impact on those 30 students at any given term.
Then when I started at the Math Resource Center, I realized I could have an influence on all of the students who came in for support and help. And maybe it wasn't me directly because I had a staff who was working, and I was working with to do the tutoring, to do the testing, all of those things. So it wasn't me sitting down one-on-one with each of these students.
But through my support, through my leadership, I was having influence on every single one of those students who were coming and getting math support. That's not every math student, but it was at least some. And so I saw it as sort of my classroom as one group of students and then the students getting math support was sort of a wider group. I've always referred to it as my sphere of influence, right? That's a wider sphere.
Then I thought, well, when the dean position came open I was working on my doctorate in leadership. So a lot of people would say that's a logical next step, which is true, and in the progression. Then I thought, if I'm the dean, I can have influence on all students taking math, right? Because whether it was through scheduling or hiring faculty or decisions that were made around mathematics at Lane Community College, then that was truly my sphere.
Most students take math, right? Almost every program we have, I would say every program we have, requires something with regard to math. Of course, going from overseeing math and engineering at Lane to coming here and being the dean of science, engineering and math, and (our division) also includes agriculture, health and human performance and the culinary program. I get to have an impact.
I'm a little bit farther away from students most of the time because I don't see students unless they're upset or if they're in trouble or something has happened. That's not super positive usually, but I know that by supporting faculty so that they can be in the classroom and do amazing work with students, I get to have an impact. My influence and impact is broad across a wide range of students here at Linn-Benton Community College.
So for me, it's really like, how can I make a difference? That is always my goal, is I want to do meaningful work. I want to support students, even though, like I said, I don't see them as often. I want to know that the work I'm doing helps make opportunities for students to have outstanding class experience.
- What does a typical day look like for you?
On any given day, the interesting thing about the dean job is that there are no two days that are the same. My day usually consists of a certain amount of meetings. So, you know, you see me moving all around campus, going from place to place. Sometimes those meetings are on Zoom, but mostly in-person meetings. And those might be meetings with faculty, they might be meetings with other deans or management at the college, might be meetings with executive leadership. Could really be any number of meetings, depending on what those are. There's a certain amount of administrative tasks that also come along with the dean job.
I get my email box filled up almost every single day. Some of those things might be how I'm helping support faculty with something that's coming up in their classroom, technology not working, or some resources or materials that I need for class? It might be, can you help me problem-solve this situation with a student? Some of its administrative tasks are related to programs. So when we need to make modifications to information that's in the catalog or with our courses, that comes up through the faculty and then that comes to me for oversight and checking and then I push it on to the curriculum and scheduling office.
Plus, I get to be a second set of eyes sometimes to double check some things that come through and then there's other pieces of the work. Right now I'm very busy wrapping up what we call appraisals, which is like an evaluation process for faculty. They go through it every so many years and that involves me doing an observation usually in their class once during that year. I get to sit in on some outstanding classes! I've learned so much, everything from animal nutrition to anatomy and physiology to some really complex things in engineering. It is not something that I learned in my educational journey. But it's really fascinating and what I love is it's really rewarding to see people doing work that they enjoy, they're so passionate about it!
I like to think that my dean job is sort of behind the scenes, right? How do I support the work of faculty? How do I help them solve problems? How do I find resources for them so that they can get into the classroom and do amazing work with students? Then the reality is on any given day things can change right when emergency things come up. Thankfully nothing too serious, but things that come up at the moment. To be able to just facilitate the process of what's happening at the college. I get to be part of it. So that's it. There is no typical day in the life of the dean. It can be any number of things. It can be challenging. It is also rewarding.
I think it's super fun when I get to go out to the horse barn and see Jenny Strooband, who works with our equestrian facility, and how she's working with students in the arena, helping coach them about riding and or working with horses. There's several horses all doing different things at different times with students and she's there watching it all and seeing how it all plays out.
Honestly, I've not ever been in a class that hasn't been fascinating to me because everyone brings their own uniqueness and their talents and skills to that classroom, right? So even lessons in mathematics that I have taught before everybody does it differently. And to watch how a faculty member engages and connects with students and is able to bring them along with the knowledge and learning that's happening. It is incredible and enjoyable!
It's one of my favorite things. It takes time, but it is a worthwhile endeavor and I have to force myself to take notes. Otherwise, I get so involved in what's happening that it makes me want to go back to school a little bit … it makes you want to jump in the action on all that and I try not to do it!
Every faculty member is a little different. Sometimes they introduce me to their class, sometimes they just let me sit quietly in the back. Students don't know why I'm there and so they'll start talking to me and they'll be like, “Well, what did you think about question number four?”
I sat through one and I had a couple students do that to me this last term. I was sitting in on a chemistry lab and they're like, “OK, so we have these materials to use” and I'm like, “I'm not actually a student!” I know I'm wearing goggles, but that's for safety!
So, it is like I said, it is very fun and rewarding to see faculty being amazing in the classroom and it's one of the best parts of this job is just to get to see them be rock stars. I really love that.
- How do you approach decision-making and problem-solving within the college?
