Community colleges face challenges with the high rate of retirement of community college presidents and the need to replace them with qualified leaders. Although leadership research has identified a number of desirable attributes of community college presidents, there is little research on the attributes sought by both faculty leaders and board members in an effective community college presidential applicant. This exploratory qualitative study sought to fill that gap. Its additional purpose was to examine how these two groups make a decision when differences occur. Attribute theory served as the conceptual framework that guided the study. Seven faculty leaders and 3 board members responded to questionnaires and participated in interviews on the attributes they deemed most important. Data were analyzed by using open and axial coding. Findings revealed that faculty and board members agreed on these key attributes of a community college president: communication skills, decision-making skills, honesty, problem solving skills, and vision. However, faculty discussed them from the perspective of what happens inside the institution, while board members discussed them from the perspective of what happens outside the institution. Applicants and committee members need to be aware of the importance of serving internal and external constituents. Both faculty and board members indicated using a democratic, collegial method to come to agreement when differences occurred. Social change implications include enhanced satisfaction and retention of community college presidents and thus better stability and performance of their institutions.

Recent studies reveal that a considerable number of U.S. community college leaders will be retiring in the next several years. The concern is that with the large turnover, history, culture, and important lessons of leadership will be lost. The current research on the lives of presidents, their career paths, and experiences in community college leadership centers on approaches to the study of leadership at the macro level. Limited research exists in the published literature that reports and analyzes the development of individuals as community college leaders at the micro level. This results in a gap regarding understanding leadership development and strategies to prepare leaders. This study addresses this gap by providing a critical description of the leadership development of one individual who became a community college chancellor and who the literature on the community context indicates contributed to the local and national context for community colleges. Biography is gaining prominence as a legitimate and viable tool in the study of leadership. Few biographical studies currently exist which focus on leadership development in context at the micro level. This dissertation is a biographical, qualitative study of the leadership path and legacy of R. Jan LeCroy, a community college leader. The study combined two viable approaches to biographical inquiry: a scholarly chronicle and the realist approach. Data included the use of primary and secondary sources and included interviews, document analysis, and archival data such as newspaper articles, memos, and minutes of meetings. The data were analyzed and the findings discussed using the theoretical framework of Gronn's (1993) career model of leadership, Vaughan's (1986) study of the career paths of presidents, and Sullivan's (2001) study of four distinct generations of community college leaders. The leadership path of R. Jan LeCroy paralleled the four stages in Gronn's (1993) career model of leadership; he shared characteristics of the presidents surveyed in Vaughan's (1986) study; and he fit the profile of the second generation of community college leaders as described by Sullivan (2001).

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