Now retired, Mark James was the chancellor of Metropolitan Community College from 2010 to 2017. In that role, he oversaw all college operations, including budget management, maintenance of the facilities, and human resources. Under the leadership of Mark James, Metropolitan Community College was twice named a finalist for the Bellwether Award in recognition of the college's work on the Missouri Innovation Campus. The Bellwether College Consortium supports the incorporation of innovative and successful college programs at higher education institutions throughout the United States. It also facilitates the collaboration of its members for joint ventures. The consortium presents Bellwether Awards annually to recognize exemplary programs in the nation’s leading community colleges. Award finalists and winners are selected based on how well a particular program fulfills the areas of effective teaching, efficiency in planning, governance and finance, and producing a dynamic workforce that contributes to economic development.
Mark James recently retired from his role as chancellor at Missouri’s Metropolitan Community College (MCC). In 2012, Mark James received Jill Biden and assistant labor secretary Jane Oates at the Metropolitan Community College Health Science Institute.
Dr. Biden and Ms. Oates visited the college as a part of a tour called Community College to Career, which focused on the role community colleges can play in helping people develop the skills to advance in their careers in the age of modern technology. They visited the MCC Health Science Institute because of its technological innovation in education.
The institute, which occupies 190,000 square feet, houses a virtual hospital that helps students develop hands-on skills. Students in nursing and other health care programs safely practice clinical skills on lifelike human models, which can mimic a woman in labor, a five-year-old child, a newborn baby, or an adult patient with a range of health issues. Instructors control the human models from another room, allowing the students to practice in a realistic way. Moreover, the use of video enables students to review their performance following the clinic.