My background is in mathematics, but as a dean overseeing seven diverse departments, I approach my work as a learner. I believe my role is to support and empower my faculty. I often ask them to help me understand what they're doing, even if it takes multiple explanations for me to grasp it. Those “Aha!” moments are always a bit funny, but crucial.
I firmly believe that no single person can have all the expertise needed to effectively run a division like this. My strength lies in collaboration. I act as a bridge, bringing faculty ideas and concerns to other Deans and executive leadership. We discuss problems, brainstorm solutions, and then I present these well-thought-out plans to leadership for their input.
Partnerships and strong relationships are at the heart of how I operate. I genuinely care about the people I work with, not just their classroom performance. My team knows that if they need support, they just need to tell me.
I always say, “Don't suffer in silence!” Just like in a classroom, if you have a question, chances are others do too, and everyone benefits when we talk about it. Whether it's finding a substitute so someone can handle a personal matter or figuring out how to get a new computer for a faculty member, my job as a dean is to provide support.
We might not always get it 100% right, but I'll always keep trying. The faculty and the students are the most important part of the college; my role is to help them be amazing!
- What are your short-term and long-term goals for the college and your division?
So the long-term goal, of course, is not only to get what we have, is the new Agricultural Center for LB, it's a multi-phase project. So the long-term goal is actually seeing the whole entire thing completed.
I've been part of that project since before the college purchased the property. So it's been many years in the making and I'm excited because I think that's a game changer for my faculty who teach in the agriculture program. It will be truly a state-of-the-art facility between Seattle and San Francisco. It's going to have a tremendous impact on the community. There are a lot of organizations and community components that will be able to have access to this facility and it will be a game changer for them. So, I really am excited about that.
A short-term goal? It's like let's get to the end of spring term already and see commencement happen. It's like one of the most uplifting joyous times of the entire year is to watch students be celebrated for their great work. I always tell students if they're like, “Oh, I don't know if I'm going to participate in commencement.” I'm like, “You have to do it!”
It is like you can't help but walk around with a permanent smile on your face because it is so awesome to get to celebrate your accomplishments and remember we're all here for you as students. But I also think it's a celebration of all the work that goes into it. It's a lot of time and energy and hard work on behalf of the faculty. So, it's a celebration of, like, you made it to we made it to the end of the academic year.
I always say I firmly believe that my long-term goals are around where I can make a difference and I think there's still a lot of great work that I can do at Linn-Benton. So I have often been asked, since I've been here seven years, people are like, are you leaving? Are you going to go? I said that there's still great work for me to do here and that is where I know my commitment is, to where I can make a difference and do great work.
That's what I feel really passionate about. I believe I will continue my career in community colleges. Sometimes people will suggest well, what about four-year universities? I say that it is great work, but it's not the work for me. Sometimes my friends that are still in K-12 will ask me about, you know, coming back to teach in K-12 and I say that is great work. It's just not the work for me right now. Community college is really where I belong. This is my heart's work. I can't imagine myself anywhere else
- What do you do in your free time outside of LBCC?
So I have two kids. My oldest is a junior in high school and my youngest is in seventh grade, so they keep me pretty busy! I'm busy with kid activities, sports and, and extracurricular, Girl Scouts, that keeps me busy, also outside of LBCC and AWCC. We also eat a lot of Girl Scout cookies that come to my house. I try not to eat an excessive amount of Girl Scout cookies, but it's hard.
I also spend time with family and friends, like, concerts and musical theater, live theater. Anything like that. I'm a big fan of. I am on my local school board, in my community in Junction City. So that's a commitment of my volunteer time to help at the board level with the district. Being able to provide oversight and guidance and support.
I do stay very busy, between work and family. It's never a dull moment. It is rarely a day when something is not on my calendar!
- Do you have a favorite food place?
Well, I love food! But on campus, if you haven't been to the Santiam Bistro, you have to go! I understand that as the dean who now oversees culinary, I might be a little biased! But they have some amazing things coming out of that kitchen!
It has been fun because we talked about unique class observations. I got to observe in the kitchen multiple times this year, and it is so fascinating to watch what's happening. Every student is doing something different, right? Which is a little different than, say, a math classroom where everyone's there and they're actively engaged, but we're all kind of paying attention to whatever's happening on the board. Yet, here in the kitchen, they're all moving around, doing all different things, different stations, and the chefs have to be giving feedback to students at all of these stations, constantly!
I'm always excited because the menu changes over fairly frequently. They have had this whipped goat cheese, with tomatoes, and it's amazing! I love goat cheese. So, I highly recommend it if you haven't had an opportunity to try some of the things. They also now have an ice cream fridge, so they're serving ice cream!
- How do you ensure that students are being adequately supported and are using those resources available to them?
Getting the word out to students about all the awesome resources we have – especially in the Learning Center – is super important to me! It's not just up to professors in the classroom, although that's a big part of it. We need to hit every channel: student groups, college communications, even advisors. The more ways we can spread awareness, the better!
