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.
Mark James, the retired chancellor of Metropolitan Community College, is a published author on subjects including public safety and law enforcement. Upon retirement, Mark James was honored with the status of Metropolitan Community College (MCC) Chancellor Emeritus.In October of 2017, MCC’s communications and public relations team was the overall winner in three categories of a regional competition organized by the National Council for Marketing & Public Relations (NCMPR). The organization’s District 5 Medallion Awards recognize exceptional success in communications among colleges located in that NCMPR district. The three-member MCC communications team, comprised of Christine Medina, Clare Otto, and Tim Engle, won in the following categories: - College Promotional Brand Video: The team’s “Thank You, MCC Family” showed students writing appreciation notes to MCC lecturers and delivering them in person. - Communications Success Story or Community Relations Campaign: The team shared dozens of stories on social media and in commencement content about MCC's 2017 graduates. - Excellence in Writing: The team wrote a story about historical MCC murals uncovered by workers in an old high school.
Mark James most recently served as chancellor of Metropolitan Community College of Kansas City, Missouri. In his role with the institution, he steered Metropolitan Community College through the complex financial challenges, due to a significant drop in state appropriations and enrollment. Mark James holds a master’s in strategic intelligence from National Intelligence University (NIU), which welcomed Michael Hayden as its 2017 commencement speaker. A retired four-star general from the U.S. Air Force, Michael Hayden has held numerous high-level positions throughout his career, including director of the National Security Agency, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and principal deputy director of national intelligence during the George W. Bush administration. He graduated from NIU and was granted an honorary doctorate in 2001. Michael Hayden is now a principal at the Chertoff Group and the chairman of the National Intelligence University Foundation. A prominent writer and speaker on national security topics, he wrote the book Playing to the Edge: American Intelligence in the Age of Terror, which was published in 2016. NIU was honored to welcome Mr. Hayden to its 2017 commencement, where Dr. David Ellison, the university’s president, delivered degrees to some 250 students in its three programs: the master of science and technology intelligence, the master of science of strategic intelligence, and the bachelor of science in intelligence.
Recently, Mark James retired from his position as chancellor of Metropolitan Community College in Kansas City, Missouri. While overseeing the college, Mark James helped integrate the five campuses and drive innovation. In addition, Metropolitan Community College undertook an initiative to install solar panels during his tenure. Since summer 2015, 18 buildings on three different campuses installed solar panels.While students cannot easily see the solar panels, they can follow the amount of energy they are producing through an online tool at www.MCCKC.edu/Solar-Panels. From this website, individuals can choose the MCC-Maple Woods, MCC-Business & Technology, or the MCC-Penn Valley campuses to see exactly how much energy the solar panels have produced. Using the menu, individuals can specify a time period and see how much energy has been produced in kilowatt-hours. The program also shows how many single-family homes this energy could power and equates the carbon offset to pounds of coal saved and number of trees that would have to be planted to produce the same effect.
