The Alamo Colleges’ receipt of the prestigious, 2018 National Malcolm Baldrige Award, affirms the District is among the most effective and efficient organizations in the United States. It is one of only five organizations recognized this year by the Department of Commerce and the only community college district ever to receive the honor. This is an acknowledgement to our current and future students, employers, elected officials, economic development leaders, ISD and university partners that the talented and dedicated Alamo Colleges employees deserve the recognition from our diverse communities across our eight-county service area for transforming the Alamo Colleges into a powerful and crucial educational, social and economic engine for Texas.
Despite the on-going financial cuts and dramatically changing environment, challenging all organizations, the Alamo Colleges’ Board of Trustees, the administration, staff, faculty, students and community members stayed the course the board set as its vision in 2006: “To become the best community college district in the nation in student success and performance excellence”. Under this umbrella, the individual Alamo Colleges have achieved a level of high performance: Palo Alto College has been designated by the Aspen Institute as one of the top ten community colleges in the nation; Northwest Vista as the top community college in Texas and sixth best in the nation; San Antonio College and St. Philips College are also among the top institutions in the nation, and Northeast Lakeview College has been accredited and is already achieving progress in its Texas Baldrige journey. The Alamo Colleges District graduates more students than any other community college in Texas.
The Baldrige Award requires dedication, discipline, strategic focus, persistence, passion, creativity, risk taking, commitment and collaboration from employees across the entire district. The award recognizes how mature and collaborative the District has become. The Board’s policies of Student Success, Principle Centered Leadership (based on the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People) and Performance Excellence (based on the Baldrige Model) – collectively referred to as “The Alamo Way” – has proven to be the correct approach to achieving the publics’ expectations that the Alamo Colleges serve its students, employers and communities with a high level of efficiency, quality and educational creativity that meet constantly changing requirements and contribute substantially to the economic and social strength of our region.
Congratulations to the Alamo Colleges employees and Board of Trustees for their courage to become the very best.
BIO: Dr. Leslie retired after 34 years as a community college CEO, serving as Chancellor of the Alamo Colleges District from November 2006 until October 1, 2018.
