Leadership

gregory A. Smith, chancellor

After serving as acting chancellor since March 2023, Gregory Smith’s role as permanent chancellor of the San Diego Community College District begins February 1. Smith is the seventh chancellor to lead the district in its 50-year history.

Chancellor Smith’s career path has been guided by an unshakeable belief in equity. He credits his sixth grade teacher, Mrs. Brown, a Black woman who encouraged him to see the world through multiple perspectives, with sparking his interest in equity. “I just want you to understand that not everyone experiences the world the way you do,” Smith recalls her telling him near the end of the school year. It is this foundational principle that Smith will use as a guide as he leads 5,000 employees and the nearly 80,000 students they serve at the SDCCD.

“My vision is creating an environment where everybody who comes here feels they can be who they are authentically, an environment where students know and feel they belong, a district that’s invested in them, that supports them as they become is the person they want to be,” he said.