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Eduardo Padr?n, Floridian of the Year
A relentless advocate for community colleges, the Miami Dade College president gained the ear of President Obama and helped change the way the United States views community colleges.
 Eduardo J. Padrón President of Miami Dade College since 1995 Higher-ed accessibility: "Too many young people don't even see college as a possibility. But when more than 80% of the new jobs in our economy require higher education, this is a crisis well beyond funding. This is a deficit of understanding." Family: Divorced since 1980, Padrón has a son, Camilo, and two grandchildren. Interests: He frequently attends the theater, ballet and symphony. He collects Latin American contemporary art as well as Venetian and contemporary glass. Favorite book in 2009: "Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln," by Doris Kearns Goodwin, for reinforcing his belief in the American democratic system. |
Duncan said he wanted to underscore the point that "community colleges will play a big role in getting America back on its feet again, and they will no longer be undervalued and underutilized."
That has been the tireless message of Miami Dade President Eduardo J. Padrón in 2009, a year he spent using "every pulpit, every forum, every microphone at every level" to push his message that community colleges are the ladder America needs to climb out of its economic hole.
As the state's economy foundered in 2009, a well-established dynamic played out once again: A weak economy and unemployment boosted demand for the education and training services that community colleges provide even as they strained funding for the schools.
This past fall, Florida's community colleges saw the highest enrollment growth in their history, swelling by 10%. Statewide, they absorbed nearly 160,000 new students with 6% less funding overall. Like other community colleges, Miami Dade is offering more four-year degrees and creating new programs, from computer-game design to nuclear apprenticeships for utility FPL. But it is doing so with less money per student — 19% less — than before the housing bubble burst and a student population that is 15% larger.
"This is no way to operate," says Padrón, a Cuban-born economist. "There is no way this state is going to survive unless we look at the needs of our people and figure out what will make them prosper.
"That is access to college," he says, "and it must be available to all citizens."
Padrón understands issues of access on a personal level. He came to Miami at age 15 during Operation Pedro Pan — the exodus of 14,000 Cuban children to the U.S. between 1960 and 1962. He says that after he graduated from Miami Senior High School in 1963, he "applied everywhere" to college and was rejected everywhere, with one exception: Miami Dade College.
"This place changed my life," he says. "I am what I am because of this place."
After studying business at the then-two-year college, Padrón earned his bachelor's in economics from Florida Atlantic University and master's and doctoral degrees in economics from the University of Florida. He returned to Miami Dade College in the fall of 1970 as an assistant professor of economics. He has never left. Padrón was president of the college's urban Wolfson campus from 1980 to 1995, when he was named president of the massive, eight-campus college.
"He represents the aspirations that people have, and he represents the opportunity to fill those aspirations," says Will Holcombe, chancellor of Florida's College System that oversees the state's 28 community colleges.
Padrón has a long history of advocacy for community colleges and particularly for trying to provide poor and minority students access to college. With 170,000 students, Miami Dade is one of the largest colleges in the nation and enrolls more minority students and more Pell Grant recipients than any other undergraduate college. Miami Dade graduates more minorities than any other institution in the United States, including the largest numbers of Hispanics and African-Americans.
What distinguished Padrón in 2009 — and what makes him Florida Trend's Floridian of the Year — was his influence. Padrón spent the year as chairman of the Association of American Colleges and Universities. He was the first Floridian, the first Hispanic and the first community college president to lead the national group.
Perhaps most important, he gained the ear of President Barack Obama, who has come to see community colleges as crucial to his 2020 goal of achieving the world's highest proportion of college graduates.
"In the past year, there has been a transformational change in the conversation" about American community colleges, says Holcombe. "President Obama is part of it, and many other leaders are part of it, and Eduardo is probably the best example of those leaders who are having an impact."
