Community Colleges Award Winners

The Community Colleges Division is thrilled to present two awards annually, the Community Colleges Professional Award and the Community Colleges Research and Scholarship Award, to individuals who are leaders in the profession, advocates for student learning and development, and have shown true commitment to NASPA.

This year we are excited to announce the recipients of these two esteemed awards. We encourage you to consider nominating a peer for the 2019 awards once the nomination process opens near the end of Spring 2018.

2018 Community Colleges Professional Award Recipient

Chrissy L. Davis Jones, Ed.D.
Acting Vice President of Student & Administrative Services
Spokane Falls Community College

Currently, Chrissy serves as the Acting Vice President of Student Services at Spokane Falls Community College in Spokane WA, and prior to her current position, she served as the Dean of Students for seven years. She has nearly 20 years of experience working at various community and technical colleges with 16 of those years focused on developing, restructuring, and implementing successful student services-related programs with an expertise in academic advisement systems. Chrissy also serves as faculty for the National Academic Advising  Association’s (NACADA) online eTutorial classes through Kansas State University. When she is not in the ‘traditional classroom', she is facilitating workshops, conducting presentations, and/or spending time researching and writing that includes serving as reviewer/Editorial Board member for NASPA’s Journal of About Women in Higher Education.

2018 Community Colleges Research & Scholarship Award Recipient

Elena Sandoval-Lucero, Ph.D.
Vice President, Boulder County Campus
Front Range Community College

Dr. Elena Sandoval-Lucero joined Front Range Community College (FRCC) in June 2017, as vice president of the Boulder County Campus. She serves as CEO of the campus, and represents the campus and FRCC throughout Boulder County. Dr. Sandoval-Lucero has more than 25 years of experience in academic and student affairs settings in community colleges and universities. Before joining FRCC, she served as vice president of student affairs at Community College of Aurora. She also worked as director of admissions and outreach at Metropolitan State University of Denver. At the University of Colorado Denver, she served as an assistant research professor, assistant director of extended studies, and coordinator of student services in the School of Education and Human Development. Dr. Sandoval-Lucero teaches in the higher education program at the University of Denver, and has presented, researched, and written extensively about the field of student affairs in higher education.