Dr. Lora Delgado was selected from an impressive pool of candidates — both internal and external — to fully develop ACC’s Talent Development program around our Theory of Change. We asked her to tell us a little about herself.
Please provide a brief overview of your work background and how it translates into ACC’s needs.
I have worked in education and professional development for almost twenty years. I started off as an elementary school teacher right out of college, before transitioning first into educational leadership (school principal and non-profit executive) and then more generally into adult learning and development. I worked for several years in learning and leadership development at Dell Technologies while finishing my doctorate. I now teach organizational learning and human development, and am excited to be here and help ACC as it brings new opportunities for leaders and team members to grow and learn.
What was it about this position at ACC that appealed to you? What are the differences or similarities to your other workplaces and responsibilities?
I was excited about the Theory of Change and the mission of ACC as it hits to the core of what I’ve cared about since I myself was a high school student. I was the student representative to the school board and quickly realized that we had a long way to go in ensuring all students had access to post-secondary education and career opportunities, and that shared passion made me want to be right here. This role includes work that in prior roles spanned several teams, which often led to fractured approaches. Linking Upward eval, leadership development, and our professional programs in one unified approach is a power move!
After you get acquainted with your team and familiar with the college’s direction, what will be the focus of your work?
I love design– the chance to work together with others and take an idea into action is what I live for. I’m also a data nerd: or as I prefer to call it, “evidence-forward thinking”. Finally, I have a strong bias toward planning, so I look forward to offering these skills to the team as I help us achieve our FY26 big rocks. In particular, developing our values-based behaviors for leaders and all our team members here as part of the Demonstrating Practices of Caring work is something I will be deeply involved in. I actually had the honor to publish two short stories in volumes on caring practices of leaders! This has been a big piece of my career.
How do you see your work intersecting with other departments or initiatives across the college? Everyone leads from where they are and who they are. I promise if I meet you, I will have some shared areas of work that we can tackle together. I have an ecological approach to learning; we’re all interacting here with the “ACC way”. It works when we’re explicit and intentional about what we do, how we do it, and why–and that’s the conversation I want to have with each and every other department!
Which of ACC’s values – courage, compassion, joy and yes – do you most connect with, and why? Courage is a big one for me. I have really grown comfortable in asking harder questions and sharing what’s on my mind. Not because I want to give people a tough time, or be a contrarian, or “make things harder”– but because I’ve learned that it’s a sign of deep respect and belief in the abilities of others to make amazing things happen. I try to hold myself able to be warm, kind, and loyal AND press others into better thinking, better actions and better outcomes.
Tell us a little about yourself outside of work. I’m a mom to a little boy named Benjamin who is 4 years old. About a year ago, I started dating my partner Ninad after a decade-long friendship. He is Harry to my Sally, and I am so grateful to have him in my life. I love to travel, and almost always have a big trip or two in the works. Ben has already been to quite a few states and several countries (lucky kid). I love live music, festivals and concerts, singing karaoke with friends, and dancing. I also enjoy cooking, and trying out new restaurants!
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