Community colleges are increasingly recognizing that diverse leadership is needed to reflect and honor their student and faculty populations. "Students need to feel like they're welcomed," says Robert Vela, president of San Antonio College and head of the National Community College Hispanic Council, an AACC affiliate council. "If you don't look like them, if you don't share similar backgrounds, if you don't understand housing and mental health issues, and substance abuse issues-- it's important that we don't take the approach that 'this is a learning institution, so you must put that all aside.' It's going to enter your classrooms. It's going to spill over." Accomplishing these goals require strategies around both recruiting and retaining diverse leaders, community college presidents say. While diversity in leadership in increasing, (Shouan) Pan believes most in the field would agree that the sector is not there yet. For starters, boards of trustees must be conscious of the issue and look beyond the traditional, well-worn paths of the past, Pan says. Seattle Colleges has instituted a plank around diversity, equity and inclusion among the five pillars of its strategic plan, meaning "we're constantly reminding ourselves that this is important work," he says. "Every time we're making decisions, we have to have this different lens."