Education Champion Dr. Colette Harris-Mathews Seeks Los Rios Board Seat

By Genoa Barrow | OBSERVER Senior Staff WriterEducation champion Dr. Colette Harris-Mathews is campaigning to join the Los Rios Community College District Board of Trustees. She looks to fill the Area 5 seat, being vacated by longtime trustee Pam Haynes, who is retiring after 25 years on the board. Dr. Harris-Mathews, a Sacramento native, has her own long history with Los Rios, having served and represented the local college district in the classroom and beyond in several leadership roles. Before retiring in 2020, Dr. Harris-Mathews was a dean and professor of ethnic studies and communication studies at Cosumnes River College, interim president of the district’s Black Faculty and Staff Association, Region F Board of Governor for the Faculty Association for California Community College, and founding faculty member for CRC’s Umoja Diop Scholars program. She also heads Harris Mathews Consulting, a communication, organizational development, leadership, and educational firm.& Dr. Harris-Mathews is running against Ralph Merletti, a former adjunct instructor of geography in the Riverside Community College District. Should she be elected, Dr. Harris-Mathews would be just the second Black woman to serve on the Los Rios board of trustees in its nearly 60-year existence.The OBSERVER recently sat down with Dr. Harris-Mathews...