Faculty, student leaders and special guests from nearby cities filled the student center for Dr. Linda Lacy’s retirement celebration Wednesday, May 13.
After serving as president for Cerritos College, Dr. Lacy will be retiring as the spring semester comes to an end.
Colleagues and students who wanted to show their support as she said farewell to Cerritos surrounded the esteemed president.
Representatives for senators and representative of nearby unified school districts, were present to show their admiration and support.
The mayor of Hawaiian Gardens, Barry Bruce, and Norwalk mayor Leonard Shryock were also in attendance and presented touching speeches and special gifts.
The morning started with folklorico dance,“La Raspa,” performed by a group of kindergartners and transitioned into Dr. David Betancourt’s Falconer band consisting of faculty.
The Falconers performed a version of War’s “Lowrider” with modified lyrics to fit Dr. Lacy’s legacy and a rendition of Frank Sinatra’s “My Way.”
Dr. Lacy’s favorite food was served by the Culinary Arts department, which included rolled taquitos, banana cream pie and vanilla ice cream.
The event included important speakers who all recognized Dr. Lacy’s leadership skills and her strength through adversity, especially when making unpopular decisions.
Board president Carmen Avalos reflected on how she was on the board that initially hired Dr. Linda Lacy and how the best candidate was chosen due to her integrity and commitment to the community.
“She’s a person who truly cares about people, this room is filled, it wouldn’t be this way had she not been the person I just described,” Avalos expressed.
A representative for Don Knabe, Los Angeles Board of Supervisors, presented Dr. Lacy a scroll with a summary of her accomplishments at Cerritos College.
A representative for Tony Mendoza, serving in the California State Senate, expressed the senator’s gratitude and admiration towards Lacy.
Among her list of accomplishments there is, adding resources to the Language Reading Center, math and science, reorganizing administration in order to assure student success and the Bond Construction Outreach Program.
The president’s accomplishments and interactions with both staff and students were pictured in a slideshow that played throughout the event.
“She didn’t want anything, but we insisted because there are so many people who wanted to show her how important she is, as you can see by how many people were here,” said Cheryl Thury, administrative assistant confidential, organizer of the event.
“I’ve worked in the president’s office for 17 years and she has been the best permanent boss I’ve had so far. She’s easy to work with, she treats us well, she’s down to earth,” she added.
Thury shared some of Dr. Lacy’s future plans confiding that her future in education is far from over.
“Dr. Lacy will be spending time with her daughter, I don’t expect her to stand still too long, she’ll probably go back to teaching a doctorate program.”
Dr. Lacy confirmed that after much needed travel time she will look into teaching a doctorate program at Cal State Fullerton.
One thing is evident from the retirement celebration, Dr. Lacy is a leader with strong support from her community.
