Holmes wins the nomination from Chancellor of Foothill-De Anza College District.

In an email to faculty and staff, Chancellor Judy Miner, announced her recommendation of Lloyd Holmes as De Anza College’s fourth president.

“I am extremely excited about having Lloyd as part of the district’s executive team and am absolutely confident that his skills, experience, character and values are an ideal match for De Anza, particularly at this time,” said Miner in the email.

The nomination comes before a special meeting to be held by the Foothill-De Anza Board of Trustees on June 2, where the final decision will be made.

If approved at the meeting, Holmes will be replacing Christina Espinosa-Pieb, who has been interim-president since 2018.

Lloyd Holmes said that he had received notice just a couple of days before the announcement.

“I thought that we would know last week,” said Holmes. “So it’s sort of like sitting on pins and needles waiting to see who they have selected.”

Holmes will be moving from his home in Rochester, New York to California and has begun scoping out a new home. The projected start date for the new position is July 1.

Alicia Cortez, Dean of Equity and Engagement, said that she is excited on a number of levels about Holmes’ selection.

“In many ways, I think he encompasses where we are in terms of the work that we’ve done in the last 30 years,” said Cortez.

This will be the first time Holmes has held the position of president, which Miner said was nothing new to De Anza.

“None of its three prior presidents had been a president before,” said Miner in her announcement. “Founding president A. Robert DeHart was dean of students at Foothill College and directed the planning of De Anza before being named president.”

Concerns had been raised in a recent Academic Senate meeting that two of the candidates did not have much experience working in communities with a high population of Asian and Pacific Islander students.

Cortez said that she believes Holmes’ humanness and ability to work with people will transcend his lack of experience and he will be able to understand the community’s complexity.

Holmes, who said he was one of the candidates with less experience working with the Asian and Pacific Islander community, said he has to listen to their concerns.

“If I look at my life experiences, I’ve been in situations where there were things going on that people didn’t understand,” said Holmes. “But you have to make certain that number one, people know who you are, number two that they are comfortable coming to you with whatever their issues are and number three, that you make a commitment to helping solve those problems.”

Holmes also said he wanted to make a commitment to underrepresented and underserved groups on campus as well.

“I think we have to find a way that everyone feels important on the campus,” said Holmes. “Every single person.”

Shelly Michael, DASB Senate president, said the decision for her was between the heart and the head.

“I have to think about who is going to be the best representative, the best voice for students. Who is going to listen and make changes on behalf of students?” said Michael. “And at the end of the day, it was the heart and it was Lloyd.”