LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Mendocino College’s Lake Center is welcoming its new director this month.
Mónica Flores’ first day at her new job was Thursday, July 1.
The Mendocino College Board of Trustees voted to approve her appointment at its June 9 meeting.
In her new role, she’ll oversee the Lake Center, a satellite campus in Lakeport located 30 miles from the main campus in Ukiah.
Flores told Lake County News the new position will give her the opportunity to implement positive, effective student success strategies at the center, which she said is an entry point to higher education for many Lake County students.
As she begins work at the center, she said it is going well, noting that while she had a lot to learn, “I have a great team at the Lake Center and amazing community support.”
She brings to her new role experience in secondary and higher education, which intersect at the community college level.
The Lake Center, in its location on Parallel Drive, opened for classes in January 2013. Later that year, then-Dean of Instruction Mark Rawitsch — the center’s longtime champion — retired, and a series of directors have followed him since.
Flores arrives at a time when there are hopes not just for long-term leadership for the center but for someone to guide the campus as it prepares to reopen fully for classes following the COVID-19 shutdown.
“The Lake County Friends of Mendocino College welcome Monica Flores as the new Lake Center director. We look forward to joining her efforts to advocate for programs and courses to benefit Lake County students attending Mendocino College,” said Friends member Wilda Shock.
Flores said she wants to continue building partnerships with K-12 school districts and improving dual enrollment pathways that allow high school students to work on their coursework and an associate degree at the same time so they can transfer to a university with sophomore or junior status, saving them time and money.
Her goals include increasing opportunities for community education and increasing services in Spanish. She said Mendocino College is a Hispanic-serving institution, which means that 25% of the overall enrollment is Hispanic. For the Lake Center, that percentage is 32%.
Shock said the Friends are supportive of Flores’ program goals for the campus.
Over the past seven years, Flores has worked as the program manager of the First Year Institute. Before that, she was with the College Assistance Migrant Program, leading teams that included counselors, faculty and classified staff in developing best practices for serving Latino and first generation college students in order to remove barriers, increase access to resources and front load students with tools for success.
She said that the team’s efforts led to improved retention and success rates for first year students and new institutional practices such as the New Student Welcome now available
to all first time students at Mendocino College.
Flores lives in Sonoma County, where she was raised, and has two children, a 10-year-old son and a 5-year-old daughter.
Experience in education
Born in Guadalajara, Mexico, Flores and her family moved to east Los Angeles when she was an infant.
Her father worked for actor Raymond Burr, known for his television portrayal of the attorney Perry Mason. When Burr decided to relocate to Sonoma County to build a vineyard and winery, he offered Flores’ father the opportunity to come with him.
So the Flores family moved to the Dry Creek/Alexander Valley area of Sonoma County when she was about 11 years old. Her father would work for Burr for 30 years; she remembers Burr as being a very nice and generous man.
Flores graduated from Geyserville High School, then went on to Stanford University, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in American studies with an emphasis in race and ethnicity, and a Master of Arts in education.
She completed her teaching credential, with an emphasis in social society and bilingual education, simultaneously with her master’s degree.
Her educational career began in the classroom, with Flores doing her student teaching and then remaining on staff for a few years at Sequoia High School in Redwood City. There, she taught social studies and English as a second language for newcomer students.
Flores said she wanted to return to Sonoma County and she did, teaching summer school and then applying for, and getting, a job at Sonoma State University as assistant director of a Title VII grant aimed at increasing the number of bilingual teachers in the area.
“That was my entry into higher education,” she said.
She later moved into the student services coordinator for the Sonoma State School of Education.
Flores said she liked working in Sonoma State’s School of Education, where she was employed for nine years.
However, she said she missed working more with the community and K-12 students, so she moved to coordinating migrant education in Mendocino County, developing programs to help increase the academic and social well-being of migrant students.
She then went to work with Mendocino College’s College Assistance Migrant Program about seven years ago, and in the spring of 2018 moved to the First Year Institute. Both of those programs help first-year and first-generation students be successful in community college.
Through those programs, she worked with students from both Lake and Mendocino counties.
When the Lake Center director position became available earlier this year, Flores said she was excited to explore it. “I really saw an opportunity for myself to grow as a professional and to bring some of these practices into a different environment.”
She said the campus acts as a one-stop center for Lake County students, who can come and enroll for classes, apply for financial aid and get tutoring.
For many students in Lake County, the Lake Center is a door to enter higher education. Florist said there is a misconception that attending community college means students weren’t good enough to attend a four-year university, which isn’t true.
“We are an incredibly good option for them to start their college education,” she said.
“We’re seeing more students come to us lately who would be eligible to go to the university,” but can’t because of the financial constraints of COVID-19, Flores added.
They can get a strong educational foundation through community college and will be able to excel if they choose to transfer to a university setting. Flores said that in working in the university setting, she’s seen transfer students with a depth and maturity that she didn’t always see in high school students entering college.
As for what’s ahead, “For the Lake Center, we are going to be coming back with a lot of on-the-ground courses starting in the fall semester,” she said.
The reopening will take some adjustment, but Flores said she is confident they can make students, staff and faculty feel safe.
She’s also looking forward to opportunities to enhance the center, noting they have built good working relationships with K-12 educational partners and the community in general, and the Friends of Mendocino College Lake Center is a supportive and enthusiastic group.
“I think our challenges are more opportunities for us to continue to strengthen our center,” Flores said.
She wants to build a stable schedule of classes to create consistency for students, work with the college’s dean of centers to examine student needs, leverage online resources — being mindful of the challenges some Lake County students have with internet access — and successfully recruit more instructors, which has been a challenge.
“The pool is always open,” she said, referring to the recruiting pool.
As a first-generation college graduate herself, Flores is focused on that group of young people, many of whom lack access to resources, and have the challenge of English being their second language.
In her case, she recalled her parents’ support for education. “We always emphasize how important it is to build on the things you do have,” she said, explaining that first-generation college students can draw from the dreams and work ethic of their parents.
Flores said the college also needs to grow more professional teachers and trades people for the community, as there is a high need for employees in so many areas.
At the same time, Flores said the college needs to make sure its students are ready to take opportunities as they come their way, and people need to be ready to take on jobs and leadership.
“Education is always a strong cornerstone of that,” she said.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
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