Solemsaas, Lane, and Brown Selected as Presidents

North Seattle College

Dr. Rachel Solemsaas

Dr. Rachel Solemsaas' career spans three decades in progressive public service. Her journey includes nineteen years in leadership and administrative roles at community colleges, where she has held chief executive officer positions. She has served as interim president for North Seattle College since September 2023 and, before that, as chancellor of Hawai‘i Community College for seven years. Her unwavering commitment to institutions aligns with her personal values as an anti-poverty activist and social justice advocate.

Dr. Solemsaas also made substantial contributions as the chief financial officer or chief business officer at Truckee Meadows Community College in Nevada, Bellevue College, and Edmonds College, both in Washington State. Prior to her tenure in the community and technical college system, she served Snohomish County and King County in various finance-related capacities, supporting public governance, community development, health, and human services.

She served as Board Director for the American Association of Community Colleges, the primary advocacy organization for the nation’s community colleges. The association represents nearly 1,200 two-year associate degree-granting institutions and over 12 million students. She has also served as a Commissioner for the Northwest Commission for College and Universities since 2020, as the Board Director and past president of the National Asian Pacific Islander Council, and as a member of the Hawai'i Leadership Forum as an Omidyar Fellows.

Her commitment to social causes is evident in her role in Collective Impact Movements and impactful organizations in her community. She played a pivotal role in the establishment of Vibrant Hawai'i, serving as its inaugural board chair. Under her guidance, Vibrant Hawai'i evolved from an anti-poverty movement to a catalyst for creating opportunities and abundance for the Hawai'i Island community. Her dedication to community welfare is further demonstrated by her support for the Child Advocacy Center in Snohomish County, known as Dawson Place, and her appointment as Snohomish County Children's Commissioner.

Dr. Solemsaas holds a doctorate of education with an emphasis on community college leadership from Washington State University, a master’s in public administration from the University of Washington, and a bachelor of science in accounting from De La Salle University in Manila, Philippines.

She considers the Pacific Northwest her home.  Her humble beginnings as an immigrant started at Lake City Way in Seattle, Washington, in 1986, when her family moved from the Philippines due to opportunities with Boeing.  She met her husband, Ron, in Renton and raised their family, settling in Lake Stevens, Washington. Today, they enjoy being grandparents.

Seattle Central College

Dr. Bradley Lane

Dr. Bradley Lane currently serves as interim president of Seattle Central College, where he has worked to stabilize the college’s leadership team, enrollment, and finances over the past two years. In this interim role, Dr. Lane has concentrated on establishing key community and industry partnerships for workforce programs and secured over 3 million dollars in new college funding through a combination of corporate and private fundraising and legislative advocacy.

Dr. Lane has held a variety of faculty and administrative appointments at the Seattle Colleges, Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana, Indiana University, and Vanderbilt University. In the California Community College system, he also served as Vice President for Academic Affairs at Santa Monica College. Within Seattle Colleges, Dr. Lane has previously served as Executive Vice President of Instruction, Finance, and Planning; Vice President of Instruction; Executive Dean for Academic Affairs; and Dean of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, in addition to teaching classes in English, Humanities, and Gender and Women Studies.

In his career, Dr. Lane has led many efforts to increase adaptive, competency-based, and highly flexible learning and teaching strategies, at one point receiving a national fellowship on digital learning from the Association of Chief Academic Officers. Among his many accomplishments, he has launched large-scale faculty development programs to increase equity in teaching gateway courses; developed affinity groups and mentoring programs for faculty of color; and implemented guided pathways equitably through the inclusion of student voices and initiatives that center the experiences of Black, Latino/a/x, and Asian and Pacific Islander college students.

Dr. Lane holds a master's degree in Teaching, Learning, and Diversity from Peabody College at Vanderbilt and a Ph.D. in Communication and Culture and Gender Studies from Indiana University.

South Seattle College

Dr. Monica Brown

Dr. Monica Brown is a seasoned higher education leader with over 18 years of progressive leadership experience in the community college environment and eight years at the senior level. She has worked at four-year and two-year institutions with diverse student, faculty, and staff populations. Her eclectic background derives from her experiences in academic affairs, continuing education, and student affairs.

She began her career in higher education at Georgetown University, where she served in various roles, including manager of student resources and services. As a first-generation college graduate, she became enamored with the community college mission after serving as a part-time advisor at a local community college. She decided to transition from the four-year to the community college environment on a full-time basis to leverage her knowledge of student learning and development and make an impact, one student at a time.

In 2003, she started her tenure at Montgomery College, a multi-campus institution in the suburbs of Washington, DC, with a diverse population of 43,000 credit and non-credit students representing more than 155 nations, where she currently serves as the senior vice president for student affairs, providing leadership and vision for the student affairs division, consisting of over 300 full-time and part-time faculty and staff across three campuses and central services. Prior to becoming the chief student affairs officer, she served in several leadership roles with direct oversight for counseling and advising, disability support services, student life, student support services, veterans services, and athletics.

Dr. Brown is an equity-minded, student-centered, collaborative leader who strives to foster a culture of respect and collaboration. She has experience working with governance and collective bargaining. She has led college-wide efforts, working with faculty, staff, and administrators, to close the achievement gap and increase student success through comprehensive programs and services. She is committed to creating an equitable and inclusive environment where everyone feels valued and welcomed and can make a meaningful contribution.

She is the immediate past chair of the Maryland Community College Chief Student Affairs Officers (CSAO) affinity group and a member of the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) Commission on College Readiness. Additionally, she serves on the Higher Education Research and Development Institute (HERDI) Innovate Advisory Board, the PIC (Pinkney Innovation Complex) MC Foundation Board, and as a peer evaluator for the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.

Dr. Brown holds a doctorate in higher education administration from Morgan State University, a master of arts in counseling from Trinity College, and a bachelor of arts from Georgetown University.