Dhawan starts as Arizona Western College’s 10th president

Arizona Western College’s new president begins with a regional test, not just a ceremonial one: whether students in La Paz County actually see more access to classes, training and support. Dr. Reetika Dhawan started as the college’s 10th president on June 1, stepping into a job that reaches far beyond Yuma and into Parker, Quartzsite and other west-county communities that rely on AWC for education close to home.

Dhawan is the first woman to lead AWC, the first person of color in the presidency and the first immigrant in the college’s 63-year history. The college says she joined AWC in 2008 as an adjunct math and physics instructor, making her promotion a long-running internal transition rather than an outside hire. For La Paz County families weighing dual enrollment, adult education, CNA training or a path to a degree, that history matters because the new president already knows the system from the classroom up.

AWC says it serves the largest geographic district in Arizona, with 12 locations across La Paz and Yuma counties spanning more than 10,000 square miles and serving more than 11,000 students a year. The college also offers more than 170 degrees and certificates, and it says its sites support local access to degree programs, economic development, scholarship foundations and workforce training. In a county where distance can be a barrier as much as cost, those are the services that determine whether residents can stay local or have to travel for school and job preparation.

The district governing board announced Dhawan as its selected successor on Dec. 11, 2025, after naming her the sole preferred candidate in October and planning candidate forums and a formal interview. The board said she would succeed Dr. Daniel Corr after his retirement in July 2026, though Dhawan took over before Corr’s planned departure. Dr. Daniel P. Corr served as AWC’s ninth president from 2016 to 2026.

Dhawan said she has spent nearly two decades teaching, learning, growing, struggling, celebrating and building relationships at the college. She said she does not claim to have all the answers and plans to spend the summer meeting community members inside and outside AWC to hear what they need and where the college should go next.

For La Paz County, the stakes are concrete. AWC already operates Parker Learning Center and Quartzsite Learning Center and has tied its adult education, workforce education and dual enrollment programs to both counties. The real measure of Dhawan’s presidency will be whether those footholds become more visible, more responsive and more useful to students and workers in the county’s west end.