DEARBORN — Russell A. Kavalhuna, president of Henry Ford College, is one of 25 community college presidents nationwide who’ve been invited to join the 2020-21 inaugural cohort of the Aspen New Presidents Fellowship.

The fellowship is a new initiative to support community college presidents in the early years of their tenure so they may accelerate transformational change on behalf of students.

Altogether, 100 applicants nationally were accepted to the program, which begins in June and is funded by JP Morgan Chase & Co. Kavalhuna is the only president from a Michigan college, and each of the leaders is currently in the first five years of their tenures as a college president.

The Aspen New President Fellowship is designed to develop exceptional leaders who can transform community colleges to achieve higher levels of student success, while maintaining broad access. It is delivered in collaboration with the Stanford Educational Leadership Initiative.

“We know more than ever before about how community colleges can improve outcomes for students, both in and after college,” said Josh Wyner, executive director of the Aspen Institute College Excellence Program. “And the urgency for them to do so only increases—especially for students of color and low-income students. These fellows have shown they are fully, urgently committed to excellence and equity, and we look forward to working alongside them.”

Nearly 80 percent of community college presidents nationwide plan to retire in the next decade. Through this fellowship and other leadership programs, Aspen is committed to helping to replace those exiting the presidency with an exceptionally capable and highly diverse talent pool.

Currently, 36 percent of community college presidents are women and 20 percent are people of color. The incoming class of Aspen fellows is 48 percent women and 40 percent people of color. The institutions span 15 states and vary widely, from a rural college with 2,000 students to a statewide system that educates more than 150,000.