Dr. Ricky Shabazz is an enthusiastic, student-centered leader with over 18 years of executive experience advancing academic achievement, educational equity, diversity, and improving access to higher education. Dr. Shabazz is a team builder with an accomplished track record developing collaborative partnerships that improve student success. He is specializing in enrollment management and cultivating institutional policies, processes, and culture that provide both personalized student experiences and improved student outcomes. His mother was a teenage parent, and he was the first person in his family to attend college. Dr. Shabazz is a promotor of innovative solutions that stimulate inclusive dialogs amongst all stakeholders, and he is a passionate lifelong learner who is absolutely committed to the mission of community colleges to educate a diverse community of learners.
Dr. Shabazz currently serves as the President of San Diego City College, where he provides executive leadership at one of the most innovative and socially active community colleges in the nation. His duties include leading interventions and discussions aimed at improving completion, success, and equity of culturally diverse students.
Dr. Shabazz is the former Vice Present of Student Services at San Bernardino Valley College, where his responsibilities included providing leadership to offices and programs such as Admissions and Records, Assessment, Counseling, Financial Aid, Outreach, Student Development and Student Discipline, ASB, EOPS/CARE, CalWORKs, Disabled Student Services, Federal TRIO programs, Foster Care Education Programs, First Year Experience, the Transfer Center, and Graduation. His team opened one of the state’s first Dreamer’s Resource Centers, and in his last year at Valley College, the college graduated one of its largest graduating classes.
As the former Dean of Student Services at El Camino College Compton Center, Dr. Shabazz provided leadership for enrollment management and all of Compton Center’s student services programs. Under his leadership, Compton Center’s image greatly improved in the community and enrolled grew from 6,700 students in 2006/07 to approximately 14,000 students in 2012/13. During the 2012/13 academic year, Compton Center graduated and transferred more students than in the school’s recent history.
In addition to his work at the Compton Center, Dr. Shabazz has extensive experience in enrollment management and college admissions. He has held positions as Associate Director in the Office of Admissions at Harvey Mudd College; Director of the MESA program and Assistant Director of Undergraduate Admissions at the University of California, Davis (UCD); and Analyst in the University of California Office of the President.
Dr. Shabazz earned an Ed.D. in educational leadership, as well as a master’s degree in educational administration from California State University, San Bernardino and a bachelor’s degree from UCD. Dr. Shabazz’s research expertise is in increasing college access for underrepresented students. He is a graduate of the Association of California Community College Administrators (ACCCA) Mentorship and Admin 101 programs, a Lakin Fellow, and an alumnus of Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD) President’s Academy.