Dr. Diana M. Doyle, president of Colorado’s Arapahoe Community College (ACC), has strategically navigated the impact of the pandemic, calling on her 43 years of experience in higher education.
Doyle has been the president of ACC for the past 11 years, and, when she retires at the end of this academic year, she will do so with a sense of accomplishment and contentment.
“To make a real difference for student success and employee success requires knowing that it takes a team effort,” says Doyle, whose doctorate is in public administration. “It has to be a collaboration between administrators, faculty, community members and employers — everybody working together to ensure that we’re providing relevancy for the communities that we serve.”
In a typical school year, ACC serves more than 20,000 credit and non-credit students across three campuses in the Greater Denver Metropolitan area. Doyle was behind the building of a new state-of-the-art Collaboration Campus in partnership with the Sturm Family Foundation, Colorado State University and the Douglas School District.
Doyle started her higher education career as a residence hall director at Illinois State University, which she says was excellent training for everything that came after because it involved conflict management, supervision and being adaptable. The first 20 years of her career were at universities, but once she had her first community college position, she fell in love with the mission.
“We provide opportunity for everyone who wants to learn, and that fits very well with my own philosophy in education,” Doyle says. “It’s about understanding who your students are and what their needs and obstacles are.”
Dr. Lisa Matye Edwards, ACC vice president of student affairs, says Doyle has supported the work of student affairs “in all ways.” From making sure the department has the resources it needs to thinking creatively about how to meet the vast needs of today’s community college students, Doyle has been involved.
