For Nancy McCallin '81, balancing political and public policy issues comes as naturally as making revenue projections. And just weeks into her new job as president of the Colorado Community College System, the former chief economist for the Colorado Legislative Council and director of the Colorado Office of State Planning and Budgeting looks forward to the challenge.

McCallin will oversee 13 colleges with more than 116,000 students state-wide, with a budget of more than $230 million a year. "Historically, the community colleges have acted independently from each other," she explains. "My goal is to create a unified system."

Steps taken in this direction include passage of a bill mandating unification among the 13 colleges and 166 schools that provide vocational technical training in grades K through 12, as well as creation of a centralized information technology system.

As president, McCallin also is responsible for improving the retention and graduation rates of the state's community college students. "In Colorado," she says, "we have one of the most highly educated workforces in the nation, but only 29 percent of our high school freshmen are entering college. We call it the 'Colorado Paradox.'"

McCallin aims to realign that paradox by demonstrating the value of the community college system to prospective students and actively promoting stipends that allow students to shop around their education dollars. "Given that we're the low-cost alternative, it makes a lot of sense for students to come to community college for two years and then transfer to a four-year college," she says. "In the future, we plan to do an aggressive marketing campaign in the high schools to let them know about Colorado's higher educational opportunities."

Stepping into a role that hasn't been staffed for nearly a year would be daunting for most, but for McCallin, it's all in a day's work. As Colorado Gov. Bill Owens' budget director for six years-and his first cabinet appointee when he took office in 1998—she is a veteran of the ever-changing political arena, as well as a savvy communicator. "In that position," McCallin says, "I had to make the budget allocation decisions for the state's $13.4 billion total budget."

Over the years, Owens' team expanded the state's transportation system, implemented large tax cuts, and funded high-priority projects. "Being budget director," she says, "was a balancing act between meeting the needs of the media, the general assembly, and the executive directors."

McCallin, who enrolled at CMC with an eye toward the law, turned toward economics after a class and subsequent summer research project with former professor Susan Feigenbaum. After graduating with a double major in economics and political science, McCallin worked as a bank economist for the United Banks, now Wells Fargo, in Denver, while completing her Ph.D. in monetary policy and public policy at the University of Colorado. After seven years at the bank, she became the chief economist for the Legislative Council, a nonpartisan research arm of the Colorado general assembly.

"Higher education is a new arena for me," she says, "but it will be fun."

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Nancy McCallin '81