{"id":16487,"date":"2019-08-23T17:20:17","date_gmt":"2019-08-23T21:20:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mdcthereporter.com\/?p=16487"},"modified":"2021-05-23T17:31:52","modified_gmt":"2021-05-23T21:31:52","slug":"last-candidate-standing-in-miami-dade-college-presidential-search-for-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mdcthereporter.com\/staging\/8357\/last-candidate-standing-in-miami-dade-college-presidential-search-for-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Last Candidate Standing In Miami Dade College Presidential Search\u2014For Now."},"content":{"rendered":"

Who is Lenore Rodicio?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI am not Eduardo Padr\u00f3n,\u201d Rodicio emphatically told the Board of Trustees during her finalist interview on July 24, minutes before they rebooted the five-month presidential search process, temporarily leaving her as the lone candidate.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Miami Dade College\u2019s provost<\/span> continued: \u201cI\u2019ve had the honor of working with him and seeing what he has built at this institution and the legacy that he\u2019s left behind. I don\u2019t think there is anyone in this room that can argue that he has built a remarkable institution over the past 25 years\u2026 if I am so honored to be your next president, I would honor that legacy of innovation. But there are a lot of things I would do differently.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Rodicio
I Have Something To Say: Lenore Rodicio speaks at a Board of Trustees meeting on March 20, 2018.
PHOTO COURTESY OF CRISTIAN LAZZARI\/MDC MEDIA RELATIONS<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Others aren\u2019t so sure. Trustee <\/span>Marcell Felipe seemed skeptical when he questioned her during her Board interview.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHow would you balance following in the footsteps of such a great leader while maintaining your own independence and voice,\u201d Felipe asked. \u201cNot simply a successor that will answer to a former president rather than a board.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

She was the only candidate asked that question, one of many that remain as MDC looks to replace <\/span>Padr\u00f3n<\/span><\/a>,<\/span> who has led the College for the past 25 years.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Board member Michael Bileca believes the College tried catching a big fish in a small pond during the initial search. He pushed to broaden the search pool.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a candidate that was a step above, or a couple steps above the rest of the candidate pool,\u201d Bileca said during the final deliberations in late July. \u201cMy concern has been the pool. We fished in a narrow pond. My questions went more to metrics today, \u2018How many students? What is the completion rate? How many people were you managing?\u2019 We heard vastly different interpretations of what a budget is. When you boil it all down, we\u2019re looking at some student populations that are a tenth of our current college. Smaller than most of our individual campuses. We weren\u2019t interviewing for a campus president, we\u2019re interviewing for a president of a system that is the top performing system in the country.\u201d <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Felipe and Bileca did not respond to a request for an interview from <\/span>The Reporter<\/span><\/i> for this story.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Is Rodicio a safety blanket to an institution that has seen incredibly rare continuity under <\/span>Padr\u00f3n\u2019s<\/span> leadership?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey feel safe. Some people have been working here for 30, 40, 15, 20 years and they\u2019ve built something,\u201d said Miami Animation & Gaming International Complex Department Chairperson Mauricio Ferreza. \u201cDr. Rodicio represents keeping what they\u2019ve built and moving forward.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jay Lemons, president of the headhunting firm Academic Search, understands such logic.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have an extraordinary leader like Eduardo J. Padr\u00f2n who has served [MDC] extraordinarily well and really has had an impact on the national higher education environment, there is a lot of belief in furthering that vision,\u201d Lemons said. \u201cIt\u2019s easy for me to understand how a campus community would be inclined to want to see continuity rather than change. So perhaps it\u2019s the case that the internal community views the internal candidate in that light.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Lone Finalist<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Rodicio
Family Power: Lenore Rodicio receives the Outstanding Women in Education award at the 2017 In the Company of Women ceremony with her husband and children (Pictured left-to-right: Maria, Ana, Sergio, Lenore, Pio and Isabel Rodicio).
PHOTO COURTESY OF CRISTIAN LAZZARI\/MDC MEDIA RELATIONS<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rodicio, a devout Catholic who attends St. Mary Cathedral in Little Haiti, is deeply ingrained in the community. Her husband, Sergio, is the business operations manager at the cathedral. They live in a four-bedroom old Spanish-style home in Little Havana the couple purchased in 1998. It sits less than a mile from Eduardo J. Padr\u00f3n Campus.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She has five children\u2014Pio, Maria, Ana and Isabel; the youngest, Gabriela, is five years old.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Rodicio was born in 1973 in Miami. Her grandparents played a large role in her upbringing. At a young age, she took a liking to making pastries and cakes, a passion she inherited from her grandfather, a baker. The pastime runs parallel with her love for science, both require many of the same ingredients\u2014attention to detail, an ability to think analytically and methodically while remaining calm under pressure.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI might not practice chemistry on a day-to-day basis, but I\u2019m still a scientist,\u201d Rodicio said during her open forum presentation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Rodicio graduated from St. Brendan High School<\/span>\u2014a co-ed Roman Catholic school in Westchester\u2014<\/span>in 1991. She met Sergio at a parish youth group at St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church in 1993, according to a Florida Catholic article. In 1994, she received a bachelor\u2019s degree in chemistry from Barry University.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That same year, Rodicio was awarded the Board of Regents Graduate Fellowship to attend Louisiana State University<\/span><\/a>. She spent five years working on her doctoral dissertation about ribosomal RNA sequencing using mass spectroscopy. The years were full of trial and error as she methodically designed and researched experiments in the lab.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShe is the most determined person I\u2019ve ever known,\u201d said Kari B. Basso, one of Rodicio\u2019s graduate school classmates.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Rodicio was often the first person to finish her laboratory work. She also developed a penchant for performing under duress. While defending her dissertation, one of the committee members did not show up to evaluate her work; another committee member wondered aloud if the absence was a lack of belief in Rodicio\u2019s ability.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShe handled it with grace. You could tell she was flustered and nervous. It\u2019s a high pressure situation. Someone you don\u2019t know is challenging you,\u201d recalled her doctoral advisor Patrick Limbach. \u201cIt struck me [because] I don\u2019t know if I would\u2019ve handled [it] as well if I had been in the student\u2019s role.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Back In Miami<\/strong><\/p>\n

