Judi Watkins has been named associate dean of Napa Valley College’s Upper Valley Campus in St. Helena.
In addition to directing the daily operations of the Upper Valley Campus and noncredit and community service classes, she will work with the dean of Instruction in supporting credit classes at the site. She will assist in planning and implementation a fee-based training program for the Center for Hospitality, Culinary and Wine to provide workforce solutions for local business. She will assume management responsibilities for the Community Education Center in Napa and other community sites, in addition to other duties.
Watkins comes to Napa Valley College from Chabot-Las Positas Community College District where she was project director of the Workplace Learning Resource Center which provided economic program development services to 26 community colleges within the 11 Bay Area counties. She also has experience as outreach/relations with schools coordinator for Diablo Valley College and at the Regional Training Institute of Contra Costa Community College District where she was program coordinator. At City College of San Francisco she was the project director, San Francisco Center for Applied Competitive Technologies. Prior to becoming project director, Watkins was a project specialist on the Garment 2000 project; both programs were within the School of Applied Science and Technology. A former adjunct lecturer in Fashion Illustration at San Francisco State University and Fashion Design at FIDM, her B.A. is from the University of California, Berkeley, and she earned a master’s degree from San Francisco State University.
Watkins, who started August 1, replaces Christina Rivera who was the interim director following the retirement of Bonnie Thoreen.