Flathead Valley Community College President Jane Karas has received the highest national community college presidential honor for her work at the college.

The Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) selected Karas as the recipient of the 2016 Marie Y. Martin Chief Executive Award. The award recognizes the most distinguished community college president in the country.

Karas received the honor at the annual Awards Gala Oct. 7, held during the Annual ACCT Leadership Congress in New Orleans. She was selected for the award based upon her initiation of innovative programs at FVCC, her work to maximize opportunities for students to be successful and her advocacy and service on behalf of two-year colleges in Montana and across the nation.

FVCC Board of Trustee Chair Shannon Lund said Karas has guided the college through its most dramatic period of growth and academic innovation.

“She has worked to meet local workforce needs, including those in advanced manufacturing and health care, and has explored a wide range of specialized programs while ensuring that FVCC’s core academic programs are continually enhanced,” Lund said.

The award came at a time as the college celebrates growing enrollment numbers while many institutions struggle to increase enrollment across the state.

This fall, FVCC reported its first steady increase in overall students in six years. In the after-effects of the 2008 economic crisis, FVCC enrollment hit record levels in 2010 with more than 2,500 students. According to the college’s fall enrollment, they’re hovering below that recorded with a total headcount of 2,263 students this semester.

In Karas’ time at FVCC, the college has expanded its partnership with the University of Montana and Montana State University for four-year bachelor of arts degrees.

And when tapped by local businesses in need of more workers, FVCC’s leadership have also created new programs to fill in those workforce gaps.

At the most recent board meeting Oct. 17, FVCC trustees approved the creation of two new curriculum programs.

The first, a Medical Laboratory Associate of Applied Science, was created in partnership with Kalispell Regional Medical Center at the hospital’s request, Karas said. She said this program was an example of the college expanding to meet job shortage needs in the community.

The second, Programing and Game Development, ties in well with the college’s computer science program. Karas said the Associate of Applied Sciences could lead students into a future as programmers, computer systems analysts, software developers or game designers.

“Any of these careers, you could live here in the valley and have a job anywhere in the world,” Karas said.

The award is named in honor of Marie Y. Martin, who served as director of the Community College Unit, U.S. Office of Education and as a chief executive in the Los Angeles Community District.

Karas was selected from a pool of five finalists from community colleges around the nation.

She qualified for the title after she won the Western Regional Chief Executive Officer Award for the second time in August, which recognizes the most distinguished college presidents from each of ACCT’s five regions out of 200 two-year colleges.