Pierce College’s Accreditation Chair Yvonne Grigg won Woman of the Year at the eighth annual Los Angeles Community College District’s (LACCD) Woman of the Year Tea Celebration.
The LACCD Woman of the Year Tea Celebration is held annually and each year they present the Woman of the Year award to recognize and honor the women who have made significant contributions and demonstrated leadership in their respective fields.
Yvonne Grigg is an English professor who has been teaching college composition since 2001 and has been at Pierce College full-time since 2007. She has been serving as the Accreditation Chair i since 2018.
Grigg helped guide the college through the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) midterm report and the Institution Self-Evaluation Report (ISER). She was also the primary author of Pierce’s 350-page college report.
Pierce president Ara Aguiar explained the work that Grigg put in and why they thought she deserved to win Woman of the Year.
“She did an outstanding job capturing all of the information and putting it together. Not an easy task,” Aguiar said. “She presented a document that really reflected the institution. Everybody felt that she had done such a wonderful job and did it professionally and with support and that’s why she was selected.”
Grigg shared her feelings on how it felt when she won the award and what she thinks makes her stand out for the honor.
“I feel honored, I feel like I don’t deserve it. I have worked in this position since 2018, and it’s a lonely position. It’s not a position where you’re in front of an audience and you’re seen and given praises on a daily basis,” Grigg said. “I’m a behind-the-scenes person so I think the vice president was trying to say thank you for doing something people don’t really know about.”
Chair of the English Department Christopher Corning spoke about how he thinks this recognition for Grigg will impact her and the department moving forward.
“I think it maybe will inspire other faculty in our department to continue contributing not just to the English discipline but also to other aspects of campus,” Corning said. “By participating and staying involved, maybe they can also be recognized for their contributions in and outside the department.”
English Department Secretary Ari Winiarski shared what she thinks makes Grigg stand out as a professor and colleague.
“She’s very hardworking and very dedicated, a perfectionist. Like everything she does is to the minor detail,” Winiarksi said. “When she hands it in, you know it’s perfect. You don’t have to look it over, you know it’s done.”
Grigg is planning to step down from the Accreditation Chair and talked about why she is stepping down after serving in the position for seven years.
“I would love the faculty and staff to step up and someone new try it,” Grigg said. “I think it’s very important to have different approaches to things and someone else can put his/her spin on it and have fun with it. I don’t think one person should do a leadership position forever, you have to encourage others to spread their wings and try. I feel like it’s someone else’s turn.”
Grigg shared her goals in teaching for the future.
“My goal is just to try every day to be better and help everyone else develop a skill. It takes time. English is something that you have to practice and be okay with failure,” Grigg said. “Life is about trying, failing, starting and doing it over again.”