Now, I know signing in can feel like a chore, but there's a method to our madness … tracking student usage helps us understand when you all need help the most. If we see a surge at certain times, we can bring in more staff so you're not waiting forever and getting frustrated. It's like scheduling classes, we don't just guess! We look at past enrollment and waitlists to figure out where we need to add more sections. Your usage data helps us fine tune our support so it's there when you need it!
And please, please give us feedback! Your voice as a student truly matters. If something's not working, or could be better, tell us! You can come directly to me, talk to someone in the Learning Center, or even tell your professor. We can't fix what we don't know about. But also know that it is also totally OK to share what's working well!
I know it's human nature to complain more than praise, but I love hearing about the positives too. And if you have an idea or a suggestion for how something could be improved, that's even better! Your insights are incredibly valuable. I try to pop into the Learning Center myself whenever I have a spare moment to see things firsthand and check in with the team because I genuinely believe in the power of these resources here on campus!
- What are your biggest challenges working in a school/college setting?
There are always challenges, wherever you go. We have challenges related to funding from the state. I'm sure by now everyone has heard about the budget cuts, and we've had to make some reductions. It is unfortunately true across all aspects of education. It's still happening at the school district where I'm on the board. It's happening here at Linn-Benton. It's happening at other levels, other organizations too.
That's probably one of the biggest challenges we face right now. How do we continue to do amazing work to faculty and support most importantly, our students. The cost of doing business is more expensive, and how do we balance that so that it's not just on the backs of students. If you think about it, everything that becomes more expensive within a person's daily life, whether it's groceries or utility bills or any of those things, it's happening here at Linn-Benton too, right?
We have to pay to keep the lights on. Our utility bills are way more expensive. While we also have to keep up with the changes in the job market. Minimum wages are going up to keep up with the cost of living. So, the challenge really is around making sure that we can still continue to do great work for students and our faculty even though we don't get as much funding from the state or government anymore. It doesn't go up in the same proportion in order to keep doing everything we do, and so then the decisions that have to be made.
I'm not a part of the executive leadership, so I'm not making final decisions, but certainly I'm part of the process. Because, when decisions have been made to cut something from my division in the past, who has the most relevant information? They have to ask me questions like what would the impact be and what have you, and those are, those are incredibly challenging. It is never an easy conversation to have around having to make reductions, because the work that we do here, and that's true in any educational setting really, it's predominantly people. The majority of our budget, well over 80 percent of our budget, our expenses are to pay for people who do the work here.
So if we have to cut our expenses so that we're not paying as much, we have to end up cutting people. Those are hard decisions that regard people are hard decisions. That has been a challenge as an administrator, as being in a management position.
I lived it first hand when I was teaching high school. I lost my position because of budget cuts. So I had been teaching math at the high school in Eugene for three years, and they came to me and said, your position is going away. I was beside myself. I was like, I teach math. Math is super important!
Anytime a decision is made with regard to budget, it's connected inevitably to people. Those are very hard, hard decisions to make and very hard conversations. It's hard to be on the receiving end. I always want to be supportive. I try really hard to be supportive in those moments, but also knowing that you are really impacting someone's life, that's not just the faculty or staff. You know that you're going to have an impact on students' lives too. Because if you cut a program, there are inevitably students who likely would have come here and gotten whatever program was offered and then now that's not an option for them anymore. So every step of the way, those are very hard decisions.
That is the biggest challenge, I would say. In my dream world, education is fully funded in a way that is long-term sustainable. But, we don’t live in a dream world and I'll keep doing the work, because it's important to me. But it would be lovely if we could get to a place where we have that.
- How do you tackle the stigma among students that hate math and how would you suggest they combat it?
Yeah, I get it, right. Math is not for many people. As I said before, there's not a ton of people who are studying math. But math is a key critical component in our lives. It's not just the math concepts, but it's about critical thinking and problem solving. And those are skills that I promise anybody who comes to me with whatever the career path is, we can tell them how to do math. But by translation, those critical-thinking and problem-solving skills are going to play out. Every facet of life uses those important key skills. I've taught math for a long time, and I understand everyone says, “I'm not very good at math.”
Often, you occasionally get people who are like, I hate math. In my opinion, that is a really, really strong language. I would encourage you to maybe rethink that. They have a mindset that “I'm not very good at math.” Yet, what I always try to help people understand is that your perception on mathematics is not fixed. Your attitude and the way in which you talk to yourself and about yourself on any subject can really have an impact on your ability to be successful.
So you've probably heard in some of your classes about a growth mindset, right? So maybe, you are not very good at math, but if you change that to “I'm not very good at math yet” you will get better at it. Approaching it from the perspective of I have traditionally struggled, but I can improve, right? Just switch your brain to remind yourself that you can make improvements. And you can grow. We all grow and learn.
I grow and learn every single day in this work. I didn't come in already knowing how to do the job. And some days I still feel like I don't know how to do the job. But, I'll be honest with you, understanding that I'm growing and I'm learning and every step in that process is helping make me better at the work that I do.
The same is true for students who are studying math, you have to be willing to practice, you have to be willing to have a growth mindset about it. It takes work and practice.
