Margaret Quiñones has been elected chair and Carole Currey vice chair of the Santa Monica Community College District Board of Trustees for 2004. Their one-year terms began Dec. 1.
Quiñones, serving for the first time as chair, succeeds Herb Roney, and Currey fills the spot previously held by Quiñones. The officer posts rotate annually.
Quiñones was elected to the board in November 2000. Prior to that, she served eight years as a trustee on the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Board, including one year as president.
A counselor at El Camino College in Torrance, Quiñones has had broad experience at community colleges and social service agencies. She also has been active in several professional and community organizations, primarily in education and Latino organizations.
An SMC graduate, she received her bachelor’s degree in mental health research methods from California State University at Dominguez Hills, a master’s in counseling psychology from the University of Southern California, and a doctorate in educational leadership from UCLA. She also was a fellow of the JFK Harvard School of Government.
Dr. Quiñones was the first Latina elected to the SMMUSD board and to the SMC board.
Currey, serving her fifth stint as vice chair, was elected to the SMC board in April 1979 and has served as chair four times. A former member of the SMMUSD board, she has long been involved in a wide range of community and education organizations.
She was elected five times to the California Community College Trustees Board of Directors and served as president in 2001-02. She is also on the board of the Community College Leadership Development Initiative Foundation and has been appointed a lay member of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges Board of Appeals.
She has served on the State Committee of Practitioners for Vocational Education, the Regional Workforce Preparation and Economic Development Act Advisory Group, and the Consultation Task Force on the Review of Participatory Governance.
Currey is a member of the Santa Monica Historical Society Museum Board of Directors and she serves on the advisory board of Family Service of Santa Monica. She also is a member of the National Women's Political Caucus and the League of Women Voters.
She currently teaches current affairs/history classes to older adults and high school diploma courses through the Culver City Unified School District’s adult education.
Currey received her bachelor's degree in history of art and French from Northwestern University and a master’s degree in teaching English from Columbia University Teachers College.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 4, 2003. Read the original PDF.