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By Hunter Lee
El Camino Community College has found its next superintendent.
The Board of Trustees for the El Camino Community College District has named Brenda Thames as the successor to Dena P. Maloney, who will retire as superintendent/president once her contract ends at the end of next month.
Thames, who currently serves as the president of West Hills College Coalinga, will take over on July 1. She will make $307,000 her first year, according to the district’s superintendent salary schedule, and will be eligible for raises each year after that, pending Board of Trustee approval.
Thames has spent more than two decades working for community colleges throughout the state, in instruction, student services and administration.
“I am honored to have the opportunity to serve in the leadership role of a community college as distinguished and reputable as El Camino College,” Thames said in a statement. “El Camino College is known and recognized for the College’s deep commitment to equity and student success.”
Thames received her bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley, where she was a double major in sociology and social welfare. She also has two master’s degrees from USC, one in social work and another in public administration, and a doctorate in education from Oregon State University.
