San Diego Mesa College has named Leland Simpliciano as the Asian American Native American Pacific Islander-Service Institution (AANAPISI) Program Activity Manager/Grant Director in January 2023 and leading Mesa’s first five-year, $1.5 million Title III AANAPISI Grant. Mr. Simpliciano is a first-generation college graduate and a proud product of the community college system. He is currently pursuing an Ed.D. in Community College Leadership at Morgan State University and holds a Master’s in Counseling (Student Development in Higher Education) from California State University Long Beach, a BA in Social Ecology from the University of California, Irvine, and an AA in Sociology from De Anza Community College. Simpliciano has over 10+ years of experience working in higher education.

Since 2017, Mesa College GIS Alumnus Carmen Leedham has been assisting the County of San Diego, Health and Human Services Agency in the Office of Business Intelligence. The department works with, and provides support for, Aging, Independent, and Public Health Services.

This past summer, the U.S. Digital Corps selected Jonathan Hart, San Diego Mesa College Alumnus spring ’22, to be a part of the inaugural cohort of the U.S. Digital Corps. The U.S. Digital Corps is a new program that was launched last year by the White House to bring civic-minded early-career technologists to serve in the federal government.

San Diego Mesa College Art Gallery recently celebrated LatinX Heritage Month, with the exhibition In Lak’ech: Tu eres me otro yo (You are my other me), featuring Artworks by Maria de Los Angeles and Ryan Bonilla. Maria de Los Angeles is a Latinx artist and professor of painting at Yale University School of Art and started her education as a Dreamer at Santa Rosa community college. Ryan Bonilla is a Filipino-American fashion photographer that has worked for Tommy Hilfiger, Burberry and published in ELLE and other fashion magazines. They traveled from the East Coast to attend the reception. Maria de Los Angeles is based in New York.