While in Baton Rouge, Rodicio never lost sight of her goal\u2014returning to Miami. She called Sergio every day and made periodic trips to her hometown.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShe wanted very badly to be able to go back to Miami,\u201d Basso said. \u201cShe loves her family and the community. She wasn\u2019t going to leave without her Ph.D. She wasn\u2019t going to quit.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After earning her Ph.D in 1999, Rodicio returned to Miami and married Sergio. By 2002, she had accepted adjunct positions teaching chemistry at Kendall and the then-InterAmerican Campus. She had no intentions of staying past one semester, but fell \u201cin love with the students,\u201d who she described as \u201cspecial\u201d and \u201cfrom a wide variety of backgrounds.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That opportunity launched her 17-year career at the College. It has included roles as a professor, department chairperson, dean, project director, vice-provost and most recently\u2014executive vice-president and provost.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As provost, Rodicio manages the College\u2019s internal operations on a day-to-day basis. She oversees the College\u2019s fiscal budget, facilities, academic curriculum, workforce development programs, faculty union negotiations and regularly advocates for the College in Tallahassee.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn all my years at Miami Dade College, Lenore Rodicio is the most competent and complete person I\u2019ve ever met,\u201d Padr\u00f3n said in a reference letter to Diversified Search, the firm MDC used to find a new president. \u201cShe is the most outstanding Provost I\u2019ve ever had, and I\u2019ve had a number of great ones who have gone on to other college presidencies. She is the best. I used to have a Provost for Academics and a Provost for Operations\u2014each a big job alone. She is so capable that she has both responsibilities and is doing a great job.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Rodicio routinely communicates with MDC administration, faculty and staff to provide support and academic expertise. Earlier this year, she worked alongside Ferraza to submit a grant proposal to the Aspen Institute on behalf of M.A.G.I.C.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShe, for me, has been this invaluable source of information and knowledge, anything related to academics. She is very stable. Sometimes I get emotional or frustrated, and Dr. Rodicio has this very comforting personality that you can trust that she\u2019s seeing a problem that I\u2019m not seeing,\u201d Ferraza said. \u201cEverybody is 100 percent aware that she\u2019s an amazing leader and provost because she understands this institution very well.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018Running\u2019 The College<\/strong><\/p>\n

Padr\u00f3n told the presidential search firm that she, not he, has been \u201crunning MDC on a day-to-day basis\u201d while he handles external projects.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In recent months, she attended an international cabinet meeting in Israel and has spoken at various national conferences. When Padr\u00f3n was unable to speak at an Association of American Colleges and Universities meeting, he recommended Rodicio.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>We didn\u2019t know her at the time,\u201d <\/span>said <\/span>Debra Humphreys, vice-president of strategic engagement at Lumina Foundation. \u201cShe came, and I remember talking to [AACU President <\/span>Carol Geary Schneider] <\/span>as s<\/span>he was speaking.\u00a0 She was brilliant, as good or better than I had seen <\/span>Eduardo [Padr\u00f3n]. We looked at each other like, \u2018Why hadn\u2019t we invited her in the first place?\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Rodicio currently resides on four national academic boards and serves as vice-chair elect of the AACU.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trustees will meet on Aug. 29 at 9 a.m. at Wolfson Campus, 300 N.E. 2nd Ave., Room 2106 to decide how they want to proceed in the College\u2019s presidential search.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI hope they don\u2019t ignore the talent in front of them,\u201d said Richard Guarasci, former Wagner College president and past-chair of the Association of American Colleges and Universities. \u201cStarting over with somebody new that comes from the outside, is a year or two just lost in building all those relationships. To have somebody so knowledgeable about all the processes and who\u2019s so open to have real conversations about the next direction for [MDC]. That would be a real step back.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Rodicio declined multiple requests by The Reporter to be interviewed; some biographical information used in this story is from the Diversified Search Firm\u2019s candidate profiles.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n