I think it's helpful to understand that everyone has something that they've had to work harder on than not. For me, it was history. I struggled on that subject. I was like, I don't understand why I need to know about what happened years ago, when it didn't feel relevant to me daily. But then I had this great experience where I was able to connect with my grandfather about his memories from his time fighting in World War II. It became very real for me, through understanding his lived experience.
That opened up my perspective a lot differently about how I view history and the way I approach it. So I encourage students to think about finding things that they can do to associate with a subject. Whether that's getting the resources, accessing our on-campus resources and getting the support from the Learning Center, Math Cafe, tutoring help desk, or maybe it's study groups, or maybe it's working with other students who are also in similar situations. I understand it, we all hate math study groups, right? But if you have a group of students who are like, we're in this together, and we're going to get through it together, and we're going to support each other. That's very helpful. Especially when you feel like it's one more thing. You’re really struggling.
I would love for it to not be socially acceptable to not like math or to be bad at math. We encounter mathematics every day in our life, right? You go to the grocery store, you buy gas. I mean, everything! Everything has this mathematical undertone to it. Math is used also in the same way that reading and writing is used. We speak, we read, we write, some of it's completely subconscious, and some is true with math.
I think we have to get to a place where we're shifting the narrative from, I'm bad at math, or I hate math to, I haven't learned it yet. But I know I'm capable. We as students then make a connection and understand what they are learning, why they are learning – and how it plays into whatever their future goals are. It becomes a piece in that journey on getting to their end goal. And it's often easier for them to understand why they are doing it. Most students I encounter are like “I don't know why I need to understand parabolas and graphing quadratic functions,” but if they can relate it to what they're doing in the future then they’re going to get on board.
So I just would say at all levels; if you are feeling like that negative self-talk is coming in relation to math, or if they're hearing somebody say something to kindly and gently interrupt that! Tell yourself something more positive. You worked really hard on those assignments. Maybe you didn't score as high as you wanted, but you still are making great improvements!
If you hear someone say, “Oh everybody hates math.” Kindly respond back and be like, “Well it's important though, and it's important that we learn it!”
If we can have a better attitude about it, and have a better outlook about it, then I think that helps everybody in the end.
- What are your thoughts on hexaflexagons? Can you make one?
So again, I always liked math since I was good at it. I was a sophomore in high school when I decided that I really enjoyed working with kids!
I had opportunities through high school working with younger kids through Girl Scouts and some community opportunities, and organization opportunities. So for me putting together the subject that I enjoyed, which was math, and actually working with children. It made sense to become a math teacher.
When I was a sophomore in high school, I really decided that I would have a career in math and I actually got to teach my very first math class.
My Algebra 2 teacher in high school had to be gone one day and she and I were talking about teaching math and I was like, “I want to be a math teacher” and after some thought, she said, “Well, I have to be gone one day in the afternoon, how about you teach the lesson?”
It was the same class that I had that morning, so I learned everything that morning. After I got to teach the lesson to my peers I was like, “Yeah, I enjoy this!”
So then everything I did from that point forward, I studied and all the things I did were to put myself in a position to teach. However, my initial goal was high school math.
- Where did you work before LBCC?
My career is 20 years within education. I started teaching middle school and high school math. So I taught at Central Linn, which is in our district here for Linn-Benton. I taught middle school and high school together there. They have seventh grade through 12th grade at their middle school-high school.
My career is 20 years within education. I started teaching middle school and high school math. So I taught at Central Linn, which is in our district here for Linn-Benton. I taught middle school and high school together there. They have seventh grade through 12th grade at their middle school-high school.
I taught math and then I taught high school and then middle school in Eugene for the next six years. I taught a little bit of elementary too, but that was through summer school. I was also an instructional coach. So I worked with other teachers on how they were teaching math and then I started teaching nights at Lane Community College in Eugene. And as soon as I started teaching at the community college, I was like, “Wow, this is what I really enjoy!”
So from that point forward, I kind of positioned myself to have the opportunity to be at the community college full time. I accepted a position in 2012. It was a math faculty position, but I was also the director of the Math Resource Center.
So if you think about all of the tutoring and outside of classroom support, that's what we did. Testing and tutoring, all of that we did through the Math Resource Center. I got to oversee that and it was a nice position because I would still teach every term and I would get to support all of the leadership, organization, and day-to-day management of the tutoring and testing.
After that, I then became the interim dean over math and engineering at Lane Community College for a short while before the position came open here at Linn-Benton. I have been here now seven years!
- What’s the difference between teaching middle school versus college?
I think kind of the fundamental premise of teaching mathematics is probably not all that different, right? Like the level and complexity of math might be different, but the fundamental premise of teaching math is not all that different. I think the real difference lies in what you get to see in terms of student impact.
So I do believe that teaching you get to have an impact on a student's life no matter what level it is you're teaching, but at the community college level, you really get to see how your support, your teaching really impacts their future success and what their career and life goals are.
Most of my middle schoolers, I'll be honest with you, didn't know what they wanted to do in the future, right? They are thinking about what they're going to do that weekend. Not so much about what they're going to do when they go to college or what careers they're going to have.
So I really think the main difference for me was understanding that the classes I was teaching, the students I was supporting, I was having a real impact on their future, being able to achieve their career goals, whatever it was.
