College of the Redwoods President to Step Down, Transition Planned

Dr. Keith Flamer notified the College of the Redwoods Board of Trustees on December 12 that 2026 will be his final year as president, and the board will formally acknowledge his notice at its meeting next week. Flamer, who joined the college in July 2006 and has served the institution for nearly two decades, has been president for the past ten years and will remain fully engaged through the end of his contract on December 31, 2026. The Board and Flamer have worked in recent months to update board policies and administrative procedures governing the presidential search, with the formal search scheduled to begin early in the Spring 2026 semester.

Board President Colleen Mullery praised Flamer's tenure and the traits she said are needed in leadership, stating leadership requires trust, courage, commitment, vision, and the ability to bring disparate groups together to work toward a common goal, and that College of the Redwoods has been blessed with the leadership provided by Dr. Keith Flamer during his tenure as President. Under Flamer the college addressed major accreditation and financial challenges, expanded distance education infrastructure, improved employee compensation, and fully recovered enrollment lost during the pandemic. College officials say the institution is now positioned to surpass enrollment targets and grow general fund revenue, outcomes that matter directly to Humboldt County through student spending, workforce development, and local tax and contracting flows.

Significant capital work completed during Flamer's administration includes the Creative Arts Complex, the community stadium renovation, and the new PE Complex and Fieldhouse. Planned projects include affordable student housing on the Eureka campus, the Del Norte Healthcare Education Training Center and renovation, and a joint Cal Poly Humboldt College of the Redwoods Healthcare Education Hub. Those projects are likely to generate construction activity and expand local training pipelines, particularly in health care and career education programs that aim to address regional workforce shortages.

Dr. Flamer emphasized collective effort in the college's progress, saying none of this progress would have been possible without the dedication of our faculty, staff, students, administrators, the Board of Trustees, and our community partners, and added that it has been the honor of my career to serve College of the Redwoods. The coming year will focus on sustaining momentum, engaging stakeholders in the presidential search, and ensuring a smooth leadership transition with attention to enrollment stability and ongoing capital investments.