Tori Pearson

Mojdeh Mehdizadeh, the 10th chancellor of the Contra Costa Community College District (4CD), immigrated from Iran to the United States when she was eight years old, and still recalls the scrutiny she faced about her origins and race after the family settled in Ogden, Utah. 

“It was a challenge being a young person from Iran living here in the United States, [where] often people would identify me and my family as terrorists,” Mehdizadeh said in a recent interview, reflecting on the long path that led to her becoming the administrative head of three East Bay colleges, including Diablo Valley College.

Her family left Iran in the summer of 1978 during the Iranian Revolution, and she was forced to adapt to a completely different country and its culture.

“It [Iran] was what I knew,” Mehdizadeh said, “and as a child I loved it. I had great friends and amazing family.

“[But] the politics of the country changed,” she added, and after the overthrow of the Shah and the establishment of an Islamic Republic, “it was not necessarily the safest environment.”

Mehdizadeh and her family stayed in Utah for the remainder of that year, but by January 1979, she said her family had reached their limit with the anti-Iranian prejudice they faced in the area. 

“1979 was when the hostage crisis took place in Iran, where they captured American hostages,” she explained. Mehdizadeh recalled how in the third grade, children would throw items at her in the middle of class. 

“Kids can be cruel, it’s just a sad fact of reality,” she said. “I couldn’t even understand what was happening, and that might be a good thing.”

Mehdizadeh’s story is unique among the many inspiring journeys of DVC alumni since their graduation, and some of them will return to the campus this fall as the school celebrates its 75th anniversary with two days of commemorative events.

According to the DVC Alumni Association manager, Charley Daly, the Oct. 25-26 alumni celebration—which will include a best-selling author presentation, a barbeque and a football game—will connect past DVC students with present ones, as expressed in the association’s tagline: “Where every story inspires the next.”
“DVC is a place of transformation,” Daly told The Inquirer. “And that’s the story we want to continue to resonate with people with the Alumni Association.”

In Mehdizadeh’s case, her transformation began after a visit to see some of their former neighbors who had moved from Ogden to Oakland. Upon returning, her family decided to relocate to California as well. They settled in Pleasant Hill, where Mehdizadeh attended Pleasant Hill Elementary, Christ the King Middle School and Acalanes High School.

Mehdizadeh entered Diablo Valley College in 1987. She said she dreamed of attending the college since she was 11 years old, when she watched the long application process her brother went through as an international student. 

After seeing her family’s excitement and relief when her brother announced his acceptance at the college, she knew she wanted to follow in his footsteps.
“He was jumping for joy,” she said. And while watching the celebrations she remembered thinking to herself, “Oh my god, I’m going to DVC!”

Mehdizadeh arrived on campus as an accounting major, but had switched to computer science by the end of her first semester. This move was in large part due to her experience working in the Career Development Center.

Mehdizadeh recalled that the office she worked in had just received computers, and part of her job was to create databases to digitally sort information that she then provided to students and faculty. 

Becoming a student employee shaped her early college education, and she explained how being surrounded by coworkers from diverse backgrounds encouraged her to develop and grow.

“It was probably the first time that I felt a genuine sense of belonging in the United States,” Mehdizadeh said. “Having a job on campus is probably the thing that created the biggest sense of belonging for me.”

Like many students, Mehdizadeh had to take required classes she didn’t look forward to as an undergraduate. But one of them—a summer-session public speaking course—would be the class that would result in, as she described, “building my love for communication studies.”

Her professor in that class, Mr. Al Amador, helped students acquire knowledge and presentation skills as well as learn more about one another.

“That class of 30, we became the best of friends,” she recalled, “and it’s interesting because I think back now and we all loved the opportunity to actually speak in front of one another.”

After two years at DVC, Mehdizadeh transferred to San Francisco State University, where she received her bachelor’s degree in computer science in 1992, with an emphasis in information and automation systems.

 Mehdizadeh completed her masters degree in speech communications at Cal State University East Bay in 1995, with an emphasis in organizational and intercultural communications. 

All the while, she kept to her roots at DVC by working a variety of positions at the community college. She worked as a College for Kids and college success instructor, a cooperative education and assessment center technician, and an associate director for a statewide training center for cooperative education.

Then, beginning in 1998, Mehdizadeh began to deepen her roots within the district by serving as a technology applications manager for the 4CD.

In March 2001, she became the associate vice chancellor and chief information officer for the district. A decade later, she was named executive vice chancellor of education and technology, a role she held between 2011 and 2015 when she became the president of Contra Costa College.

“My entire career being here, and then ultimately serving as a chancellor for the entire district, is beyond a dream,” she said. 

Mehdizadeh, who began serving as the 4CD chancellor in January of 2024, said her most valuable piece of advice to current and future students is simple: “Stay open to possibilities.” 

“Retain a positive outlook,” said Mehdizadeh, “which isn’t always easy given [the] challenges that life throws at us. And don’t be afraid to dream big!”

Another successful DVC alum, Daniel James Brown, will be coming to campus for the fall alumni association events, and to share the lessons he learned from his time as a student on campus that he carried with him throughout his career. 

Brown is the author of numerous books, including the 2013 bestseller The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, which was adapted into a movie directed by George Clooney last year.

Brown will speak to the DVC community about his life and work in an event entitled “Resilience and Triumph,” which takes place on Friday, Oct. 25 at 7 p.m. in the DVC library on the Pleasant Hill Campus.

 The following day, on Saturday, Oct. 26, the alumni association will host the first annual DVC Alumni BBQ and Football Tailgate Party starting at 11 a.m. in the Vikings Stadium. 

The event will begin with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the expanded athletics facility. Afterwards students and alumni can enjoy a free lunch catered by the restaurant Back Forty Texas BBQ, followed by an afternoon football game between the DVC Vikings and San Joaquin Delta Mustangs.

“It’s an opportunity to connect not only with our past, which is the people who have been here long before us,” Daly said about the fall gathering, “[but] for students to be able to see that this place has been around awhile. There’s a lot of history here.”