Annemarie Hamlin named COCC’s vice president of academic affairs

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Central Oregon Community College has announced that following a national search, the college has selected Annemarie E. Hamlin, Ph.D., former instructional dean at COCC, to assume the role of vice president of academic affairs.

One of three vice presidents at COCC, Hamlin started in her new position on July 11.

The vice president of academic affairs is the chief academic officer at COCC, reports to the president and is a member of the president’s senior leadership team. The position is responsible for the overall direction of all academic programs, as well as the recruitment and development of faculty.

“Annemarie brings incredible leadership and a deep understanding of community colleges to this position, with insightful experience into transfer educations and career and technical programs, among other strong suits,” said Dr. Laurie Chesley, president of COCC. “We are extremely fortunate to have her academic vision, her strength at forging community and educational partnerships, and her dedication to serving and advocating for all populations.”

A former humanities professor, department chair and instructional dean at COCC, Hamlin brings extensive higher educational experience within instruction and administration to her new appointment. Having been with the college since 2007, and serving as a COCC faculty member for 18 years, she was department chair from 2015 to 2019 and most recently served as instructional dean at COCC.

Hamlin has impacted a number of large-scale, student success-oriented initiatives at COCC, such as contributing to the college’s $2.25 million Title III federal grant rollout, aimed at boosting student retention rates, and co-chairing a student experience group for COCC’s current strategic plan.

She has worked with the region’s major accrediting agencies, the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities and the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, to ensure specific accreditation-based curriculum at COCC meets important benchmarks and standards, and helped design and implement a training structure for district high school teachers geared at providing college credit for high schoolers.

Hamlin has served as an executive committee member for the Modern Language Association’s associated departments of English and also chaired the MLA’s community college committee. She is a past chair for the Higher Education Coordinating Commission’s oversight committee for high school-based college credit partnerships and was vice president for the Pacific Western division of the national Community College Humanities Association.

Prior to joining COCC, Hamlin held faculty posts with La Sierra University and Mt. San Antonio College; her teaching career spans 26 years in full. She received her master’s degree and doctorate in English from Claremont Graduate School and her bachelor’s degree in English and French from Pacific Union College.

A committed advocate and ally for underrepresented populations, and a key designer of the college’s anti-racist pedagogy training, Hamlin is a past recipient of COCC’s diversity achievement award. She serves on the governing board for the Central Oregon nonprofit MountainStar Family Relief Nursery, is an alum of Leadership Bend and completed the Oregon Association of Community Colleges’ Oregon Executive Leadership Academy.