DCCCD’s Dr. Sharon Blackman (left) with Dr. Jennifer Wimbish, president of Cedar Valley College, who introduced the award recipient during the presentation ceremony
Contact: Ann Hatch
214-378-1819;
ahatch@dcccd.edu
For immediate release — April 15, 2016
News brief
Dr. Sharon Blackman, Dallas County Community College District’s Talent Central strategic learning consultant, is a 2016 recipient of the Paul A. Elsner International Excellence in Leadership Award from the Chair Academy.
“This is the Academy’s highest award, and I am very honored to have been a recipient,” said Blackman, who is the first DCCCD honoree named an Elsner winner in the organization’s history. Dr. Jennifer Wimbish, president of Cedar Valley College, introduced Blackman before she received the award. Dr. Tom Thompson of Olds College, located in Canada, also was an Elsner winner.
The Chair Academy, celebrating its 25th anniversary, provides professional development to individuals in leadership positions and to aspiring leaders. Its mission is “to design and promote world-class training programs and services to advance academic and administrative leadership for post-secondary institutions worldwide in an era of change.”
A senior administrator for more than 35 years, Blackman joined DCCCD as president of Brookhaven College. Several year later, she was appointed to serve as the district’s associate vice chancellor for educational affairs, then its provost.
Before joining Brookhaven College, Blackman served as president of Oakland Community College’s Auburn Hills campus; prior to that she had served in various administrative positions at DCCCD’s Richland College from 1983-1988. She has also held positions at Youngstown State University, Earlham College in Indiana and Tennessee State University.
She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and holds a doctorate in educational administration from the Scholars of Practice program at Baylor University.
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