This year, three members of Citrus’ Board of Trustees are up for re-election, but two of them are not staying for another term.
Mary Ann Lutz and Patricia Rasmussen will not be running for re-election this fall and Laura Bollinger is running uncontested.
Candidates running for Area No. 5
Three candidates are running for Lutz’s position as Area No. 5 trustee, which represents Monrovia, Bradbury and portions of Duarte: Vickie Villegas, Randa Wahbe and Fernando Villegas.
Vickie Villegas is a graduate of East Los Angeles College where she majored in nursing before transferring to California State University, Fullerton. She got her bachelor’s from the Western University of Health Sciences.
She has been teaching since 2017 but has taken some time off to finish her doctoral degree.
Vickie Villegas said she has had no involvement with Citrus prior to her campaign. She said her involvement in the community of Monrovia comes from her work with her children’s elementary schools mostly through Girl Scouts.
She said even though she’s never run for office before she wants to be able to “sit at the table and be able to aid in providing my experience for decisions that are affecting the community and the students.”
“I’m all about equity, I’m all about education, and I’m all about… health,” she said. “ … Improving access to all of the services I think would make a difference for some people.
“ … I’ve been there, done it and there’s many challenges in life and I’ve worked and gone to school and I know it’s especially hard to do that and I want to just pave the way for the students and allow them to have an easier transition.”
While Wahbe isn’t a community college alumna, she graduated from California State University, Los Angeles with a bachelor’s in English and anthropology before getting her master’s in comparative literature from California State University, Fullerton.
“Citrus was… one of the first community colleges to hire me as a teacher… fresh out of grad school,” she said.
Wahbe said she was at Citrus for about two years teaching English before getting a full-time position at Cypress College, where she became tenured.
She is the vice president of the Community College Association.
“I know many of the faculty at Citrus because they come to our conferences and I represent them statewide,” she said.
“I think my experience has really made me well suited for this position,” Wahbe said. “ … I’ve interacted not just with the other faculty leaders around the state but also other trustee members, administrators and classified staff members and I’m in the room when they’re making decisions about… how to move forward on making changes.”
She said she thinks Citrus has come so far since she’s been there. Wahbe said she enjoys the additions such as the Pride Center and the Black Scholars, but she would love to see a Puente Program established at Citrus, which is something she coordinated at Cypress for 10 years.
Wahbe said she’d also like to set up a form of child care for students and staff on campus, which Citrus ended in 2012, as well as an apprenticeship program to create more connections with the trades available in the Career Technical Education programs.
Fernando Villegas has had a less traditional path than his other candidates.
He dropped out of college when he was 16 years old. He eventually went to Santa Monica College where he majored in business administration. Then he transferred to Loyola Marymount University where he got his bachelor’s in business administration in international business systems.
“I think that the theme of my campaign is about second chances,” Fernando Villegas said. “ … I think that my background is fairly unique. I had a lot of struggles earlier on and community college really saved my life.”
He later got his master’s in clinical psychology at Antioch University before getting his doctorate from Chicago School of Professional Psychology.
Fernando Villegas said he started from the bottom when he got to college and worked his way up. He said he sees higher education as a “fundamental benefit” and a tool toward social and economic mobility.
“I worked in higher ed for probably two decades… every school has its challenges and obstacles and I feel that I have a unique background that can definitely help with that process,” he said.
He has worked as an adjunct counselor at schools like East Los Angeles College, Pierce College and Los Angeles Southwest College and was an admissions evaluator at University of California, Irvine.
While he’s never run for public office, he is an appointed commissioner and has been appointed three times by the Monrovia City Council, where he assists with budgeting with event and city planning.
He also taught psychology at Citrus at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I didn’t just decide yesterday that I wanted to run,” Fernando Villegas said. “I’ve actually been looking at this position for many years… I’ve been waiting for this position to open up.”
He said he thinks the board should be diverse in terms of the life experiences each trustee has.
