A new era begins today as the next president of College of the Redwoods takes the helm.

Jeff Marsee will join the Redwoods Community College District board of trustees for its monthly meeting that begins at 1 p.m. in Room 201 of the Administration Building at the main Eureka campus.

“He’s got an incredible generosity toward people, an incredible mind for details and a thorough knowledge of accreditation issues,” board President George Truett said of the man who will be CR’s first permanent president since Casey Crabill departed two years ago.

“Plus, he’s got a background that’s financial and a lot to do with enrollment. All of these things we need in a president, especially one that is not going to sit in the college, but be out in the community.”

Closed session will be dedicated to the board and Marsee defining the goals and direction CR will take in the coming months.

“The board has been holding back a little bit to get a new president on board and to move together,” Truett said. “We want his ideas.”

Marsee wowed the trustees in April with his command of information about CR — and that was before he landed the job.

Marsee’s career path includes accomplishments in instruction, where he rose from faculty to the position of vice provost; fiscal administration; and student enrollment, retention and recruitment.

A former cross country All-American at the University of Southern California, he earned his master’s degree in economics at California State University at Long Beach and doctorate in community college leadership from the University of Texas at Austin.

He comes to CR from a position as vice president of administrative services at El Camino College, which is getting Compton College back on track to reaccreditation.

Prior to that, Marsee spent seven years in the private sector as a consultant in higher-education enrollment for 30 colleges and universities. With no increases in staffing or revenues, he said enrollment grew 78 percent in six months at Cheyney and 32 percent at Fayetteville.

In his three-day visit to CR during the board’s presidential search, Marsee emphasized student retention as a point of “attention, focus and recovery” and his experience using data as the trailhead to figure out the story.

Marsee visited with interim President Tom Harris last week, then wrapped in some house-hunting and vacation before jumping into a presidency he’s spent a lifetime preparing for.

“If I’m chosen, I’ll stay here until I retire,” Marsee said in April. “I promised my wife.”

Marsee and his wife of one year visited the area almost two weeks ago for some house-hunting and dinner with Harris, who said he’s been giving Marsee weekly updates on CR.

Truett said a board priority was to discuss the framework in which CR’s strategic plan fits so the “board can get the reports and assurance we need.”

Specifically, Truett is hoping the board keeps moving on a path of greater transparency and more open dialogue between the trustees, the campus staff and the Humbodt County community.

“There has to be more open dialogue where people can come forward with observations and complaints that will make things better,” Truett said. “It’s going to take awhile for the culture to change, but if you look around the state, we’re at the forefront. I don’t think most boards are trying to figure out how to open up the process.

“I feel confident in the next six months we are going to see changes in how the board receives information.”

Marsee make his initial report as president today at 3:15 p.m.

CR is searching for leaders for the branch campuses at Mendocino and Del Norte and is waiting to receive formal notification of the status of the sanctions placed on it by the Accrediting Commission of Community and Junior Colleges.

Truett and Harris said they believe the campus is close to being taken off sanctions, which is not to say it will not have some progress-report requirements.

But after receiving a warning sanction in January 2006 followed by being placed on probation a year ago, progress reports would be a giant step in the right direction.

Within 24 hours of starting his interim presidency a year ago, Harris learned the school had gone on probation.

Marsee has every reason to expect his first 24 hours will be less traumatic.

Topics on the agenda include a 3:25 p.m. report from Learning and Student Development Vice President Keith Snow-Flamer about program review, the nursing program and the process for selling construction technology houses; and a 3:45 p.m. approval of a five-year construction plan.