FORT COLLINS, Colo. – Rachel Pokrandt is the new dean of Instruction-College Now at Front Range Community College.
As dean, she will oversee FRCC’s College Now initiatives in Larimer County. College Now is the new name for college classes and programs for high school students. This includes the Larimer Campus’s 10 high school career/technical programs, which enroll more than 400 students annually, as well as the career/technical and general-education classes high school students enroll in under the state of Colorado’s concurrent enrollment law.
Pokrandt has been a high school teacher, a curriculum developer, and education consultant. She has trained thousands of teachers in the United States, India, Singapore, Germany, Ireland, and the United Kingdom.
She succeeds Phyllis Abt, who is taking on special assignments as associate vice president emeritus.
Pokrandt came to FRCC from her position as director of curriculum and training for Beyond Benign: A Warner/Babcock Foundation. She was a founding member of this nonprofit that advocates for “green” chemistry and sustainability. She worked with more than 2,500 schools and 10,000 teachers to implement sustainable science programming. Before that, she was director of professional education and leadership for The Keystone Center, focusing on training teachers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines.
A native of Nottingham, England, Pokrandt has called Colorado home for more than 20 years. Her career in education started at Summit High School in Breckenridge where she taught language arts, journalism, and theater. She was named Summit County Educator of the Year in 2002.
Pokrandt has a Bachelor of Arts in theatre and drama from Manchester City University in England, a Bachelor of Arts in education and social studies from Western Governors University, and a Master of Business Administration from Western Governors University. She has Colorado teacher certification in three subject areas.
