New Chabot College President Jamal Cooks will be the featured presenter when the Hayward Rotary Club next meets for a luncheon on Monday, Sept. 11.
Cooks was appointed by the Chabot-Las Positas Community College District Board of Trustees as the college's 10th president and officially took office Aug. 1.
He brings more than 20 years of teaching, research, and leadership to the presidency. He served as vice president of academic services at Chabot since 2022, although he held the role on an interim basis in 2021. He also served as a professor at San Francisco State University, and has taught in the K-12, California State University and community college systems.
Originally from East Oakland, he attended Skyline High School and earned a bachelor’s degree in political economy of industrial societies from UC Berkeley. He earned his teaching credential from Cal State East Bay, and his master's and doctorate from the University of Michigan.
Chabot College is 62 years old this fall, has about 12,000 students, is rebuilding its student population post-pandemic, and has several hundred million dollars in bond issue construction projects underway.