{"id":9120,"date":"2025-03-14T13:27:19","date_gmt":"2025-03-14T20:27:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/?p=9120"},"modified":"2025-03-14T13:27:19","modified_gmt":"2025-03-14T20:27:19","slug":"dr-star-rivera-lacey-named-2025-district-76-distinguished-woman-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/dr-star-rivera-lacey-named-2025-district-76-distinguished-woman-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Star Rivera-Lacey Named 2025 District 76 Distinguished Woman of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Sacramento, CA (March 14, 2025) <\/strong>\u2013 Assemblymember Dr. Darshana Patel (D-76, San Diego) is pleased to announce Dr. Star Rivera-Lacey, Superintendent\/President of Palomar College, as the 2025 District 76 Distinguished Woman of the Year.<\/p>\n<p>A proud product of our local education system, Dr. Rivera-Lacey studied at Mira Costa College before earning a Liberal Studies degree from Cal State San Marcos. She later completed a master\u2019s in Education with an emphasis in Multicultural Counseling at San Diego State University and a Ph.D. in Education through the SDSU\/Claremont Graduate University joint doctoral program. Her path embodies the transformative power of education \u2014and its capacity to inspire positive change within one\u2019s own community.<\/p>\n<p>With 28 years in higher education, Dr. Rivera-Lacey now leads Palomar College\u2014one of California\u2019s largest single-community college districts\u2014where she champions student success and accessibility. Her educational reform efforts focus on expanding access, retention, and completion, particularly for underserved populations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am honored to name Dr. Rivera-Lacey as this year\u2019s Distinguished Woman of the Year,\u201d said Assemblymember Patel. \u201cHer dedication to expanding educational opportunities, empowering learners, and advocating for meaningful change is truly inspiring. She exempli\ufb01es how education can strengthen communities and pave the way for upward mobility for all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Rivera-Lacey has been named a Wheelhouse Institute on Leadership Fellow, an Aspen Institute Rising Presidents Fellow, and a National Community College Hispanic Council Fellow. She was recently recognized among the \u201cTop 500 Most In\ufb02uential People in San Diego\u201d by the <em>San Diego Business Journal<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sacramento, CA (March 14, 2025) \u2013 Assemblymember Dr. Darshana Patel (D-76, San Diego) is pleased to announce Dr. Star Rivera-Lacey, Superintendent\/President of Palomar College, as the 2025 District 76 Distinguished Woman of the Year. A proud product of our local education system, Dr. Rivera-Lacey studied at Mira Costa College before earning a Liberal Studies degree&hellip; <a class=\"continue\" href=\"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/dr-star-rivera-lacey-named-2025-district-76-distinguished-woman-of-the-year\/\">\u00a0Continue Reading:<span> Dr. Star Rivera-Lacey Named 2025 District 76 Distinguished Woman of the Year<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10665,"featured_media":9121,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,23,14,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-home","category-news","category-slider"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Dr. Star Rivera-Lacey Named 2025 District 76 Distinguished Woman of the Year - Palomar News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/dr-star-rivera-lacey-named-2025-district-76-distinguished-woman-of-the-year\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dr. Star Rivera-Lacey Named 2025 District 76 Distinguished Woman of the Year - Palomar News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sacramento, CA (March 14, 2025) \u2013 Assemblymember Dr. Darshana Patel (D-76, San Diego) is pleased to announce Dr. Star Rivera-Lacey, Superintendent\/President of Palomar College, as the 2025 District 76 Distinguished Woman of the Year. 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