HETS Bylaws, as amended on 2012, dedicate its Article III to the HETS Board of Directors. On this article establishes that the affairs of the Consortium shall be managed by the Board of Directors. Each member institution may have a representative in the Board of Directors. The Executive Committee, which leads the Board of Directors, is elected by Board representatives from member institutions. The term of service is two years, commencing July 1st and ending on June 30th, or until his or her successor has been elected or designated. Meet current HETS Executive Committee as elected on June 2024:
HETS Chair
Ing. Gladys Nieves
President
EDP University (Puerto Rico)
Eng. Gladys Nieves Vázquez, coursed her undergraduate studies at Syracuse
University and the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez Campus where he was
awarded the degree of Bachelor of Industrial Engineering. Besides her
Engineering degree, she has a Master’s degree in Business Administration from
the Rio Piedras Campus of the University of Puerto Rico. As a young
entrepreneur, she began to apply the acquired knowledge in Total Quality
Management, a key experience grown during her work as an engineer at Johnson
& Johnson’s plant.
In 1997, she assumed the presidency of EDP College at age 27, after the
death of his father, becoming the youngest national president of a university.
In 2009 she announced with her mother Gladys Vazquez conversion of the
university to a nonprofit entity. Among her accomplishments as president, she
had the urge to accredit the institution by Middle States and change it in 2013
from college to university, re-naming the institution to EDP University of
Puerto Rico. For eight years she represented the Institute of Industrial
Engineers in the Disciplinary Tribunal of the College of Engineering.
Today Nieves is the Second Vice-President of the Association of Private
Education of Puerto Rico; Secretary of the HETS Consortium; member of the
Puerto Rico’s Universia Board of Directors, and the Board of Directors
of the Association of Private Education of Puerto Rico.
HETS Vice Chair
Dr. Carlos Vargas-Aburto (watch here his interview)
President
Southeast Missouri State University
Dr. Carlos Vargas became the 18th president of Southeast Missouri State University on July 1, 2015, after having served as acting president at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania. He also served as the provost and vice president for academic and student affairs at Kutztown, and was the school’s chief academic officer since 2006.
Prior to his tenure at Kutztown, Dr. Vargas was at Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio, where he served as provost and vice president for academic affairs. He previously served in several roles at Kent State University (Ohio) for a total of 18 years, including founding director of the program on electron beam technology. He was also Kent’s associate dean for research, interim assistant dean for research, and he served as interim assistant dean for the School of Technology. He started his tenure at Kent State in 1985 as a professor, and continued to teach until his departure from the university.
Dr. Vargas began his career in higher-education at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), from which he received a Bachelor of Science degree in physics. His initial appointment was as a senior associate researcher for the Institute of Geophysics, and he later held a similar position for the University’s Institute of Physics.
He earned his Ph.D. in physics and aerospace science from the University of Michigan and he has Master of Science.
Secretary
Dr. Tomás Morales
President
California State University at San Bernardino (California)
Tomás D. Morales was selected as the president of California State University, San Bernardino in May 2012. He is the university’s fourth president since it opened in 1965. Previously, Morales was president of the College of Staten Island, The City University of New York (CUNY), since 2007. A staunch advocate of this university’s commitment to student success, he has championed the importance of access to higher education and preparing young people for collegiate success throughout his extensive career as a dedicated educational leader.
During his tenure at CSUSB, Morales has overseen sustained growth in overall enrollment, the number of degrees awarded, community engagement and university fundraising. The face of the institution is also expanding with its five-year strategic plan well underway, including the new Coyote Village residence hall and Coyote Commons dining hall, the largest single construction project in university history.
Treasurer
Dr. Olga E. Rivera Velazco
President
President and Chief Executive Officer of the ICPR Junior College
Since 2005, Olga E. Rivera Velazco is the President and Chief Executive
Officer of the ICPR Junior College (ICPR). She holds a Doctorate in Business
Administration from the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico, a Master
in Business Administration in Management from the University of Phoenix and a
Bachelor of Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing from the
Sacred Heart University. Olga has over thirty years of experience in the
administration of post-secondary university institutions.
