Benjamin, Helen
Dr. Helen Benjamin has served as an educator for over 40 years in secondary and higher education, and in 2016, she ended her formal career as the chancellor of the Contra Costa Community College District (CCCCD) located in the San Francisco Bay Area. Since then, she continues to be passionate about student success that is displayed in her work, where her goal is to create educational environments conducive to learning and responsive to the diversity of students and their needs.
Dr. Benjamin worked in the CCCCD for 26.5 years, after being selected as the dean of language arts and humanistic studies and related occupations at Los Medanos College in 1990. She held progressively higher-level positions, including vice chancellor, educational programs and services, interim president at both Los Medanos College and Contra Costa College, and then as the first African American president for Contra Costa College. Her career began in Dallas, Texas, where she served as a high school English teacher before returning to her alma mater, Bishop College.
Dr. Benjamin has done considerable consulting work with community college administrators at all levels of service. She co-created and co-facilitates a coaching program for California CEOs new to the job and co-facilitates an annual symposium for CEOs which she has done for the last five years. In her own consulting practice, she uses her considerable expertise to improve student success by working with boards, managers, faculty, and staff to improve their effectiveness.
She holds the distinction of being the first community college representative appointed by Congress
to the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance. Dr. Benjamin served with distinction as convener of the Presidents’ Round Table of Community College African American CEOs and on the Board of Directors of the American Association of Community Colleges. She currently serves as chair of the board of Excelsior College in Albany, New York, and as the past president of the California Community College Chief Executive Officers and the Board of the Community College League of California.