Dr. Pamela Schokley- Zalabak

Dr. Pamela S. Shockley-Zalabak is the chancellor of the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs.  As chancellor since 2001, Shockley-Zalabak has focused UCCS on meeting the economic, social and cultural needs of southern Colorado. UCCS has focused its efforts on the recruitment, retention and graduation of ethnic minority students in addition to developing programs designed to foster interest in careers in science, technology, engineering and math. In 2009, Shockley-Zalabak led the creation of the Southern Colorado Education Consortium, a unique partnership of two- and four-year colleges in southern Colorado who have joined together to boost both individual and collective futures in a predominantly rural area of the state with historically low educational achievement. While early in the consortium’s life, its successes include the use of CISCO Telepresence to teach bachelor’s degree-level nursing and engineering courses to students in remote areas of the region. This fall, UCCS began offering bachelor’s degree completion courses in business, criminal justice and nursing to community college students in rural Colorado. The program allows the students to complete their first two years at a community college and two additional years coursework online with UCCS on the path to a bachelor’s degree.