after serving 22 years in the district with the last 14 years as the CEO. He is a faculty member in the Education Doctoral program at California State University, Stanislaus.

During his tenure at Merced College, he served on various statewide committees and was appointed by Chancellor Jack Scott to serve on the California Community Colleges Student Success Task Force.  He also served as President of the Community College CEO Board and chaired the Community Colleges Economic Development Advisory Committee.

Virginia Madrid-Salazar provides leadership to the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium as the Strategies Lead. She oversees the strategy efforts, development of the CVHEC Regional Data Dashboard, and oversees grant writing. Further, she will directly serve CVHEC members in the Fresno area, including West Hills Coalinga and West Hills Lemoore.

After a 17-year career in communications where she managed multi-faceted, regional and statewide campaigns, she obtained a juris doctorate degree from San Joaquin College of Law.

Angel Ramirez first began working with the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium as a social media intern back in 2015. He now serves as the organization’s Operations & Finance Manager.

Angel earned his bachelor’s degree in Mass Communication and Journalism from CSU, Fresno.

D. Pricila Villanueva oversees all of the CVHEC day to day activities.

Elaine C. Cash retired as Superintendent from Riverdale Joint Unified School District after 27 years in education. Her education career included experience as a classroom teacher, elementary and high school principal, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction, and 9 years as superintendent. During her years as superintendent, all of Riverdale schools earned the California Distinguished Schools recognition, and Riverdale High School received the College Board National Inspiration Award in 2009. Her article, A Change in Beliefs Leads to A Change in Behavior and Student Achievement was published in the National Staff Development Council, Journal of Staff Development, June 2010. Elaine is the Executive Director of her own education consulting company, ECC Education Group LLC. Elaine also works as a project facilitator for the Fresno Compact, and serves as a K-12 Liaison for the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium. Elaine also serves as a Management Trustee for California’s Valued Trust’s Board of Directors. CVT is the largest health and welfare trust in California serving CA school employees. 

Marc Johnson retired in June 2013 after a 37-year career in public education where he served as a teacher and administrator.  Marc is currently serving as the Co-Director of the Central Valley Educational Leadership Institute at California State University Fresno, the Executive Director of the Fresno Compact, and is a member of the CVHEC team supporting the College Next pilot program. Marc retired from his position as the Superintendent of the Sanger Unified School District, where he had served for the last 14 years.  Sanger Unified is located in the heart of the San Joaquin Valley of California.  The District’s 12,000 students mirror the demographics of the region. The district serves a high minority, high poverty, and high second language learner population.  In 2004 the district was one of 98 school districts in California to be named a Program Improvement District due to the low performance of the English Language Learner population.  Two years later the District was one of the first districts in California to exit PI status due to the continued improvement in student achievement in all groups, but in particular with EL Learners.

Sanger Unified has seen dramatic improvements in all of its schools but most impressive has been the increase in student achievement at sites that had been traditionally underperforming.  The turnaround in the district is directly linked to the district becoming a Professional Learning Community.  That shift to becoming a collaborative culture where every adult in the organization understands that they are a part of a team that is responsible for ensuring learning for all and developing a results orientation. This transformation led the district from program improvement status, to being recognized as a high achieving district at the local, state and national levels. In addition to the site and district recognitions, in 2011, Marc was named National Superintendent of the Year by the American Association of School Administrators.