INDIANAPOLIS – Complete College America (CCA) announced today the launch of the Complete College Arizona Consortium and its designation as the 43rd member of the CCA Alliance. The consortium is a joint effort between the Maricopa Community College District and Pima Community College and impacts approximately 250,000 students in the Grand Canyon State.
As a new Alliance Member, the Arizona Consortium has committed to setting college attainment goals, collecting and reporting the Common College Completion Metrics, and pursuing Game Changer strategies – interventions such as Corequisite Support, Math Pathways, and Guided Pathways that are proven to dramatically increase college completion rates and close attainment gaps for large numbers of students across the involved institutions.
“More than any other time in our history, achieving a college degree or credential of value may the single most important factor in whether not a person will achieve their American Dream, and at institutions across the country, we’ve fallen short in making that Dream a reality for far too many of our students,” said Complete College America president Tom Sugar. “In Arizona, leaders at the Maricopa Community College District and Pima Community College are committed to doing everything in their power to unlock opportunity for all their students, especially those most often left behind.”
The Complete College Arizona Consortium will be led by a six-person Alliance Team that includes representatives focused on the pillars of Equity, Metrics and Evidence, Policy, Communications, and Implementation. The team will represent Arizona at national convenings and work jointly across institutions to scale initiatives that improve college completion rates and achieve equitable outcomes for their students. Team members are:
- Gregory Busch, Vice President of Instruction and Guided Pathways, Pima Community College – Team Lead and Implementation Lead at Pima Community College
- Sam Dosumu, Associate Vice Chancellor, Academic Affairs, Maricopa Community College District – Implementation Lead at Maricopa Community College
- Daisy Rodriguez-Pitel, Associate Director for Global Engagement, Pima Community College – Equity Lead
- Sue Kater, Associate Vice Chancellor, Institutional Strategy, Research, and Effectiveness, Maricopa Community College District – Policy and Legislation Lead
- Brooke White, Director, State Local Government Relations, Maricopa Community College District – Policy and Legislation Lead
- Lisa Brosky, Vice Chancellor, External Relations, Pima Community College – Communications Lead
“The Complete College Arizona Consortium will position Pima and Maricopa to meet critical goals in student retention and completion in ways that both strengthen our workforce and in turn, our communities,” said Chancellor Lee Lambert of Pima Community College.
“We are proud to join Pima Community College and Complete College America and continue critical work to raise Arizona’s completion rates,” said Dr. Maria Harper-Marinick, Maricopa County Community College District Chancellor. “It is time to transform our community colleges so that we provide Arizonans a chance to learn the skills and knowledge necessary to compete for the jobs of the future.”
