{"id":28307,"date":"2024-04-05T15:48:40","date_gmt":"2024-04-05T15:48:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/pueblo-community-college-announces-new-president\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T06:26:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T06:26:19","slug":"pueblo-community-college-announces-new-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/pueblo-community-college-announces-new-president\/","title":{"rendered":"Pueblo Community College announces new president"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Chato
Chato Hazelbaker is the new president of Pueblo Community College. (Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the Chancellor of the Colorado Community College System, Joe Garcia, announced the next president of Pueblo Community College, to replace Patricia Erjavec, who announced her plan to retire last year.<\/p>\n

The new president, Chato Hazelbaker, is president of Northland Pioneer College in Show Low, Arizona. He will begin his tenure at PCC on July 1.<\/p>\n

Erjavec will help Hazelbaker with the transition before she officially retires later this year.<\/p>\n

According to PCC, Hazelbaker has more than 20 years of experience in higher education, including \u201cholistic leadership experiences\u201d from two and four-year colleges, increasing student enrollment and retention, developing \u201cin-demand workforce training programs\u201d and creating strong partnerships with the community.<\/p>\n

The search for a president was led by a nine-member advisory committee.<\/p>\n

Stakeholders also were given input through multiple campus visits and open forums throughout the search process.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis search process was a true community effort. PCC employees and stakeholders contributed at every step of the process, from developing the position profile to participating in open forums, and with the position profile as a guide, the advisory committee identified several outstanding candidates to meet with additional stakeholders on campus in March,\u201d Garcia told The<\/em> Journal<\/em> about the search process.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom strategic planning to community relations, Dr. Hazelbaker brings a wide-ranging skill set that will have an immediate impact on PCC,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cHis commitment to academic excellence, coupled with his experience leading multiple campuses, make him the right choice for the college. I have no doubt that Dr. Hazelbaker will carry on PCC\u2019s impressive growth and legacy of innovation and inclusion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hazelbaker thanked Garcia upon accepting the position, as well as eagerly expressing his excitement for the future of PCC.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to building on the strong partnerships Pueblo Community College has developed and promoting economic development in Southern Colorado,\u201d he said. \u201cI also hope to continue the college\u2019s focus on student success. When our students achieve their goals, the entire community benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hazelbaker\u2019s experience includes his work as president of Native American-Serving Nontribal Institutions Program<\/a>, securing federal grant that supported Indigenous learners, revamping NPC\u2019s strategic planning process and enrollment strategy and boosting student retention by 7%. He also says he helped launch programs in behavioral health, allied health and energy and industrial technology and served as vice president of enrollment management and marketing for Carroll College in Helena, Montana.<\/p>\n

\u201cPueblo Community College has a strong reputation, and I really enjoyed my time getting to know the community and the college,\u201d Hazelbaker said. \u201cThe faculty, staff and students that I met are dedicated to making a positive difference in their communities. I\u2019m honored to be invited to be a part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAmong many priorities, I wanted to select a president who firmly believes in equity and inclusion and is ready to build on PCC\u2019s strong industry partnerships,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cGiven his focus on student success and community engagement, I expect Dr. Hazelbaker to make an immediate impact and carry on PCC\u2019s tradition of innovation and academic excellence.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

president Patricia Erjavec announced retirement last year<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28308,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[156,155,28,60,29,572,691],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-28307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-adult-education","tag-education","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-newsletter","tag-pueblo-community-college","tag-pueblo-community-college-southwest-campus"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28307"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80373,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28307\/revisions\/80373"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28307"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=28307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}