Daisy Gonzales

Daisy Gonzales, Ph.D., serves as the Deputy chancellor of the California Community Colleges, the largest system of public higher education in the United States. She leads the 116-community college system, which serves over 1.9 million students with a student-centered mindset and a goal of creating equitable and supportive ecosystems where students thrive.

She is an experienced and unapologetic advocate for student success. Born into an immigrant family in Southern California and raised as a former foster youth, Dr. Gonzales was among the first in her family to attend college. She credits her time in the Los Angeles foster care system and schools as having shaped her views of the integral role public institutions play in the lives of students and the economic development in a community.

Dr. Gonzales was appointed interim chancellor in August 2022 by the California Community Colleges Board of Governors. As the CEO of the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, her primary duties involved implementing the Vision for Success, a bold systemwide plan that seeks to reduce time to completion, increase degree and credential attainment, boost transfer to the University of California and California State University campuses, and provide Californians with the necessary job skills to find good-paying careers.

Her leadership as interim chancellor continued to break barriers as she is the first Latina and only the second woman to serve in the role. Dr. Gonzales works to empower students through her focus on equity and commitment to ensure students are at the center of every discussion and decision.

In addition to overseeing operational and strategic policy planning for the Chancellor’s Office, Dr. Gonzales has extensive experience leading transformational change across California’s 116 community colleges.

Prior to her appointment, she served as deputy chancellor from 2018-2022, and served as acting chancellor from July through November 2021. During her tenure, all student groups and all regions of California have seen improved outcomes. The number of students earning a college credential increased by 27% and the number of students earning transferrable associate degrees more than doubled. She is a champion of Assembly Bill 705, the state law, which calls for California Community Colleges to become the largest college system to end the flawed, high stakes student-placement assessments, and provide students direct access to transfer-level English and math with necessary supports. Under the leadership of Dr. Gonzales in the first year of implementation, the completion of transfer-level courses increased from 49% to 67% in English, and from 26% to 50% in mathematics over four years. This progress has led to more California community college students reaching their desired dreams and goals sooner.

In 2018, Dr. Gonzales oversaw the system’s adaptation of a new funding that supports student equity through intentional and strategic targeting of funds to districts serving low-income students. The implementation of the Student Centered Funding Formula (SCFF), places student success at the center of decision-making and rewards colleges who are closing student achievement gaps and helping students persist in pathways that lead to success.

As deputy chancellor, Dr. Gonzales also led the system’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility work, which has produced concrete policy changes to better serve a diverse student population by improving hiring practices and campus climate throughout California’s community colleges. This work led to the Board of Governors incorporating Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility competencies and criteria into performance evaluations and tenure review for all employees in 2021. Inspired by her dissertation work, the system’s commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility is supported through statewide professional development and technical assistance that seeks to empower and support the development of faculty and staff in our colleges.

Prior to joining the Chancellor’s Office in 2017, Dr. Gonzales served students as a dual-immersion third-grade teacher; a budget consultant for the California State Assembly Budget Committee, where she managed $11.2 billion in state and federal programs; and was the principal consultant for the Assembly Appropriations Committee. She also served as associate director for Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE), a non-partisan research center at Stanford University focused on designing equitable outcomes at all levels of the state’s education system.

Dr. Gonzales is a proud community college alum of Los Angeles Valley College. She graduated from Mills College with a bachelor's degree in public policy and earned a master's degree and Ph.D. in sociology from UC Santa Barbara. She is also a former Aspen Institute presidential fellow, serves on the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) and is the co-founder of the Sacramento Latina Leaders Network and the California Community Colleges Women’s Caucus. In 2021, she received the California Legislative Women’s Caucus Woman of the Year Award from Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, in recognition of her leadership throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hamish Brewer

Hamish Brewer is a powerful and positive disruptor who transcends the status quo and typical norms in leadership and education. Mr. Brewer is a globally recognized advocate who built his reputation on results and performance, becoming affectionately known as the Relentless, Tattooed Skateboarding Principal with his galvanizing message to “Be Relentless” and his high-octane delivery style.

Mr. Brewer served as an award-winning principal at both the secondary and elementary school levels.

Recognized as the NAESP Nationally Distinguished Principal and Virginia Principal of the Year, he was also honored with the VAESP School Bell Award and ASCD Virginia Impact Award. Hamish was named a Northern Virginian of the year by Northern Virginia Magazine and Principal of the Year for the online national publication – Education Dive. Prince William County Public Schools named Hamish the school division’s Principal of the Year and Hamish was recently recognized by Omega U as the Principal of the Year.

Under his leadership, his elementary school was recognized as a Nationally Distinguished Title 1 School, and Hamish has since gone on to turn around one of the toughest middle schools in the state of Virginia. Mr. Brewer is a highly sought-after international keynote speaker – motivating and inspiring audiences around the world, including being recognized as a TEDx speaker.

Originally from New Zealand, Hamish earned his first degree from the University of Auckland. Mr. Brewer is currently a doctoral student at Virginia Tech University. Hamish is the best-selling author of “Relentless – Disrupting The Educational Norm, published in 2019.Mr. Brewer currently consults with businesses and organizations around the world on leadership, culture, organizational performance change and improvement. As a Beachheads advisor to the New Zealand Trade Enterprise, he assists New Zealand businesses with their growth and advises them on strategic development in the North American marketplace.

Mr. Brewer previously served at the state level as the Federal Relations Coordinator on the Board of Directors with the Virginia Association of Elementary School Principals and was a lead fellow of NAESP’s Center for Innovative Leadership. He is a school turnaround and school improvement specialist, working with some of the most at-risk students in the United States. Mr. Brewer was highlighted as a Hometown Hero by Fox 5 in Washington, DC.

With more than 32 million views, his story is a viral sensation through the Freethink docuseries “Relentless”, and features in national news broadcasts across the United States and Australasia, including NBC and Lester Holt.

Mr. Brewer is also featured in the skateboarding humanitarian documentary Humanity Stoked.

Sacha Joseph-Matthews

Dr. Sacha Joseph-Mathews holds a Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communications from the University of the West Indies, Mona campus. A Masters of Science degree in Tourism and Hospitality Management and a Ph.D. in Business Administration with a specialization in marketing. She obtained both her Masters and PhD degrees from Florida State University. Professor Joseph-Mathews has been working and teaching in undergraduate, graduate and executive education for over 20 years and has been a DEI and marketing consultant for 15 years.

Dr. Joseph-Mathews has taught classes in the United States, the Caribbean, Asia and Africa. She is also an avid researcher and has published articles and done presentations across the globe on several topics including diversity, equity and inclusion, marketing, tourism, customer service, ethical consumption and international business.

In addition to her academic work and teaching at The University of the Pacific, Dr. Mathews runs an active marketing and DEI consultancy; Joseph Mathews Consulting where she advises, coaches and trains boards, executives, supervisors and front-line employees both domestically and abroad. Her clients include companies like LA Metro, ACCESS Transit, BART, the State of California, First Five Alameda, The City of Tracy and SamTrans to name a few. She also works with law enforcement agencies such as Lodi PD and the San Joaquin Sheriffs to help them understand their biases and school districts like Lodi Unified and Woodland Unified to limit the effects of bias in schools. She worked with the faculty at the Eberhardt School of Business to develop a DEI Certificate at the University of the Pacific and through her work there focuses primarily on small to medium sized businesses in the Central Valley.

When she is not teaching, researching or training she is travelling the world or hanging out with her husband Noren and their two kids; Naeomi and Lailoni.