Some might say I want to go into nursing and get into the nursing program, I want to pursue engineering or there are not a lot of students out there who say I want to study math. I mean, there are occasionally a few, but to really be able to know that the skills and the concepts that you're teaching them will play out as part of their future goals. That's what makes it really meaningful.
- What attracted you to the job of dean of mathematics at Linn-Benton or Lane Community College?
So, it's a great question because I know there's a lot of people who say, oh, I could never do what you do. Or they say, “I wouldn't want to do your work.” I understand, because the work I do as a dean, with the exception of occasionally I do get to teach a class, takes me a little farther away from students.
- What attracted you to the job of dean of mathematics at Linn-Benton or Lane Community College?
So, it's a great question because I know there's a lot of people who say, oh, I could never do what you do. Or they say, “I wouldn't want to do your work.” I understand, because the work I do as a dean, with the exception of occasionally I do get to teach a class, takes me a little farther away from students.
My thought process was I felt like when I was in the classroom with a group of students, I could have influence on that group, right? Say 30 students in class, I knew I could have a big impact on those 30 students at any given term.
Then when I started at the Math Resource Center, I realized I could have an influence on all of the students who came in for support and help. And maybe it wasn't me directly because I had a staff who was working, and I was working with to do the tutoring, to do the testing, all of those things. So it wasn't me sitting down one-on-one with each of these students.
But through my support, through my leadership, I was having influence on every single one of those students who were coming and getting math support. That's not every math student, but it was at least some. And so I saw it as sort of my classroom as one group of students and then the students getting math support was sort of a wider group. I've always referred to it as my sphere of influence, right? That's a wider sphere.
Then I thought, well, when the dean position came open I was working on my doctorate in leadership. So a lot of people would say that's a logical next step, which is true, and in the progression. Then I thought, if I'm the dean, I can have influence on all students taking math, right? Because whether it was through scheduling or hiring faculty or decisions that were made around mathematics at Lane Community College, then that was truly my sphere.
Most students take math, right? Almost every program we have, I would say every program we have, requires something with regard to math. Of course, going from overseeing math and engineering at Lane to coming here and being the dean of science, engineering and math, and (our division) also includes agriculture, health and human performance and the culinary program. I get to have an impact.
I'm a little bit farther away from students most of the time because I don't see students unless they're upset or if they're in trouble or something has happened. That's not super positive usually, but I know that by supporting faculty so that they can be in the classroom and do amazing work with students, I get to have an impact. My influence and impact is broad across a wide range of students here at Linn-Benton Community College.
So for me, it's really like, how can I make a difference? That is always my goal, is I want to do meaningful work. I want to support students, even though, like I said, I don't see them as often. I want to know that the work I'm doing helps make opportunities for students to have outstanding class experience.
- What does a typical day look like for you?
On any given day, the interesting thing about the dean job is that there are no two days that are the same. My day usually consists of a certain amount of meetings. So, you know, you see me moving all around campus, going from place to place. Sometimes those meetings are on Zoom, but mostly in-person meetings. And those might be meetings with faculty, they might be meetings with other deans or management at the college, might be meetings with executive leadership. Could really be any number of meetings, depending on what those are. There's a certain amount of administrative tasks that also come along with the dean job.
I get my email box filled up almost every single day. Some of those things might be how I'm helping support faculty with something that's coming up in their classroom, technology not working, or some resources or materials that I need for class? It might be, can you help me problem-solve this situation with a student? Some of its administrative tasks are related to programs. So when we need to make modifications to information that's in the catalog or with our courses, that comes up through the faculty and then that comes to me for oversight and checking and then I push it on to the curriculum and scheduling office.
Plus, I get to be a second set of eyes sometimes to double check some things that come through and then there's other pieces of the work. Right now I'm very busy wrapping up what we call appraisals, which is like an evaluation process for faculty. They go through it every so many years and that involves me doing an observation usually in their class once during that year. I get to sit in on some outstanding classes! I've learned so much, everything from animal nutrition to anatomy and physiology to some really complex things in engineering. It is not something that I learned in my educational journey. But it's really fascinating and what I love is it's really rewarding to see people doing work that they enjoy, they're so passionate about it!
I like to think that my dean job is sort of behind the scenes, right? How do I support the work of faculty? How do I help them solve problems? How do I find resources for them so that they can get into the classroom and do amazing work with students? Then the reality is on any given day things can change right when emergency things come up. Thankfully nothing too serious, but things that come up at the moment. To be able to just facilitate the process of what's happening at the college. I get to be part of it. So that's it. There is no typical day in the life of the dean. It can be any number of things. It can be challenging. It is also rewarding.
- What is the coolest class you ever sat in on?
Oh, well, that's really hard because I sat in on a lot this past winter. I sat in on a volleyball class. I literally sat right next to the court and watched coach Jayme Frazier teach this volleyball class and there's the players going every which direction and they're doing these drills and balls are flying everywhere and I'm just in awe watching it all! I mean just to watch her but then to see the interactions. She's helping students and how the class is playing out. It's fascinating!