She has been recognized with the EXCEL Award from the Association of Public
Relations Professionals of Puerto Rico and with the Francisco (Paco) Oller
Award, the most prestigious award granted by this association. She was also
recognized as Service Sector Representative of the Year by the Puerto Rico
Manufacturers Association. In 2004, the Caribbean Business newspaper recognized
her as one of the Powerful Business Women of Puerto Rico and in
2009, as one of the People to Watch.
Currently, she is the President of the Board of Commissioners of the
Accrediting Commission of Educational Institutions (CADIE), Inc. She served as
President of the Board of Directors of the Sales and Marketing Executives
Association of Puerto Rico from 2009 to 2010 and of the Caribbean Girl Scouts
Council from 2012 to 2016.
Regional Representative East
Dr. Sumaya Villanueva
Assistant Provost for Academic Engagement
John Jay of Criminal Justice, CUNY (New York)
Dra. Villanueva brings two decades of higher education experience to the leadership team at John Jay College of Criminal Justice-City University of New York, a HIS and MSI institution.
Her professional interests and expertise focus in the areas of strategic planning, program development and implementation, student engagement and retention, social justice and inclusion, and leadership.
In her role as Assistant Provost for Academic Engagement, she is responsible for the college’s award-winning Academic Advisement Center, the Center for Career and Professional Development, Learning Technologies, and Academic Tutoring Centers. She also has direct oversight of the grant-funded initiative: Completion for Upper-division Students Program (CUSP), that leverages a predictive analytic tool to identify high support students and implement various levels of interventions that propel ‘near completers’ to degree completion. The CUSP program has helped boost the college’s graduation rate from 54 to 86% for seniors.
Regional Representative West
Dr. Carlos Morales
President
TCC Connect Campus of Tarrant County College (Texas)
Dr. Morales become TCC Connect’s President in 2013. Before that, he was the Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs and Distance Education Programs at Ana G. Méndez University- Virtual Campus. As such, he provided leadership, vision and planning for the implementation of courses and programs for online delivery.
Previously he was the Executive Director of Academic Technology at Lock Haven University responsible for the delivery of online courses, the incorporation of technology for teaching and learning, faculty development, the STEP program (a student laptop initiative) and also facilitated campus conversations on academic technology. Prior to Lock Haven University, Dr. Morales was the Instructional Designer for the Center for Instructional and Technological Innovation (CITI) at New Jersey City University, responsible for instructional technology staff.
Carlos has extensive online and classroom teaching experience in the areas of: Biology, Science Teaching and Instructional Technology. He also holds professional certifications as Distance Learning Administration Professional from Texas A&M University and Certified Online Instructor (COI) from Walden University. Morales graduated from the Inter American University of Puerto Rico, with bachelors and master’s degrees in Biology and Science Education, and received his doctorate, with a dissertation on Constructivist Learning Environments in Online Course Design, from Capella University. He was a Frye fellow in 2009.
International Representative
Dr. Maritza Rondón Rangel
Chancellor
Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia
Maritza Rondón Rangel, who served as Director of Quality for Higher Education of the Ministry of National Education (2007 – 2008), Vice Minister in charge and who was linked to the Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia, since 2012, as Academic Vice-rector, became Nationwide Chancellor of the Institution since 2015. The University Assembly appointed the Academician to continue with the institution’s consolidation process, whose immediate challenges this year are: to accredit more than 20 undergraduate programs with high quality and to inaugurate modern infrastructure works in the Bucaramanga headquarters, Santa Marta, Espinal and Medellín. Rondón continued to lead the Strategic Plan “Navigating Together” that sets goals for 2022 and whose basic objective is to make the Cooperative University of Colombia a world-class institution. Rondón Rangel, is at the head of the institution that today has 18 branches, 52 thousand students, 4,500 professors and more than 220 programs with qualified registration.