Gavilan College announced July 11 the selection of Denee Pescarmona as the local community college’s new vice president of academic affairs.
Pescarmona will oversee the academic divisions of Gavilan College: Liberal Arts and Sciences, Career Education, Community Education and Noncredit Instruction.
For the past four years, Pescarmona has served as the dean of instructional support and student success at College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita. In that role, she provided administrative oversight to all instructional support and student support services at the college, including leadership of the Guided Pathways framework implementation and College Promise program.
Prior to that, Pescarmona served as acting dean of instruction and support programs at the college’s Canyon Country campus. In the spring of 2012 she served as the interim division dean of humanities.
Pescarmona originally joined College of the Canyons in August 2002 as a full-time English instructor. From 2004 to 2006, she served as the developmental sequence course coordinator, and from February 2008 until December 2011, she served as the faculty basic skills coordinator and as co-chair of the Skills4Success Committee. She also served as the full-time faculty union vice president and lead negotiator.
Most recently, Pescarmona served as liaison with public safety agencies to provide in-service employee training as well as serving as the college’s liaison to the Back-on-Track Inmate Education program partnership with the Los Angeles County Sheriff and CA Department of Justice. Her focus, both as a faculty member and administrator, has been to support student success and assist students with reaching their educational goals.
Pescarmona earned her master’s degree in English from Arizona State University and her bachelor’s degree in English from the University of San Diego. She has been married to her husband, Evan Franke, for 15 years, and they have an 11-year-old daughter. Pescarmona and her family plan to reside in Morgan Hill.