Oh, well, that's really hard because I sat in on a lot this past winter. I sat in on a volleyball class. I literally sat right next to the court and watched coach Jayme Frazier teach this volleyball class and there's the players going every which direction and they're doing these drills and balls are flying everywhere and I'm just in awe watching it all! I mean just to watch her but then to see the interactions. She's helping students and how the class is playing out. It's fascinating!
I think it's super fun when I get to go out to the horse barn and see Jenny Strooband, who works with our equestrian facility, and how she's working with students in the arena, helping coach them about riding and or working with horses. There's several horses all doing different things at different times with students and she's there watching it all and seeing how it all plays out.
Honestly, I've not ever been in a class that hasn't been fascinating to me because everyone brings their own uniqueness and their talents and skills to that classroom, right? So even lessons in mathematics that I have taught before everybody does it differently. And to watch how a faculty member engages and connects with students and is able to bring them along with the knowledge and learning that's happening. It is incredible and enjoyable!
It's one of my favorite things. It takes time, but it is a worthwhile endeavor and I have to force myself to take notes. Otherwise, I get so involved in what's happening that it makes me want to go back to school a little bit … it makes you want to jump in the action on all that and I try not to do it!
Every faculty member is a little different. Sometimes they introduce me to their class, sometimes they just let me sit quietly in the back. Students don't know why I'm there and so they'll start talking to me and they'll be like, “Well, what did you think about question number four?”
I sat through one and I had a couple students do that to me this last term. I was sitting in on a chemistry lab and they're like, “OK, so we have these materials to use” and I'm like, “I'm not actually a student!” I know I'm wearing goggles, but that's for safety!
So, it is like I said, it is very fun and rewarding to see faculty being amazing in the classroom and it's one of the best parts of this job is just to get to see them be rock stars. I really love that.
- How do you approach decision-making and problem-solving within the college?
My background is in mathematics, but as a dean overseeing seven diverse departments, I approach my work as a learner. I believe my role is to support and empower my faculty. I often ask them to help me understand what they're doing, even if it takes multiple explanations for me to grasp it. Those “Aha!” moments are always a bit funny, but crucial.
I firmly believe that no single person can have all the expertise needed to effectively run a division like this. My strength lies in collaboration. I act as a bridge, bringing faculty ideas and concerns to other Deans and executive leadership. We discuss problems, brainstorm solutions, and then I present these well-thought-out plans to leadership for their input.
Partnerships and strong relationships are at the heart of how I operate. I genuinely care about the people I work with, not just their classroom performance. My team knows that if they need support, they just need to tell me.
I always say, “Don't suffer in silence!” Just like in a classroom, if you have a question, chances are others do too, and everyone benefits when we talk about it. Whether it's finding a substitute so someone can handle a personal matter or figuring out how to get a new computer for a faculty member, my job as a dean is to provide support.
We might not always get it 100% right, but I'll always keep trying. The faculty and the students are the most important part of the college; my role is to help them be amazing!
- What are your short-term and long-term goals for the college and your division?
So the long-term goal, of course, is not only to get what we have, is the new Agricultural Center for LB, it's a multi-phase project. So the long-term goal is actually seeing the whole entire thing completed.
I've been part of that project since before the college purchased the property. So it's been many years in the making and I'm excited because I think that's a game changer for my faculty who teach in the agriculture program. It will be truly a state-of-the-art facility between Seattle and San Francisco. It's going to have a tremendous impact on the community. There are a lot of organizations and community components that will be able to have access to this facility and it will be a game changer for them. So, I really am excited about that.
A short-term goal? It's like let's get to the end of spring term already and see commencement happen. It's like one of the most uplifting joyous times of the entire year is to watch students be celebrated for their great work. I always tell students if they're like, “Oh, I don't know if I'm going to participate in commencement.” I'm like, “You have to do it!”
It is like you can't help but walk around with a permanent smile on your face because it is so awesome to get to celebrate your accomplishments and remember we're all here for you as students. But I also think it's a celebration of all the work that goes into it. It's a lot of time and energy and hard work on behalf of the faculty. So, it's a celebration of, like, you made it to we made it to the end of the academic year.
I always say I firmly believe that my long-term goals are around where I can make a difference and I think there's still a lot of great work that I can do at Linn-Benton. So I have often been asked, since I've been here seven years, people are like, are you leaving? Are you going to go? I said that there's still great work for me to do here and that is where I know my commitment is, to where I can make a difference and do great work.
That's what I feel really passionate about. I believe I will continue my career in community colleges. Sometimes people will suggest well, what about four-year universities? I say that it is great work, but it's not the work for me. Sometimes my friends that are still in K-12 will ask me about, you know, coming back to teach in K-12 and I say that is great work. It's just not the work for me right now. Community college is really where I belong. This is my heart's work. I can't imagine myself anywhere else
- What do you do in your free time outside of LBCC?
So I have two kids. My oldest is a junior in high school and my youngest is in seventh grade, so they keep me pretty busy! I'm busy with kid activities, sports and, and extracurricular, Girl Scouts, that keeps me busy, also outside of LBCC and AWCC. We also eat a lot of Girl Scout cookies that come to my house. I try not to eat an excessive amount of Girl Scout cookies, but it's hard.
