President John Carmichael
Ph.D., Colorado State University
Dr. John Carmichael was appointed as Evergreen’s seventh president in 2021. John has deep ties to the college, having earned Bachelor of Arts and Master of Public Administration degrees from Evergreen. He joined the college’s staff in 1998 as a secretary and served in a variety of roles for more than 20 years, including chief of staff and secretary to the Board of Trustees and as vice president for finance and operations. John earned a Ph.D. in Education and Human Resource Studies from Colorado State University and attended Harvard’s Finance for Senior Executives program. John is a lifelong resident of Washington state and lives in Olympia with his husband, Michael Partlow.
The President is responsible for engaging the campus, community and external groups in the promotion of a liberal arts education and learning community models. He represents the college and helps develop and maintain a comprehensive vision for Evergreen's students, works to build relationships, strengthen partnerships and collaborate with other college leaders to develop creative solutions.
Executive Vice President Dexter Gordon
Ph.D., Indiana University
Dr. Dexter Gordon began his role as executive vice president in August 2021. He is directly responsible for enrollment, marketing and communications and student affairs.
Dexter brings to Evergreen a national reputation for his work on equity and inclusion, his leadership on curriculum reform in higher education and a long record of grounded and transformational community educational work in the Pacific Northwest.
Dexter is the founding director of the Race and Pedagogy Institute at the University of Puget Sound, where he also served as a distinguished professor, a Dolliver endowed chair, director of the African American studies program and professor of communication studies. Colleagues describe him as “a grounded, sharp and impressive teacher, scholar and leader” whose teaching and scholarship are marked by an intrepid critical questioning and integration, care for the textures of peoples’ experiences of learning and other aspects of living, and a penchant for taking on sweeping and ranging social, political and ethical questions. His scholarship, experience and expertise are guided by his vision of comprehensive community development that grounded in equity and justice for all.