Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

PCC President Mark Mitsui elected to American Council on Education board of directors

Photos and story by James Hill

Mark Mitsui, president of Portland Community College (Portland, Ore.), has been elected to the Board of Directors of the American Council on Education (ACE), the major coordinating body for the nation’s colleges and universities. Mitsui’s term will run through March 2023.

Mitsui is in his fourth year as PCC’s president after serving as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Community Colleges within the Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education for the U.S. Department of Education in Washington, DC. In this role, he worked to advance U.S. President Barack Obama’s community college agenda through partnerships with numerous federal agencies and national stakeholders. Prior to this, Mitsui was the president of North Seattle College in Washington state, from 2010 to 2013.

Since joining PCC in 2016, Mitsui has been named one of the 2018 “Executives of the Year” by the Portland Business Journal for his visionary leadership and progress made to create and realize opportunity and equitable student success for PCC students. In addition to ACE, he serves on boards of several other organizations including the Governor’s Workforce and Talent Development board; Portland Business Alliance; Greater Portland, Inc.; the Community College Baccalaureate Association; the Higher Education Steering Council for Second Nature; and the President’s Advisory Council for Phi Theta Kappa. Mitsui also co-chairs the Artificial Intelligence Taskforce, as part of the Governor’s Workforce and Talent Development board.

This winter, Mitsui attended the Conference of the Parties 25 in Spain, which served as the latest round of United Nations climate negotiations. There, he represented American community colleges and the nonprofit Second Nature as part of the “We Are Still In” movement, or WASI.

​The American Council on Education (ACE) is a membership organization that mobilizes the higher education community to shape effective public policy and foster innovative, high-quality practice. It is the major coordinating body for the nation’s colleges and universities and has more than 1,700 member colleges and universities, related associations, and other organizations in America and abroad.

ACE is the only major higher education association to represent all types of U.S. accredited, degree-granting institutions: two-year and four-year, public and private. It convenes, organizes, mobilizes, and leads advocacy efforts that shape public policy and helps colleges and universities serve their students and the community.