I also spend time with family and friends, like, concerts and musical theater, live theater. Anything like that. I'm a big fan of. I am on my local school board, in my community in Junction City. So that's a commitment of my volunteer time to help at the board level with the district. Being able to provide oversight and guidance and support.
I do stay very busy, between work and family. It's never a dull moment. It is rarely a day when something is not on my calendar!
- Do you have a favorite food place?
Well, I love food! But on campus, if you haven't been to the Santiam Bistro, you have to go! I understand that as the dean who now oversees culinary, I might be a little biased! But they have some amazing things coming out of that kitchen!
It has been fun because we talked about unique class observations. I got to observe in the kitchen multiple times this year, and it is so fascinating to watch what's happening. Every student is doing something different, right? Which is a little different than, say, a math classroom where everyone's there and they're actively engaged, but we're all kind of paying attention to whatever's happening on the board. Yet, here in the kitchen, they're all moving around, doing all different things, different stations, and the chefs have to be giving feedback to students at all of these stations, constantly!
I'm always excited because the menu changes over fairly frequently. They have had this whipped goat cheese, with tomatoes, and it's amazing! I love goat cheese. So, I highly recommend it if you haven't had an opportunity to try some of the things. They also now have an ice cream fridge, so they're serving ice cream!
- How do you ensure that students are being adequately supported and are using those resources available to them?
Getting the word out to students about all the awesome resources we have – especially in the Learning Center – is super important to me! It's not just up to professors in the classroom, although that's a big part of it. We need to hit every channel: student groups, college communications, even advisors. The more ways we can spread awareness, the better!
Now, I know signing in can feel like a chore, but there's a method to our madness … tracking student usage helps us understand when you all need help the most. If we see a surge at certain times, we can bring in more staff so you're not waiting forever and getting frustrated. It's like scheduling classes, we don't just guess! We look at past enrollment and waitlists to figure out where we need to add more sections. Your usage data helps us fine tune our support so it's there when you need it!
And please, please give us feedback! Your voice as a student truly matters. If something's not working, or could be better, tell us! You can come directly to me, talk to someone in the Learning Center, or even tell your professor. We can't fix what we don't know about. But also know that it is also totally OK to share what's working well!
I know it's human nature to complain more than praise, but I love hearing about the positives too. And if you have an idea or a suggestion for how something could be improved, that's even better! Your insights are incredibly valuable. I try to pop into the Learning Center myself whenever I have a spare moment to see things firsthand and check in with the team because I genuinely believe in the power of these resources here on campus!
- What are your biggest challenges working in a school/college setting?
There are always challenges, wherever you go. We have challenges related to funding from the state. I'm sure by now everyone has heard about the budget cuts, and we've had to make some reductions. It is unfortunately true across all aspects of education. It's still happening at the school district where I'm on the board. It's happening here at Linn-Benton. It's happening at other levels, other organizations too.
That's probably one of the biggest challenges we face right now. How do we continue to do amazing work to faculty and support most importantly, our students. The cost of doing business is more expensive, and how do we balance that so that it's not just on the backs of students. If you think about it, everything that becomes more expensive within a person's daily life, whether it's groceries or utility bills or any of those things, it's happening here at Linn-Benton too, right?
We have to pay to keep the lights on. Our utility bills are way more expensive. While we also have to keep up with the changes in the job market. Minimum wages are going up to keep up with the cost of living. So, the challenge really is around making sure that we can still continue to do great work for students and our faculty even though we don't get as much funding from the state or government anymore. It doesn't go up in the same proportion in order to keep doing everything we do, and so then the decisions that have to be made.
I'm not a part of the executive leadership, so I'm not making final decisions, but certainly I'm part of the process. Because, when decisions have been made to cut something from my division in the past, who has the most relevant information? They have to ask me questions like what would the impact be and what have you, and those are, those are incredibly challenging. It is never an easy conversation to have around having to make reductions, because the work that we do here, and that's true in any educational setting really, it's predominantly people. The majority of our budget, well over 80 percent of our budget, our expenses are to pay for people who do the work here.
So if we have to cut our expenses so that we're not paying as much, we have to end up cutting people. Those are hard decisions that regard people are hard decisions. That has been a challenge as an administrator, as being in a management position.
I lived it first hand when I was teaching high school. I lost my position because of budget cuts. So I had been teaching math at the high school in Eugene for three years, and they came to me and said, your position is going away. I was beside myself. I was like, I teach math. Math is super important!
Anytime a decision is made with regard to budget, it's connected inevitably to people. Those are very hard, hard decisions to make and very hard conversations. It's hard to be on the receiving end. I always want to be supportive. I try really hard to be supportive in those moments, but also knowing that you are really impacting someone's life, that's not just the faculty or staff. You know that you're going to have an impact on students' lives too. Because if you cut a program, there are inevitably students who likely would have come here and gotten whatever program was offered and then now that's not an option for them anymore. So every step of the way, those are very hard decisions.
