After working for a total of 29 years at two Community Colleges in California, Dr. Lori Gaskin, 55, now seeks a new challenge.

Gaskin said that to work as the president for City College would be a great career opportunity.

“I’m a person who sets down really deep roots where I’m at,” she said. “I’ve been working for 12 years and 17 years at the other colleges that I’ve worked at.”

Gaskin was born in Long Beach, Calif., a place where she said she can see herself live later in life.

Gaskin, who has a long Jewish heritage from Eastern Europe, said that we all have to work together towards providing opportunities for the students. She thinks we have to remember what the main goal is at the college.

“It isn’t about the paperwork, the budget or to insure that the facility is good,” she said. “I feel a deep sense of service to the college, to the student, to the state, to insure that we are working towards a common good, an excellence we are seeking to achieve.”

When asked what department of the college she would look at to be reduced to facilitate budget cuts, Gaskin said that it wouldn’t be fare to the institution to express her thoughts.

“I spent a good eight months understanding the current institution before I could talk about the question at all,” Gaskin said. “I want to have an understanding in the soul of the college before I can identify where we might have to redeploy.”

Gaskin said that it’s hard to give a complex answer on which large issue among community colleges should be top priority. She said that we are in a time of change, citing John F. Kennedy.

“I believe that the challenge comes from different fronts,” she added. “The change is causing us to rethink who we are as institutions. The challenges we are facing face us to.”

When Gaskin heard about the founding of violations by the Board of Trustees and the accreditation warning, she said she was concerned.

“When I heard about it, it’s certainly cause for focus, for concern and for attention,” she said. “At the same time, I feel to remind anyone that SBCC accreditation report from the visiting team praised SBCC that the entire college has a real targeted focus on student success and achievements.”

She believes that shared governance and transparency with students and college employees is something that has to be built upon beliefs, respect, and a core value of trust.

“You have to believe in it, support it, and honor it. It has to be part of every element at the institution,” she said.  “I believe that leaders emerge from every heart of the college. There is not one leader, but the leader comes from all parts of the institution.”

Gaskin said she strongly supports international students to come to California to study.

“Global citizenship is critically important to the life of a college and to the education of the students,” she said. “We get the opportunity to serve as home for international students and engage professional development on faculty and staff.”

Gaskin holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in geography from UCLA.

“I started studying at UCLA when I was rather young, and when I reflect over it, I was rather immature,” she said. “I changed my major in the first years five times, and it was really a nightmare.

“It wasn’t until senior year I found myself—what I really wanted to do,” she said. “What I tell students today is to follow your heart and to let your heart speak to you.”

Gaskin likes to exercise and is often out running. She also likes working in her garden and her biggest passion in life is to travel.

“I would love to go back to Australia, Turkey, and Iceland,” she said. “They are all amazing countries.”

Her favorite quote comes from Mahatma Gandhi, and said it is “something that has spoken to me for many years:

“Your beliefs become your thought. Your thoughts become your words. Your words become your action. Your action becomes your habit. Your habits become your values. Your values become your destiny.”