Massachusetts Bay's Community College Carole Berotte Joseph is nation's First Haitian College President FRAMINGHAM -- Carole Berotte Joseph will become the nation's first Haitian-born college president next month when Massachusetts Bay Community College stages her formal inauguration, the school announced. Berotte Joseph, who has served as the college's chief executive for almost a year already, will be sworn in on May 12.
Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, she moved to the United Sates as a child in 1957. Berotte Joseph, 57, speaks four languages: Haitian, French, Spanish and English.
"When I became president, I really didn't know if I was the first. Somebody who did research confirmed that for me," she said. "It's a big responsibility, because being the first, you're being a trailblazer."
The
Haitian immigrant community has had a number of firsts recently, she said, pointing to state Rep. Marie St. Fleur of Boston as one of the first lawmakers.
"As immigrant communities are establishing themselves in the U.S., they are really becoming part of the fabric of the American dream," she said.
The college is celebrating the inauguration with a week of Haitian-themed events. Several guests will speak, including Paul Farmer, who is associate chief of social medicine and health inequalities at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital and is the subject of a Pulitzer Prize-winning book by author Tracy Kidder.
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DCC Dean To Become President of Massachusetts Bay Community College
Carole Berotte Joseph Becomes Nation?s First Haitian American College President
Release Date February 14, 2005
Dr. Carole Berotte Joseph, a Hyde Park resident who has served as Dean of Academic Affairs at Dutchess Community College for the last four and a half years, has been selected as the new President of Massachusetts Bay Community College (MassBay), one of fifteen community colleges within the Massachusetts public higher education system. When Dr. Joseph assumes the reins of at MassBay on March 1, 2005, she will become the first Haitian American college president in the United States.
Dr. Joseph, who joined Dutchess Community College on October 1, 2000, provided academic leadership through the creation of seven new degree and certificate programs at the College. Many of these programs were initiated in response to community needs and developed collaboratively with community advisory committees and DCC faculty and staff.
DCC?s new programs include the American Sign Language Interpreter (with a Tri-Lingual option to interpret in Spanish) Associate of Applied Science (A.A.S.) Degree; the Fire Protection Technology A.A.S. Degree; the Fire and Occupational Safety Associate in Science (A.S.) Degree; the Aviation Science A.S. degree to be offered in the fall of 2005; the Dental Assisting Certificate; and the Teaching Assistant Certificate. Another new program, an A.S. in General Studies, has been approved at the campus level and is currently going through SUNY and State Education approvals. Dr. Joseph also worked with the Department of Behavioral Sciences to facilitate development of three jointly-registered teacher education programs with SUNY New Paltz.
Under Dr. Joseph?s leadership, the College expanded its collaborative programs with Dutchess County high schools, increasing the number of DCC credit classes offered to concurrently-enrolled high school students. These college-level courses are taught to DCC curriculum specifications, often by high school teachers who meet requirements to be DCC adjunct instructors. Classes occur during the school day, after school, and on weekends at high schools such as Poughkeepsie, Beacon, Dover, Pawling, and Red Hook.
Dr. Joseph has been active in the State Univeristy of New York Teacher Education Advisory Council, a group developed by SUNY Chancellor Robert King, in which she worked to create new teacher education templates for the SUNY system. She has also been active on the SUNY Professional Development Task Force, where she initiated discussions on the creation of a Distinguished Professorship Award for faculty members at SUNY?s community colleges.
Locally, Dr. Joseph has served on the boards of the Dutchess County Chapter of the American Red Cross, the United Way of Dutchess County, the Family Partnership Center, and the Hyde Park Recreation Commission.
Dr. Joseph emigrated to the United States as a young girl with her family during the years of Haiti?s Duvalier dictatorship. She earned her Bachelor?s Degree (cum laude) in Spanish and Education from the York College of the City University of New York (CUNY), and a Master?s degree (magna cum laude) in curriculum and teaching and in bilingual education from Fordham University. She received her Ph.D. in bilingual education and sociolinguistics from New York University in 1992.
A socio-linguist, Dr. Joseph entered the field of higher education as an adjunct lecturer in the Bilingual Education Program at the City College of CUNY. Within a year, she became a full-time faculty member and was instrumental in developing bilingual education programs for Haitian immigrant students enrolled in the New York City public schools. In 1996, Dr. Jospeh became the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at Hostos Community College and was later promoted to Vice President for Academic Affairs.
Dutchess Community College, part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system, was founded in 1957. The College serves residents of Dutchess and Putnam Counties as well as students from throughout the Mid-Hudson Valley area. DCC offers approximately 60 degree and certificate programs for nearly 8,000 full-and part-time credit students, as well as noncredit training and continuing education programs for approximately 11,000 people of all ages. MassBay is an open-access, accredited two-year public educational institution with more than 70 academic programs. It serves Boston and the MetroWest communities with campuses in Wellesley Hills, Framingham, and Ashland.