Riverland administrator receives national award

Published 10:15 am Monday, April 5, 2010

Ron Langrell, executive vice president for Riverland Community College, will be honored with the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society’s 2010 Administrator Award of Distinction in Orlando, Fla., on April 9. He is one of 24 recipients nationwide.

The Administrator Award of Distinction is awarded to college vice presidents, deans or leaders other than college presidents/CEOs serving in an administrative capacity, who have demonstrated a strong level of support for Phi Theta Kappa.

Langrell received his bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1979, then went on to earn both master’s and post-master’s degrees in education, all at the University of Idaho. He completed a Ph.D. at Florida State University in 1990, earning recognition with the Hugh Stickler Award for innovative research.  He attended Harvard University’s Institute for Educational Management in 2000.

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Langrell started his administrative career as the nation’s youngest community college chief student affairs officer at College of Southern Idaho in the 1980s, and became president of both Washington State Workforce Education Council and the State Continuing Education Council while serving as vice president of instruction at Walla Walla Community College from 1990 to 2005.  He has been the Riverland’s executive vice president since 2005. Langrell and his wife, Vicki, have three children and reside in Austin.

Phi Theta Kappa, the honorary scholastic society for two-year colleges, was founded in 1918 and was recognized by the American Association of Junior College in 1929.  It is the respected professional fraternity for two-year colleges demanding scholarship, service and leadership.  Today, Phi Theta Kappa has more than 800 chapters throughout the United States.  The Riverland Community College Chapter, Zeta Eta, founded in 1947, has inducted more than 1,900 students over the chapter’s history.