Fernando Villegas said he wants to work more closely with the high school in the surrounding communities as well as giving more attention to underserved students within Citrus’ communities.
While he said this passion project is years away, he’s interested in starting satellite colleges for Citrus, similar to what schools like Pasadena City College and East Los Angeles College does, to make Citrus more accessible to those further away from the current campus.
“Citrus College is only 10 miles from Monrovia but for a lot of students that’s a million miles away,” he said. “ … Community college is for everyone, not just a traditional student.”
One candidate receives endorsements
Lutz is endorsing Randa Wahbe for her position, and the Citrus College Faculty Association also chose to endorse Wahbe for Area No. 5.
“(Wahbe) understands the need to integrate a diversity of perspectives when it comes to decision making, and that is a very admirable characteristic that I saw in her,” Gerhard Peters, the president of the CCFA and a political science professor at Citrus, said.
When Lutz announced she was not going to be running for re-election, Peters said he reached out to Wahbe and told her to consider running to join the board.
Peters said Wahbe knows exactly what faculty does at Citrus College from her experience as a full-time faculty member at Cypress College for the past 25 years.
“One of the things she’s very committed to, which is a core element of our college’s mission, which is to have an equitable approach to the way that we reach out to our students,” he said.
He said another thing Wahbe wants to focus on is reaching out to the high schools in Citrus’ surrounding area through Citrus’ dual enrollment program.
Bollinger returns to the board
Bollinger has been on the board since 2020 and will start her second term on the board this year.
“I look forward to being more comfortable in my role,” Bollinger said. “… I’ve learned so much that I feel more prepared for a second term.”
She said she also looks forward to helping mentor the two new trustees that’ll join the board after the election and working to continue to maintain stability on the board.
Bollinger said she’s proud that the current board constantly shows up to events in the community outside of the monthly mandatory meeting.
“We learn more about the campus and our jobs every time we show up,” she said, “and I’m really proud of us as a board collectively for that.”
Bollinger represents trustee area No. 2, which includes Claremont and portions of La Verne and Pomona. She will be up for re-election again in November 2028.
Flowers fills Rasmussen’s position
Steven Flowers is running uncontested for Area No. 4, which represents Glendora and portions of San Dimas. The Clarion attempted to reach out to him multiple times via email and phone but received no response.
Flowers is a director for the Citrus College Foundation.
Departing board members
Lutz has served on the Citrus’ board of trustees since 2020 and is the board’s clerk/secretary.
“I’m just really proud of the work that has been done at Citrus in the last four years,” she said.
“When I ran for Citrus it was not for just one term. … I don’t believe in just going and flitting around.
“ …In the past six to eight months some life changes have occurred that I didn’t really expect.”
Lutz said she and her husband, who retired about a year ago, discussed what their future goals were.
She said together they decided to take this time in their lives to do some “extensive” traveling with her also retiring from her business this year.
“I feel comfortable in leaving Citrus at this point,” Lutz said, “ … bringing in Dr. Schulz is a huge part of it. We have a great board that works cohesively… and has the same vision which is really important.”
Rasmussen has been serving on Citrus’ board of trustees since 2007.
“There comes a point when you just know,” Rasmussen said. “ … I think it’s time for new ideas and new insight.”
Rasmussen said she needs new challenges in her life. She said she thought this was a good time since Citrus has a great board and a “new legacy” to continue.
The Clarion will have a full story on Rasmussen’s contributions to Citrus College later this semester.
Contreras and Alexander continue their positions
Anthony Contreras, the current president, and Cheryl Alexander, the current vice president, have both been members of the board since 2022 and will be up for re-election in November 2026.
Contreras is the trustee for Area No. 1, representing Azusa and portions of Duarte. Alexander represents Duarte and portions of Azusa, Monrovia, Arcadia, Covina and Irwindale as the Area No. 3 trustee.
Click here to view the Board of Trustees district area map.
This story was updated at 5:28 p.m. on October 28, 2024 with corrected spelling of Fernando Villegas’ name.
