Joe Garcia, retired chancellor of the Colorado Community College System and former Lieutenant Governor, recognized for lifetime commitment to educational access and student success
INDIANAPOLIS (Nov. 18, 2025) — Complete College America (CCA), a national nonprofit dedicated to raising postsecondary attainment in the United States, announced today that Joe Garcia, the recently retired chancellor of the Colorado Community College System, is the 2025 recipient of the prestigious Stan Jones Legacy Award. The award recognizes Garcia’s transformative leadership in expanding educational access, strengthening community college-industry partnerships, and building student-centered programs that improve pathways to economic mobility.
“Joe Garcia has been a pivotal force in higher education, dedicated to ensuring that students—particularly those who might not otherwise earn a college degree—have access to the education and opportunities they need to succeed,” said Dr. Yolanda Watson Spiva, president of Complete College America. “His work has left a legacy both in Colorado and across the nation for increasing student access and success. He embodies the vision and values upon which Complete College America was founded, and the organization is proud to honor him with this award.”
The Stan Jones Legacy Award, established in 2016 to honor CCA’s founder and first president, recognizes individuals, organizations, or states that exemplify CCA’s commitment to student success, college completion, and innovation in higher education. Previous recipients include the University of Hawai’i System, Dr. Allen Maxwell, former Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam, Dr. Lawrence G. Abele, Dr. Estela Mara Bensimon, the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education, and Dr. Tristan Denley, all of whom have demonstrated exceptional leadership in advancing college completion and postsecondary student success.
Before his role as chancellor of the Colorado Community College System, Garcia served as president of Pikes Peak Community College, president of Colorado State University-Pueblo, lieutenant governor of Colorado, executive director of the Colorado Department of Higher Education, and president of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education. Throughout his impressive career, Garcia employed the power of policy, perspective, and practice to move key educational initiatives forward to increase college completion.
Garcia has also been a longtime advocate for Complete College America’s work, initially serving as a CCA Fellow and then as a CCA Board Member. Throughout this time, he has presented on behalf of and represented CCA at conferences across the country, consistently conveying the organization’s message of urgency and possibility.
His commitment to increasing educational attainment has been recognized with numerous national honors, including the Hispanic Association of Colleges & Universities (HACU) Hall of Champions Award, the Latin American Educational Foundation’s Sol Trujillo National Lifetime Leadership Award, and the Higher Education Equity Champion Legacy Award from the Colorado Department of Higher Education.
Garcia has also served on multiple boards dedicated to advancing educational opportunity, including the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), the Colorado Workforce Development Council, the Colorado Opportunity Scholarship Initiative, and the Business Experiential Learning Commission.
“It is an honor to be recognized by Complete College America, an organization whose mission and policies helped guide me throughout my career and made me a more effective leader,” Garcia said. “This work has never been about any one person—it’s about the thousands of students whose lives have been transformed through access to quality education and the dedicated professionals who work every day to make that possible.”
CCA presented the Stan Jones Legacy Award to Garcia at NEXT: The 2025 Annual Convening, held in Baltimore. The event brought together more than 750 professionals, policymakers, and practitioners focused on college completion and student success.
About the Stan Jones Legacy Award
Stan Jones founded Complete College America in 2009 and served as president for eight years. The Stan Jones Legacy Award was established in 2016 as the CCA President’s Award for “Uncommon Leadership” and renamed in 2017 following Jones’s passing. The award is given annually to an individual, organization, or state that has consistently embodied the vision of Complete College America and works toward achieving the goal of increasing the number of students who earn credentials of value.
About Complete College America
Complete College America (CCA) builds movements for scaled change and transforms institutions. Specifically, CCA drives systemic change that leads to better college completion rates; scalable outcomes; and greater economic and social mobility, especially for historically excluded students. CCA operates at the federal, state, and institutional levels and works with its national network of forward-thinking state and higher education leaders. Since its founding in 2009, CCA and its network have introduced bold initiatives that help states and institutions implement data-driven policies, student-centered perspectives, and success-driven practices.