That is the biggest challenge, I would say. In my dream world, education is fully funded in a way that is long-term sustainable. But, we don’t live in a dream world and I'll keep doing the work, because it's important to me. But it would be lovely if we could get to a place where we have that.
- How do you tackle the stigma among students that hate math and how would you suggest they combat it?
Yeah, I get it, right. Math is not for many people. As I said before, there's not a ton of people who are studying math. But math is a key critical component in our lives. It's not just the math concepts, but it's about critical thinking and problem solving. And those are skills that I promise anybody who comes to me with whatever the career path is, we can tell them how to do math. But by translation, those critical-thinking and problem-solving skills are going to play out. Every facet of life uses those important key skills. I've taught math for a long time, and I understand everyone says, “I'm not very good at math.”
Often, you occasionally get people who are like, I hate math. In my opinion, that is a really, really strong language. I would encourage you to maybe rethink that. They have a mindset that “I'm not very good at math.” Yet, what I always try to help people understand is that your perception on mathematics is not fixed. Your attitude and the way in which you talk to yourself and about yourself on any subject can really have an impact on your ability to be successful.
So you've probably heard in some of your classes about a growth mindset, right? So maybe, you are not very good at math, but if you change that to “I'm not very good at math yet” you will get better at it. Approaching it from the perspective of I have traditionally struggled, but I can improve, right? Just switch your brain to remind yourself that you can make improvements. And you can grow. We all grow and learn.
I grow and learn every single day in this work. I didn't come in already knowing how to do the job. And some days I still feel like I don't know how to do the job. But, I'll be honest with you, understanding that I'm growing and I'm learning and every step in that process is helping make me better at the work that I do.
The same is true for students who are studying math, you have to be willing to practice, you have to be willing to have a growth mindset about it. It takes work and practice.
I think it's helpful to understand that everyone has something that they've had to work harder on than not. For me, it was history. I struggled on that subject. I was like, I don't understand why I need to know about what happened years ago, when it didn't feel relevant to me daily. But then I had this great experience where I was able to connect with my grandfather about his memories from his time fighting in World War II. It became very real for me, through understanding his lived experience.
That opened up my perspective a lot differently about how I view history and the way I approach it. So I encourage students to think about finding things that they can do to associate with a subject. Whether that's getting the resources, accessing our on-campus resources and getting the support from the Learning Center, Math Cafe, tutoring help desk, or maybe it's study groups, or maybe it's working with other students who are also in similar situations. I understand it, we all hate math study groups, right? But if you have a group of students who are like, we're in this together, and we're going to get through it together, and we're going to support each other. That's very helpful. Especially when you feel like it's one more thing. You’re really struggling.
I would love for it to not be socially acceptable to not like math or to be bad at math. We encounter mathematics every day in our life, right? You go to the grocery store, you buy gas. I mean, everything! Everything has this mathematical undertone to it. Math is used also in the same way that reading and writing is used. We speak, we read, we write, some of it's completely subconscious, and some is true with math.
I think we have to get to a place where we're shifting the narrative from, I'm bad at math, or I hate math to, I haven't learned it yet. But I know I'm capable. We as students then make a connection and understand what they are learning, why they are learning – and how it plays into whatever their future goals are. It becomes a piece in that journey on getting to their end goal. And it's often easier for them to understand why they are doing it. Most students I encounter are like “I don't know why I need to understand parabolas and graphing quadratic functions,” but if they can relate it to what they're doing in the future then they’re going to get on board.
So I just would say at all levels; if you are feeling like that negative self-talk is coming in relation to math, or if they're hearing somebody say something to kindly and gently interrupt that! Tell yourself something more positive. You worked really hard on those assignments. Maybe you didn't score as high as you wanted, but you still are making great improvements!
If you hear someone say, “Oh everybody hates math.” Kindly respond back and be like, “Well it's important though, and it's important that we learn it!”
If we can have a better attitude about it, and have a better outlook about it, then I think that helps everybody in the end.
- What are your thoughts on hexaflexagons? Can you make one?
So hexaflexagon … so the flex part throws me for a loop. So hex is six, right? That's the root of the word hex is six. Which leads me to some sort of six-sided shape. Then a “gon” becomes either the shape, right? Like as an example, that's like the pentagon, it is a five-sided shape. Hexagon is six-sided … then the flexagon part is what throws me for a loop, because that is not as common as how I would break it down. So do you have a picture or something you can show me? Can we Google this? Because you're going to teach me something here!
Hexaflexagon. I love it. Something six-sided, but it moves, huh? Oh, OK. All right. So you can also make them where you can put it in your fingers and you can actually open up the sides. OK. I've seen this! It takes me back to my middle school days! However, no, I cannot make one.
I could probably follow a set of instructions and get you there. Honestly, that's a funny question to throw in there!
Hexaflexagon. I love it. Something six-sided, but it moves, huh? Oh, OK. All right. So you can also make them where you can put it in your fingers and you can actually open up the sides. OK. I've seen this! It takes me back to my middle school days! However, no, I cannot make one.
I could probably follow a set of instructions and get you there. Honestly, that's a funny question to throw in there!
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