Retiring CMCCD Trustee Eva Kinsman with Assemblyman Tom Lackey at Kinsman’s retirement ceremony in December’s Board of Trustees meeting.
After 22 years of devoted service, longtime Twentynine Palms resident, Eva Kinsman, is retiring from the Copper Mountain Community College District’s Board of Trustees.
“Eva has been a cornerstone of CMC since its very beginning,” noted Daren Otten, Ed.D., Superintendent/President of Copper Mountain College. “I, along with every Superintendent/President that this College has ever had, have benefited from her coaching, patience, grace, and unwavering commitment to ensuring access to higher education within the Morongo Basin. She will truly be missed.”
During her time with the CMC Board of Trustees, Kinsman has served multiple terms as President, Vice President, Clerk, and Foundation Liaison. She has been a faithful donor during her tenure, and is a proud member of the Copper Mountain College Foundation’s President’s Circle, helping to maximize educational opportunities for students.
Kinsman has had a long career in education, retiring from the Morongo Unified School District after a 26-year career that included her work as a K-12 teacher, as well as an elementary and high school principal. Additionally, Kinsman served for seven years as an adjunct professor at the University of Redlands.
She served 25 years with the Western Association of Schools and Colleges as an accreditation visiting team member and chair, throughout the state of California, and served as a clinical supervisor of student teachers for the Western Governor’s University Offices.
At the state level, Kinsman also served on the ACES Committee, which encouraged California’s high school students to focus on architecture, construction, and engineering as a way to earn college credits that are transferrable to the CSU and UC systems, as well as with the Community College League for California as a facilitator for a new trustees workshop, and with the League’s Advisory Committee on Educational Services. In addition, she served on the California Community College Trustees Board as one of 21 members selected statewide.
Locally and regionally, Kinsman has been involved with numerous community and civic organizations including Action Council for 29 Palms, the 29 Palms Historical Society, the 29 Palms Kiwanis Club, the California Public Arts and Mural Society, and Sky’s the Limit Observatory and Nature Center.
Eva Kinsman served Copper Mountain College throughout the tenures of six college presidents, and her personal and professional dedication to higher education has been invaluable on both a local and statewide level.
A formal resolution honoring Eva Kinsman’s service to the college will be presented during the Board of Trustee’s meeting on December 15. The resolution notes Kinsman will, “always be honored at Copper Mountain College and throughout its surrounding communities as one who personifies the dignity and grace inherent in a lifetime of intelligent and principled public service.”