A Qualified Voice Silenced by Leadership 

Wenatchee Valley College Board of Trustees
Wenatchee Valley College

Subject: Formal Letter of Concern Regarding Presidential Leadership, Hiring Practices, and Employee Retention

Dear Members of the Board of Trustees,

I am writing to express deep concern regarding the leadership and administrative practices of the Wenatchee Valley College President, which directly contributed to my forced resignation and the departure of many other valuable employees. While my tenure at WVC was short, I thoroughly enjoyed my role and was dedicated to my team and the college community.

During my year of service, I delivered significant and measurable improvements to the college’s operational efficiency and student services, including:

• Process Automation: Automated admissions processing utilizing ctcLink functionality, reducing weekly processing time from approximately twenty hours to two hours.

• Academic Oversight: Directed the quarterly review of degree requirements and oversaw the accurate posting of undergraduate degrees.

• Policy and Curriculum Development: Collaborated extensively with faculty and staff on changes to academic policy, curriculum, and guided pathways, regularly attending key policy and curriculum committees.

• Fiscal Responsibility: Developed, monitored, and maintained departmental budgets, and provided data-driven recommendations regarding staffing needs.

• Team Leadership: Provided effective leadership for employee hiring, supervision, evaluation, and professional development, ensuring high-quality services crucial for student success.

• Compliance and Risk Mitigation: Developed and presented continuous training for staff on regulatory processes, state and federal laws, ensuring college-wide compliance and mitigating institutional risks.

My experience and four advanced degrees, combined with two decades of professional work, led many colleagues to recognize that I was highly qualified and positioned for advancement within the college. However, my attempts to advance were consistently blocked by the President.

Pattern of Discriminatory Hiring Practices

When the Vice President of Student Services position became vacant, I immediately requested a meeting with the President to share my extensive qualifications and offer my support. The meeting was unproductive, characterized by what felt like disguised misogyny, where I was treated like a woman whose qualifications needed explanation to a man unwilling to value them.

I submitted my application for the role but was later informed by members of the hiring committee that the President prescreened all applications and instructed Human Resources on which applications to forward. My highly qualified application was intentionally excluded from consideration, denying me an interview. I was subsequently told by another Vice President that my exclusion was due to the President's belief that I had an “alliance” to the previous VP who had hired me—a clear rationale used to bypass merit.

A few months later, a Director of Financial Aid position became vacant. The President enacted an internal posting, recruited a male candidate from within the Financial Aid office who did not possess the required degree or formal qualifications at the time, and hired him through an informal email process. This hiring decision was made despite other more qualified individuals being available within the department. To compound this issue, the male candidate was hired at a salary higher than mine, despite my four degrees and twenty years of experience vastly exceeding his.

Retaliation and Contribution to High Turnover

When I raised these issues by filing an EEO complaint with Human Resources and the current Vice President of Student Services, the situation escalated. I was informed that the President flatly refused to increase my salary to match the new hire's pay, and, more disturbingly, stated that if I didn't like it, I could quit.

This blatant disregard for merit, compliance, and employee value ultimately led me to resign. I am one of more than 100 employees who have left the college due to the environment fostered by this leadership, contributing significantly to what has been termed the "great resignation" at WVC. This turnover rate is unacceptable and destabilizes the educational environment for our students.

I urge the Board of Trustees to immediately and thoroughly investigate the President’s conduct, his direct involvement in hiring practices, the resulting salary disparities, and the documented crisis-level employee turnover.

Thank you for your attention to this critical matter. 

Former Employee of WVC