Nancy McCallin, President, Colorado Community College system
Leadership Denver Class of 1990

Nancy McCallin says she might not have found her way to the Denver Metro Chamber Board of Directors without Leadership Denver, because the experience took her beyond her close community of economists and bankers, where she was most comfortable.

Back in 1990, McCallin had no idea of the role she would play in shaping public policy and the state’s budget. She says she was simply honored to have been nominated to join the 1990 class of Leadership Denver by her boss Bernie Hart at Wells Fargo Bank. She joined classmates such as Marjorie Gart, Cynthia Evans, and Dr. Reginald Washington.

McCallin, now president of Colorado’s 13 community colleges, figures she never would have met people from so many walks of life had it not been for the “wonderful diversity” of her 1990 class. For as a professional economist, she stuck to the numbers.

McCallin worked for two Governors, Romer and Owens, doing budgeting and forecasting. And it was Governor Bill Owens who gave her “the toughest job she ever loved” as his state budget director for six of the eight years of his administration.

She credits that wide exposure from Leadership Denver to different people and perspectives for helping her succeed in that position, especially during the leaner times that required balancing priorities that had real impact on people’s lives.

In fact, her most memorable moment was around public policy, when her class learned about the Poundstone Amendment. McCallin is a Colorado native, but many in her class were not and most were unaware of the significant impact of the 1974 Poundstone Amendment, which ended the ability of the City of Denver to annex new areas without a supporting vote of those in the areas to be annexed. The amendment shaped what we think of as the Metro area, impacted school desegregation in Denver Public Schools and now impacts Denver’s suburbs.

McCallin believes that today’s Leadership Denver participants still need the same critical thinking abilities and open-mindedness as they move into community leadership, but technology has intensified the demands on today’s leaders. She believes modern leadership is “all about adapting in an environment that moves much more quickly than in 1990.”

The young people being trained in today’s community college system mirror that need for adaptability and benefit from the technological advantages in today’s world, she said. They learn welding in mobile labs, take paramedic training in simulated environments and have many course offerings online, even soldiers deployed to Iraq can finish their education and training when in 1990, a deployment meant educational postponement.

McCallin was also featured in the Denver Post’s 9 to Watch for 2009.

Interviewer: Monique Lovato, Xcel Energy Foundation, LD Class of 2009

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