Dr. Gregory Anderson

Vice President of Instruction Candidate

Students have been at the center of Dr. Anderson's work for more than three decades. What began with tutoring peers grew into a career spanning classrooms and academic leadership as a Peace Corps volunteer, tenured faculty member, Academic Senate president, dean, VP, vice chancellor, and college president. Raised in rural, northern Wisconsin where few went to college, he discovered the liberatory power of education through a caring professor, a scholarship to study abroad, and his first flight. Today, having taught across multiple countries and languages, including Spanish and Japanese, he sees executive leadership as an extension of teaching. Those experiences still drive his core conviction: Human talent is widely distributed, but opportunity is not. Equitable education drives social mobility and respects human dignity.

Dr. Anderson currently serves as Interim VP of Academic Affairs and Student Learning at Ventura College. Over the course of his career, he has led efforts that nearly doubled success rates for Black and Latino students, spread CCAP dual enrollment across every K-12 district, and established Dream Centers and a Puente program. He redesigned recruitment and onboarding to diversify the faculty and aligned strategic planning and resource allocation with curriculum and teaching. His approach builds systems that value classified professionals, support faculty leadership, and improve equitable student outcomes.

Dr. Anderson brings a long-standing connection to CSM. The homegrown Promise Scholars program exemplifies the integrated academic and student support he has spent his career building. He served as VP of Instruction at Cañada College, VP of Institutional Effectiveness at the District Office, and co-chair of ACCEL, the countywide adult education consortium. Those roles gave him direct knowledge of the district's communities, culture, and commitment to collaborative, equity-minded inquiry.

He holds a doctorate in Higher Education Administration from USC, a Master’s in Teaching from the School for International Training, and Bachelor’s degrees in Speech Communication and English from the University of Wisconsin.

Gregory believes community colleges do their best work when they open opportunity to all, honor the individuals who carry out the mission every day, and help students build futures.