The Flathead Valley Community College board of trustees offered the president position to Deborah Kish Stephan after deliberations concluded Tuesday.

Four finalists were considered for the position to replace outgoing president Jane Karas, who is set to retire Dec. 31 after 25 years in the position. 

Trustees said Stephan stood out for her community college experience, working in various positions from professor to president, her background in workforce and economic development, and her financial and legal expertise. They also pointed to her transparent approach to budgeting and strategic planning, and her reputation as a collaborative listener.  

Contract negotiations are the next step. A final contract, if accepted by Stephan, is expected to go before the board for approval at 4 p.m. on Sept. 28 in Blake Hall, room 140, on the Kalispell campus. 

Stephan, who has served as president of Hillsborough Community College’s Brandon Campus in Tampa, Florida, since 2021, holds a Juris Doctor in business law from the University of Florida and a doctorate in education from The Roueche Graduate Center of National American University. She also holds a master’s in business administration from the University of Florida, a bachelor's in secondary social science education and an associate degree, both from Florida State University. 

The selection followed two days of trustee deliberations that concluded with a well-attended, two-hour public meeting on Tuesday. 

Board chair Callie Langohr said the search drew broad public participation, with more than 600 people taking part in forums and hundreds more weighing in through surveys. 

“Those numbers represent hundreds of people who cared enough about FVCC and its future to show up, listen, ask questions, share their perspectives and help inform this important decision,” Langohr said. 

“From the beginning, we have said that the presidential search was an act of stewardship. We are entrusted with honoring the past, serving the present and selecting a leader who will shape our future. Our goal has never been to simply fill a position,” she said. 

The board this week interviewed finalists J. Mark Browning, Daniel Czech, Andrew Fields and Stephan. 

Trustees moved through multiple rounds of discussion, weighing each finalist’s experience, public feedback and ability to lead a rural community college. Their ultimate goal was to reach a unanimous decision, but the choice remained difficult with trustees viewing both finalists as strong matches, “checking all the boxes” of the presidential profile created at the beginning of the search. 

One of the central questions that kept resurfacing was how each finalist’s experience would translate to FVCC’s rural setting, where the next president will be expected to be visible, accessible to staff and students and connected to the community. 

After the first round, trustees narrowed the field to Stephan and Czech. Stephan was associated with a steady, more reserved, community-rooted approach that would easily transition to FVCC, while Czech presented a growth-minded approach built around visibility, fundraising and expansion. 

Czech has served as dean of the School of Applied Sciences at the University of Mississippi since 2025 and holds a doctorate in performance psychology from the University of Tennessee. Trustees were concerned about how his experience at a large, four-year university would translate to the culture and structure of the rural community college. 

The question boiled down to, which kind of leadership best matched the college’s next chapter and the direction it wanted to take, according to trustees. 

While Stephan drew strong support for her background, trustees also discussed how her experience at a much larger campus of 17,738 students, would translate to FVCC's 3,491 students and staff of 433.   

Those concerns were balanced against trustees’ sense that Stephan’s current work more closely resembled the role FVCC is seeking to fill and would require less transition support. 

“There's so many things that Stephan brings to the table that our institution needs right away, and ultimately, I think that's why she kind of rises to the top,” vice chair Travis Steindorf said.  

While he said he would love to see the direction Czech could take the college, he was satisfied with its current trajectory and didn’t see a need to substantially alter its course. 

Langohr also noted that Stephan’s collaborative, “people-first” style aligned with FVCC’s culture. Others acknowledged that Czech made a strong public impression with a more energetic style, particularly in forums and fundraising discussions. 

The final comparison became less about whether either finalist was qualified and more about what kind of change or direction trustees wanted to bring to the college — continuity with targeted growth, or a bolder shift toward broader visibility and expansion.  

Trustee Mary Sterhan noted that a revised strategic plan might have made the choice clearer when trustees were, as one trustee put it, “splitting hairs.” 

“I sort of wish we would have done our strategic plan before we choose a president, because I think you know, depending on what we want the next five years to look like for the college, is it is it kind of maintain and enhance, or is it, you know, form more new buildings in the next five years? If we knew which we wanted, it would be more clear to me which leader we want,” she said. 

Trustees also raised the topic of longevity and how that might be impacted by the out-of-state candidates’ acclimation to Northwest Montana culture and climate.  

“... you know, some of this is just a leap of faith here ... We have to take the information we have and make the best judgment that we can,” trustee Kelly Stimpson said. 

Reporter Hilary Matheson can be reached at 406-758-4431 or [email protected]. If you value local journalism, pledge your support at dailyinterlake.com/support.

    Flathead Valley Community College trustees discuss the slate of presidential candidates at a meeting Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026, at the Wachholz Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center in Kalispell (Daily Inter Lake)