Cerritos College welcomes new deans to the campus as Spring 2012 begins.

Rick Miranda, who is now the Dean of Academic Affairs, is a resident of the city of Norwalk. He left 21 years ago to work for Taft college in which he held a Division Chair position.

Now he returns home to hold his new position as Dean at Cerritos College.

Miranda explains that the campus that he came from was small, and although he held his position as division chair, he was treated more like a Dean.

“I was able to experience a lot of different roles in dealing with scheduling, dealing with budgets, conflict and different issues so it’s was more of a great opportunity,” he said.

From the moment Miranda became a part of Taft College, he knew he wanted to do bigger things. He had goals that he wanted to accomplish, and being a part of the administration was one of them.

“One of the first things I told a colleague at the time was that seven to ten years is what I plan to be in the classroom, because I always knew back then, administration is what I was interested in,” he added.

Miranda explains that the best thing he can do right now is watch learn and listen.

“My role is not to come in here and change things and go through that type of mentality up front, it’s to learn the process, listen, see what the needs are and to Keep helping everybody on campus to have a smooth time here.”

Nick Real has been named the Instructional Dean of Technology.

Prior to his position as dean, Real has worked for Cerritos College for 11 years.

He has participated in Faculty Senate and the Budget and Planning Committee.

He also participated as state sponsor of committees to learn more about what’s going on at the state level.

To have the title of dean was one of the things Real strived for.

He said, “the previous dean helped me quite a bit, it kind of groomed me for the position and gave me some advice.”

As an instructional Dean, Real is responsible for a division that has a faculty who are teaching in a department level where there are instructors, part-time, full-time and a department chair.

Real’s plans for Cerritos College include improving student success,

“It’s something that’s very important here on campus and we want to make sure that our students in our area [technology] are prepared for jobs.”

Along with Miranda and Real, David Moore and David Fabish are also new Deans at Cerritos College.

David Fabish is the new Dean of Liberal Arts and David Moore is the Director of Physical Plant and Construction Services.

Both were unavailable for comment, but there will be a welcome reception held at the Cheryl A. Epple Board Room on Thursday from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.