New college president brings past experience

BARSTOW • Ever since coming to Barstow Community College to fill a temporary role last fall, Dr. Thom Armstrong has felt a tug to return.

“I felt for a long time that I was being drawn to [BCC] since my interim experience there,” said Armstrong, who served as interim vice president of academic affairs for seven months and acting president of student affairs for one month.

Now, Armstrong is back at the college in a bigger role than ever as its 15th president.

As he takes charge, Armstrong’s vision for the college includes initiatives he took on at his previous two college administrative positions.

At Copper Mountain College, a 2,500-student junior college in Joshua Tree where he was president from 2004 to 2007, Armstrong developed a program to train registered nurses. The program doubled in two years, he said.

Armstrong wants to create a similar program at BCC, as well as other health science-related training for positions like pharmacy technicians.

Because health care is “the fastest growing industry,” the programs would prepare students for jobs while meeting society’s needs, said Armstrong.

“The sky’s the limit,” he said.

Armstrong also envisions creating BCC’s first study abroad program which he hopes will bring more international students to campus. While at Citrus College in Glendora, Armstrong helped the college team up with a study abroad consortium for schools that wanted to participate but couldn’t run their own full-fledged programs.

In order to get to know his new community, the native of Vancouver, Wash., and his wife, Cheryl, will be moving to Barstow from Twentynine Palms.

Dr. Joann Jelly, a psychology professor who worked with Armstrong during his interim position, said he has already been inquiring about how to get involved in Barstow.

From her time working with Armstrong, Jelly said she sees Armstrong as a visionary leader who possesses down-to-earth qualities.

“The neat thing was you could be totally direct — you didn’t have to couch your words,” Jelly said.

Armstrong will face some challenges as the new president — foremost the state budget’s impact on community college education, said outgoing Interim President Dr. Richard Jones.

Jones noted, however, that Armstrong will be inheriting “an excellent management team” to help weather the current financial storm.

“He’s walking into a good situation in a bad fiscal time,” said Jones.

The 58-year-old and his wife have two sons — Nathan, 28, who is involved in musical theater in Los Angeles, and Zachary, 22, who just graduated from Boston University and is planning to teach high school English.

Contact the writer:
(760) 256-4122 or elee@desertdispatch.com