The Santa Clarita Valley Chamber of Commerce has announced its plan to recognize College of the Canyons Chancellor Dianne G. Van Hook with the chamber’s 2020 Lifetime Achievement Award.
“There is no one more deserving of this great recognition for her more than 30 years of leadership at College of the Canyons,” said Nancy Starczyk, chair of the SCV Chamber board of directors, in a news release Thursday. “Dr. Van Hook has spent her entire career educating our workforce and has implemented numerous business support service offerings at the college to support economic development.”
Van Hook currently serves as a member of the SCV Chamber’s board of directors and the chair of The Chamber Institute.
The SCV Chamber’s Lifetime Achievement Award is one of the top honors a business leader can receive in the Santa Clarita Valley, according to officials. “The award is given to leaders that have demonstrated a significant, long-term, positive impact on the business community and the greater Santa Clarita Valley,” the press release on Thursday said.
“Dr. Van Hook is an inspiration to all of us at the SCV Chamber and across the entire business community,” said Ivan Volschenk, managing partner with Evolve Business Strategies, which manages the SCV Chamber. “Her leadership and focus in providing business education and training over the last three decades has had a strong, positive impact on the success of local businesses in ways that will last for years to come.”
As California’s current longest-serving community college chief executive officer, with a four and a half-decade career as a higher education leader in California, Van Hook has also served as a board member for Red Cross, SCV Education Foundation, the SCV Fine Arts Council, the Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital Governance Committee, the Michael Hoefflin Foundation for Children’s Cancer, and the United Way Executive Cabinet. ν
