Terry Giugni Tapped as New VP of Instruction at Napa Valley College

Terry Giugni, Ph.D, a research scientist and Napa Valley native, has been named Vice President of Instruction at Napa Valley College.

Giugni's appointment was announced by the college's Board of Trustees and the Superintendent/President of the Napa Valley Community College District at the regular public meeting Thursday of the Board of Trustees.

Giugni will begin his appointment in early January 2014 as the head of the NVC Office of Instruction and will oversee the college’s instructional program by providing leadership support to college’s 342 full and part-time faculty members now serving a student enrollment of more than 18,000. 

He was selected from a highly competitive applicant pool through a comprehensive hiring process that began in September.

Giugni comes to NVC directly from Fullerton College in Southern California, where has served as its Vice President of Instruction since 2011. 

With extensive prior experience as an instructor, administrator and research scientist, Giugni brings a wealth of expertise to NVC.

“Terry’s long history of a commitment to student success through the development and support of high quality instructional programs at the administrative level demonstrates a true understanding of the importance of faculty within a community college and a deep appreciation of excellence in classroom teaching, said Ron Kraft, Superintendent/President of NVC.

"We are excited to have him join our team at NVC,” he said.

“Dr. Guigni brings a wonderful balance to our outstanding leadership team at the college and we are looking forward his impact,” said Board of Trustees Chair Bruce Ketron.

An accomplished research scientist who spent two years at Vanderbilt University Medical School in Tennessee working under Nobel Laureate Dr. Stanley Cohen studying the role of growth factors in the development of cancer, Giugni returned to California to conduct additional research at the City of Hope National Medical Center in the late 1980s and began teaching biology part-time at Chaffey College in Rancho Cucamonga. 

During what became a 22-year association with Chaffey College, Giugni became a full-time instructor in the Department of Biology, was later appointed Dean of Physical, Life, and Health Sciences, and then appointed as Chaffey’s Dean of Mathematics and Science.

In 2010, Giugni became the Dean of the Chaffey College’s Chino Campus.

A Napa Valley (Oakville) native who grew up and was schooled in public institutions throughout California, Giugni received a B.S. in Biological Sciences from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo and completed his Ph.D. in Physiology and Biophysics at the University of California, Irvine. 

A name familiar to many in the Napa Valley, the Giugni family came to the area from Switzerland in the 1860s.

Giugni’s grandparents were owners of the Oakville Grocery for nearly 50 years starting in 1940 and Dr. Giugni’s great grandfather was the stonemason who built the Pope Street Bridge in St. Helena, just a stone’s throw from NVC’s Upper Valley Campus.