Dr. Tamara Thornton Clunis
Vice Chancellor - Instruction and Workforce Initiatives

Dr. Tamara Thornton Clunis is vice chancellor of instruction and workforce development at Central Texas College in Killeen, Texas. Before joining Central Texas College, she worked for thirteen years at Amarillo College, serving as the inaugural dean of academic success and vice president of academic affairs. She is deeply committed to her role as a faculty advocate and works with higher education leaders to partner with faculty in student success efforts. Her favorite quote is, “I do not believe academic leaders and faculty need to have an adversarial relationship. Partnership is key!” She considers change leadership, integrated student support services and teaching and learning her specialties. She has deep experience with developmental education reform (DE) and adult basic education (ABE) integration within community college settings. Her DE reform and ABE integration model is recognized for excellence by the US Department of Education and the Texas Workforce Commission. She is a coach, speaker, and trainer supporting community colleges nationwide in student success work. Favorite Coaching Topics: guided pathways, corequisite developmental education, assessment, shorter academic terms, academic leadership development to lead transformational change, faculty professional learning, faculty engagement, shared governance, SACSCOC accreditation, scaling innovation, closing achievement gaps, and utilizing data for decision-making.

Dr. Clunis led the academic affairs division at Amarillo College during the historic institution reform period (2017-2023), which resulted in unprecedented course success and graduation rates. Institution recognitions received during this period include The Aspen Institute - Prize for Community College Excellence (2023),  Aspen Institute - Prize for Community College Excellence – Rising Star Award (May 2021),  Achieving the Dream – Leah Meyer Austin Award (2019), Achieving the Dream – Leader College of Distinction (2019-present), Bellwether Legacy Award (2019) Bellwether Award (2017), Achieving the Dream – Leader College (2014-2018), She received the following professional recognitions:  Lighthouse Leader Award from AVID for Higher Education (2019); Transformer Superhero Award (2017) from Amarillo College and National Outstanding First-Year Student Advocate Award (2013) from the National Resource Center for the First Year Experience and Students in Transition. She is also an Aspen Rising President Fellow.

She has partner relationships with Jobs for the Future, Achieving the Dream, National Center for Inquiry and Improvement, Texas Association of Community Colleges, Texas Success Center, and AVID for Higher Education. She is a statewide Chief Academic Officers Council member with the Texas Association of Community Colleges. She has higher education state policy experience working as the state director for developmental and adult education with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. She taught developmental education and learning framework courses for 20 years in two and four-year institutions.

EDUCATION & CREDENTIALS

Ph.D., Texas State University, Adult, Professional and Community Education
M.A., Texas State University, Development and Adult Education
B.A., University of Texas at Austin, History