Hudson County Community College’s Dr. Paula P. Pando to Receive 2014 Community College Spirit Award
June 10, 2014
North Hudson Center & Student Affairs Vice President will be honored by New Jersey Council of Colleges at their Annual Meeting.
June 10, 2014, Jersey City, NJ – Dr. Paula P. Pando, the Vice President for North Hudson Center and Student Affairs at Hudson County Community College (HCCC), will be presented with the 2014 Community College Spirit Award by the New Jersey Council of County Colleges (NJCCC). Dr. Pando will be recognized at the NJCCC Annual Meeting on Monday, June 16th at the Lafayette Yard Hotel in Trenton, NJ
The Community College Spirit Award was inaugurated in 1993, and is an honor bestowed upon a select few who have helped advance the community college movement. NJCCC President Dr. Lawrence A. Nespoli wrote that Dr. Pando is being acknowledged because she embodies the Community College Spirit – perseverance, dedication, and excellence. She has worked on the NJCCC statewide “Big Ideas Project,” and coauthored the concept paper on “Student Services that Support Student Success and College Completion.”
The daughter of Chilean immigrants, Dr. Pando was born in Hudson County’s Margaret Hague Hospital. Her family moved to Chile, but returned to the U.S., moving to Union City where she attended Gilmore and St. Joseph’s Schools. After earning a bachelor’s degree from Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, and master’s degree from Saint Peter’s College, Pando began her career in higher education as Director of Campus Activities and Programs at Saint Peter’s College (now St. Peter’s University).
In 2003, Pando joined Hudson County Community College as Associate Dean for Student Services. She was promoted to Vice President for Student Affairs/Dean of Students at HCCC in 2006, and in 2009 was named Vice President for North Hudson Center and Student Affairs. A year later, she was awarded her Ed.D. in Education Leadership from Rowan University.
Dr. Pando recently appeared on the “Students Sharing Success” program on Caucus: New Jersey, which is hosted by Steve Adubato.
She is also one of the organizers of the Strategic Enrollment Management Conference, which will be held on Thursday, June 19th at Hudson County Community College. More than 100 representatives from all of New Jersey’s nineteen community colleges – Chief Student Services/Enrollment Oficers, Chief Financial Officers, Chief Academic Officers, and Institutional research and Marketing/Communications professions – are expected to attend.
“We are very proud of Dr. Pando,” said HCCC President Dr. Glen Gabert. “Her dedication to the College and her tenacious advocacy on behalf of our students are exemplary, and have enriched this institution as well as our community.”