Dr. Mike Muñoz
Our lunchtime keynote will be Dr. Mike Muñoz, Long Beach City College District’s Superintendent-President. Dr. Muñoz started in his new role at Long Beach City College on March 4, 2021.
Dr. Muñoz is a nationally recognized transformational leader in higher education. He is an expert in closing racial equity gaps for students of color, creating inclusive campus cultures for LGBTQIA+ students, and effectively leading for transformational change.
He joined Long Beach City College (LBCC) in 2018 as the Vice President of Student Services, providing executive leadership to LBCC’s Enrollment Services, Financial Aid, Counseling, Student Health and Psychological Services, Student Life, Athletics, and Student Equity Programs for the more than 30,000 students at LBCC. During his tenure, the LBCC Student Support Services team increased enrollment of Long Beach College Promise Direct High School Matriculants by more than 30% from Fall 2018 to Fall 2019, increased the number of Pell Recipients by 27% in 2019-20, expanded services in mental health and basic needs, and supported the increase in completions through the implementation of completion counseling efforts. He pushed for additional technology such as a virtual queue line, chatbox functions that have become increasingly used during the pandemic to assist LBCC staff to be more efficient and enhance communication between the College and students.
Dr. Muñoz has been instrumental in LBCC’s work so far in advancing racial equity work at the College as Co-Chair of the President’s Taskforce on Race & Equity and serves as the lead administrator for the College’s Framework for Reconciliation. He has also provided support and leadership by serving on the Long Beach College Promise Steering Committee.
A product of the California Community College system, Dr. Muñoz attended East Los Angeles College and Fullerton College before transferring to the University of California, Irvine (UCI), where he received his bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Social Behavior. He received his master’s degree in Counseling and his doctor of education with a specialization in Community College Leadership, from California State University, Long Beach.
He is a first-generation college student. While attending college, he experienced both food and housing insecurities — all while caring for his daughter as a single father.
Dr. Muñoz has extensive experience teaching both at the undergraduate and graduate levels in counseling and higher education. He has taught master’s level courses at California State University, Long Beach, and USC, and doctoral level courses at California State University, Los Angeles. He’s currently serving as an Adjunct Professor of Higher Education at the USC Rossier’s School of Education teaching a leadership course focused on the Community Colleges. Muñoz was recognized as an Outstanding Faculty Member in 2019 from USC’s Rossier Student Organization, and the 2018 Dr. Cynthia S. Johnson Award from CSULB that recognized his contributions to higher education through exceptional student mentoring.
On the national stage, his leadership experience includes serving on the Board of Directors for the National Community Colleges Hispanic Council, as a founding Board Member of COLEGAS, the California Community Colleges Latinx professional association; and as an appointee by Lt. Governor Kounalakis to serve on the state’s ADT Intersegmental Implementation Committee.