New college chancellor ready to fire up ‘social justice engine’ for students

Though guiding the return from more than a year of COVID-19-imposed distance learning is his most obvious immediate concern, new Contra Costa Community College District Chancellor Bryan Reece said his chief long-term mission is no less clear.

“Community colleges are social justice engines, some with 85 to 90 percent students of color, some whose families have had a lesser experience in the U.S.,” said Reece, who was formally appointed the college district’s new chancellor on Oct. 22. “We’re trying to change the trajectory of these families’ lives by injecting education into them.”