PC Professor Selected as Only Central Valley Fellow for State AI Consortium

Porterville College is proud to announce that Dr. Rachel Tatro-Duarte, a Professor of English, has been selected as a Fellow for the State Chancellor's AI Consortium. She is the only faculty member chosen to represent the entire Central Valley in this groundbreaking initiative.

The California Community Colleges—the largest and most diverse higher education system in the country, serving 2.1 million students—has launched this new initiative to ensure equitable access to AI education and workforce development. The inaugural cohort of 13 AI Fellows will be instrumental in developing frameworks and guidelines for the responsible adoption of AI technologies across all 116 colleges.

Dr. Tatro-Duarte's primary focus as a fellow will be on AI Workforce Development for the Central Valley Mother Lode Consortium (CVML). Her selection underscores Porterville College's commitment to ensuring that students in the Central Valley have equitable opportunities and access to emerging AI technologies. This initiative is about more than just technical training; it’s about preparing students for the future of work and ensuring AI is used positively in the classroom to enhance learning.

Dr. Tatro-Duarte brings a wealth of experience to this role. She holds advanced degrees in English Literature and a doctoral degree from California State University, Bakersfield. Her dissertation, "Starting to Connect the Dots: Using Virtual Reality to Engage Students in Deep Learning and Literature Appreciation," introduced a VR Learning Model to foster experiential engagement. Her work with virtual reality and intelligent technologies has been inspired by her immersive studies as a Graduate Scholar Award recipient in Greece and as a National Endowment for the Humanities scholar in Italy.

The Chancellor's Office AI Fellows program is a cornerstone of Vision 2030, the California Community Colleges' strategic plan to position the system as a national leader in AI education. By embedding AI literacy and tools into the curriculum, the program aims to ensure that technological advancement serves as an equalizing force rather than a dividing one, directly addressing concerns about AI's potential to exacerbate educational and economic inequalities.

We are incredibly proud of Dr. Tatro-Duarte's accomplishment and her dedication to bringing these vital opportunities to our students and the wider Central Valley community.