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WELCOME LETTER
Roberto Zárate
J. Noah Brown
On behalf of the ACCT Board of Directors and staff, thank you for joining us in one of America’s greatest cities for the
47th Annual ACCT Leadership Congress. Today New Orleans stands as not only one of the world’s most unique cultural
destinations, but one of its greatest success stories.
Like this great city, many of us have been through turbulent times over the past decade, and today we are better and
stronger for it. We’ve come out on the other side of our difficulties not only more resilient, but more innovative and
more responsive—and we have integrated these qualities into how we live and how we do business.
The theme of the 47th Annual ACCT Leadership Congress is more than a theme: it is a call to action. We are calling
for community college trustees, presidents, chancellors and other leaders to draw upon the lessons learned over the
past decade to set the bar for educational achievement and completion even higher. We are extremely grateful to
our sponsors, Phi Theta Kappa, USA Funds and the Lumina and Gates Foundations, for enriching the ACCT Congress
program with more and more in-depth content than ever before.
Our work as community college leaders is more multifaceted than ever before. We are challenged to improve the
nation’s economic prosperity by addressing workforce needs while also delivering on the national goal to have the
highest proportion of college graduates in the world, as well as addressing educational disparities by supporting equity,
inclusion, and access through the door of opportunity to even more Americans. This is a daunting and highly complex
set of tasks. The good news is that we’ve already made tremendous progress, and as long as we keep working harder
and smarter, we’ll pull it off.
This week, you’ll hear from national education leaders about major developments, changes, and innovations in the
sector, and share ideas with your peer leaders from every corner of the country, through over 120 concurrent sessions.
Every interaction is an opportunity to learn, and every learning opportunity holds the potential for transforming your
own institution into something even greater than it is today.
Be sure to attend as many sessions as you can, and also speak with as many strangers as you can. Meet new colleagues,
make new friends, and take a little time to get to know those of us on the ACCT staff. Tell us what we’re doing to meet
your needs and what more we can do. Take away all the lessons you can from this meeting and its one-of-a-kind host
city, and save up enough energy to take action when you get back home. Your students and your community are
counting on you.
Roberto Zárate
ACCT CHAIR
J. Noah Brown
ACCT PRESIDENT & CEO
2016 ACCT Leadership Congress 3