At the final 2025-26 Academic Year Board of Trustees meeting on Tuesday, June 23, 2026, Chancellor Dr. Tammeil Gilkerson celebrated a milestone academic year for the Peralta Community College District (PCCD) by inviting each of the college presidents to share highlights from the last school year.You can watch the presentations on YouTube here:
Presented by Dr. Denise Richardson
Berkeley City College (BCC) demonstrated a powerful post-pandemic enrollment trajectory, serving 7,187 students this past academic year. A total of 644 graduates earned 1,306 degrees and certificates, led by majors in liberal arts, psychology, and social human service work.
Dr. Richardson credited the campus community and frontline student ambassadors for this growth, stating, "As George Jefferson used to say, we're moving on up at BCC." She highlighted BCC’s robust dual enrollment expansion, including an Early Educator Apprenticeship Program that graduated nearly 90 Oakland Unified School District high school students with career certifications, and a groundbreaking middle school partnership with Longview Middle School.
Individual student triumphs anchored the report, including communication graduate Leonard Boone, a Rising Scholar who transitioned to full-time study after 24 years of incarceration. Dr. Richardson also shared the inspiring story of four close BCC friends who opened their UC Berkeley acceptance letters together in her office. "All four got in... truly that was one of the highlights of my career," she shared. To conclude, Dr. Richardson asked everyone to save the date of September 10, 2026, for the ribbon cutting for the new BCC West building, thanking taxpayers for supporting Measure G.
Presented by Dr. Nicole Porter
Representing President Melanie Dixon, Executive Vice President Dr. Nicole Porter detailed a year of academic innovation and deep community integration. A primary driver of student access this year was the expansion of Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) pathways, which added 93 courses to remove financial barriers associated with textbooks. Combined with flexible scheduling, these efforts helped drive a remarkable 24% increase in student persistence.
The impact of targeted, data-informed intervention was clear in student services. Following equity discussions regarding student educational plans, the counseling team launched an intensive outreach campaign that raised plan completion rates from 13% to 49%. "Behind every plan is a student with greater clarity, direction, and confidence about their future," Dr. Porter noted.
The Class of 2026 achieved high markers of excellence, with 320 graduates receiving 609 certificates and degrees—half of whom graduated with honors. Dr. Porter emphasized that COA’s culture rests on a simple premise: "Believe, achieve, succeed. The class of 2026 is living proof of that." The presentation closed with a tribute to seven retiring icons, whose collective decades of service left an indelible mark on generations of students.
Presented by Dr. David M. Johnson
President Dr. David M. Johnson delivered major updates on academic programming and community partnerships at Merritt College, headlined by the full restoration of the college’s prized nursing program. "I'm pleased to report that last month, the Education and Licensing Committee of the California Board of Registered Nursing affirmed that our nursing program has successfully addressed its outstanding issues and now is back in full approval," Dr. Johnson announced, adding that 20 new nurses graduated this spring.
Merritt also celebrated the grand opening of its state-of-the-art Landscape Horticulture Complex and advanced plans for the Aspira Center, an HSI student support resource opening this fall.
On a regional scale, Merritt hosted the 2026 Black Men’s Brain Health Conference during Super Bowl week, drawing 1,700 registered attendees—an 80% increase from the previous year. Campus equity programs also thrived; a joint career and wellness fair with the Sankofa program and Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency (BOSS) provided mock interviews, clothing, and groceries to over 200 students. Commencement concluded the success story, with more than 800 students petitioning for graduation, including 180 in health sciences and 200 in child development.
Presented by Dr. Becky Opsata
Laney College highlighted distinct achievements in restorative education, specialized workforce development, and cutting-edge technology. The Restoring Our Communities (ROC) program, which supports formerly incarcerated students, celebrated three graduates housed in the Alameda County Juvenile Justice Center who earned their associate degrees, with two transferring to CSU East Bay and UCLA. ROC also expanded culinary classes to Camp Sweeney and partnered with the Public Defender’s office to run Clean Slate clinics for 40 Peralta students.
Laney also pioneered a state-funded English Language Learners Healthcare Pathway Bridge Program, serving 120 students across four cohorts. This intensive course teaches language norms and resume preparation, creating a seamless pipeline into healthcare training programs at Merritt and sister campuses.
Finally, Dr. Opsata spotlighted Laney's emergence as a technological leader, with the college designated as the Bay Area AI Center of Excellence. Operating in close partnership with the City of Oakland’s AI Activation Zone, the program recently hosted an educational delegation from Estonia. Laney faculty completed an entirely new curriculum featuring nine specialized AI courses and four certificates of achievement. "Our students are enrolling in them, and we're really, really excited about it," Dr. Opsata concluded.
Slides from the presentations are posted here.
Highlighting the District’s expanding statewide impact, Dr. Gilkerson noted that College of Alameda President Melanie Dixon was unable to present as she was in Sacramento co-leading the Black CEO Retreat, an event focused on building sustainable ecosystems for Black-serving institutions, like all four of the Peralta Colleges, which is yet another example of PCCD statewide thought leadership.