Annette Mattson
OCCA President
Board Member, Mt. Hood Community College
Annette currently serves on the boards of Children First for Oregon, Zenger Farm and the Clackamas County Business Alliance. She was a member of the David Douglas School Board for 18 years and on the Oregon School Boards Association Board of Directors for 8 years, including serving as OSBA President in 2009. She was also Chair of the Clackamas County Economic Development Commission in 2008 and the North Clackamas County Chamber of Commerce in 2007. Annette recently retired from Portland General Electric where she worked as a local government affairs and public policy manager. She is a former student of Mt Hood Community College and has a BS in Human Development from Warner Pacific College. Annette and her husband live in east Portland and have 4 adult daughters in the metro area.
Ron Fox
OCCA Vice President
Board Member, Rogue Community College
Ron Fox currently serves as RCC’s board representative on the Oregon Community College Association Board. He is also a Board Member for The Friends of the Oregon Caves and Chateau and the Medford Schools Foundation. He is an active member of the Medford Rotary Club and previously served as a board member for the Medford Rotary Club.
His professional background covers over 25 years as an economic development executive for a multi-state regional utility, division manager with the State of Oregon Economic Development agency and as the Executive Director for Southern Oregon Regional Economic Development, Inc. (also known as SOREDI).
Ron grew up in southern Oregon prior to earning a bachelor’s degree from Oregon State University in Business Administration and Technology. Ron enjoys southern Oregon’s outdoor offerings of hiking, fishing and skiing.
Debra Thatcher
OCCA Secretary
President, Umpqua Community College
Debra H. Thatcher, Ph.D. Dr. Debra Thatcher assumed the presidency of Umpqua Community College on July 1, 2016. She previously served 2 years as acting president and 2½ years as provost and vice president for academic affairs of the State University of New York at Cobleskill, an agricultural and technical college of approximately 2500 students located in rural upstate New York.
While at SUNY Cobleskill, Dr. Thatcher oversaw over $80 million of new construction and renovations; new academic programs; enhanced student internships and undergraduate research; and improved relationships with business and industry.
Prior to her service at SUNY Cobleskill, Dr. Thatcher was responsible for academic and student affairs in her role as provost and dean of faculty at Lees‐McRae College, a small, private college in southern Appalachia. She worked with the entire college community to increase enrollment and retention, add new academic programs, improve facilities, and increase community outreach.
While at Northern Michigan University in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Dr. Thatcher served as associate dean of the College of Professional Studies and director of the School of Education. Under her leadership, significant modifications were made to the teacher education curriculum, including teaching classes onsite in local K‐12 schools and introducing an inquiry approach to teaching and learning.
Dr. Thatcher served as the elementary education coordinator and director of undergraduate teacher education at Salisbury University on Maryland’s rural Eastern Shore. Her primary administrative responsibilities were for curriculum and assessment. She was also a professor of early childhood and mathematics for elementary school.
Greg Hamann
OCCA Treasurer
President, Linn-Benton Community College
Dr. Greg Hamann is currently serving Linn-Benton Community College (Albany, OR) as its sixth president, a position he has held since February 2010. At LBCC, Hamann is actively leading the campus in turning their historically strong commitment to student access into an equally strong commitment to student success and completion, doing so with promising results by engaging with the LBCC community as well as with other colleges and state and national initiatives like Win-Win, Foundations of Excellence and Achieving the Dream. Recently, LBCC’s commitment to and progress in supporting student success was nationally recognized by being included among a select group of just 30 community colleges nationwide to participate in and pilot the American Association of Community College’s Pathways Initiative, a collaboration by national leaders organizations in higher education to substantially improve student completion rates. Dr. Hamann also serves as an Adjunct Instructor in the Doctoral Education Program at Oregon State University.
At the community level, Dr. Hamann is an active participant in and contributor to a variety of regional educational and workforce projects and initiatives, including Pipeline, a unique partnership between leading businesses, county and city leaders, area school districts and LBCC in order to simultaneously create new jobs and the well-trained workforce to fill them. In addition, Dr. Hamann serves as Chair of the Board for his area’s Boys and Girls Club and Board Member for his Chamber of Commerce. Dr. Hamann is an active contributor at the State level, serving as a Governor-appointed member of Oregon’s Quality Education Commission and Department of Corrections Reentry Council as well as contributing on numerous Task Forces working to increase education’s effectiveness in improving the quality of life for all Oregonians.
At the National level, Dr. Hamann is a Director and Executive Committee Chair for Finance and Audit for the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) Board of Directors, a member of the Oversight Board for the Voluntary Framework for Accountability (VFA), and a member of the President’s Advisory Council to the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT). He recently served as a member of the Steering Committee for the 21st Century Initiative Implementation Team, and is the Immediate Past Chair of the AACC President’s Academy Executive Committee. He is also the Chair of the Board for the National Coalition of Certification Centers (NC3), a coalition of education providers and corporations that develops, implements and sustains industry-recognized portable certifications built on national skills standards.
Before serving as LBCC’s president, Dr. Hamann was president at Clatsop Community College (Astoria, OR) for seven years and, before that, served as the Chief Finance and Operations Officer at Northwest College (Powell, WY). In addition to his 19 years of service in our community colleges, Dr. Hamann has taught middle school and served 16 years in a variety of student services and administrative roles at two private 4-year institutions, Whitworth University (Spokane, WA) and Bethel University (St. Paul, MN). Hamann has a doctorate in Educational Leadership from Gonzaga University, a master’s in Counseling Psychology from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and bachelor's degrees in both Psychology and Social Studies Education from the University of Minnesota.
Stephen Crow
Member-at-Large
Board Member, Treasure Valley Community College
Stephen Crow has been in the beauty industry for 30 years. Salon and spa owner, artistic director and educator! Owner of two salons and consultant for a skincare product. He lives in Ontario, Oregon and enjoys gardening, horses and wine. He is the father of two adult sons.
His professional resume: Three years on a board of a private Catholic school, 15 years on a committee for Four Rivers Cultural Center, 2 years on the Saint Alphonsus Hospital board, and volunteers for numerous non-profits. Stephen has served two years on the Treasure Valley Community College board and also as the OCCA representative.
Birgitte Ryslinge
Oregon Presidents Council Chair
President, Oregon Coast Community College
Throughout her time in education, Birgitte has been closely involved with workforce and economic development, and partnering and advocacy with external stakeholders including industry, other education (K‐12 and other post‐secondary) and elected officials. Before focusing her career in community colleges, Dr. Ryslinge worked for 10 years in industry and this prior experience (corporate and small business) also informs her approach to student success, learning, innovation and entrepreneurship. Dr. Ryslinge is a native of Denmark who immigrated to the United States as a child with her family. She speaks Spanish and Danish, and enjoys traveling, gardening, reading, cycling and hiking.
Birgitte enjoys working with the external community to advance the role and position of the community college and has been very successful in that capacity developing important relationships and resources.
Denise Frisbee
Immediate Past OCCA President
Board member, Portland Community College
In 2014, Denise received the OCCA's Howard Cherry Award for Outstanding Board Member.
Her background is as an attorney with a focus on land use and government law, and her career has included serving as director of the Lake Oswego Community Development Department and the Planning and Building Departments, as well as executive director of a nonprofit, Statewide Organization for Schools, and as the Government and Community liaison for Lake Oswego School District, along with a variety of community and school-related volunteer roles.
Denise holds a JD from Lewis and Clark's Northwestern School of Law, and a Bachelor's degree from Smith College. Denise and her husband and family enjoy the Northwest's out-of-doors offerings of hiking, bicycling, whitewater canoeing and skiing.