College promised to “strongly encourage” newly hired leadership to live on the east side of the County if program being directed by person hired is located there; will it apply this philosophy to the new OLLI Director?
Dr. Robin Weeks
The Blog has learned that Dr. Robin Weeks is leaving his position as the head of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) on the east side of Yavapai County. Robin began his work with OLLI over five years ago. Working closely with Yavapai Community College, OLLI has steadily expanded it programing from Sedona to Cottonwood, the Village of Oak Creek, and Camp Verde.
Robin is originally from a small town in Devon, England. He came to the United States and earned a Ph.D. at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He was a professor Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle. He also had positions at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado and Santa Fe, New Mexico before arriving in Sedona. Everyone in the Verde Valley will agree, I think, that we are fortunate to have this rare and wonderful person heading up OLLI.
The Community College has undertaken a search to replace him. It is hoped that some of the highly qualified staff now working with Mr. Weeks and living on the east side of the County will be considered to replace him.
Recall that in March 2016 the College appeared before the Sedona City County where a number of concerns about its operation were raised. Among those concerns was a specific query regarding hiring staff for the Community College who would live in the area, that is in the Verde Valley, rather than on the west side of the County. The response was that the College promised to “strongly encourage” new hires assigned to manage the College would live in the Verde Valley. That concern obviously applies to the new OLLI hire. The question is: Does the College care about this east-county concern?
It is believed that Mr. Weeks will leave his position in about two months.
A video clip of the College’s meeting with the Sedona City Council of March 2016 where the concern over local leadership was raised with the College.