Mary S. Spangler, chancellor of Houston Community College, will speak at the upcoming meeting of the Women Professionals in Government on March 3 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, 1200 Louisiana. The event begins at 11:30 a.m.

As a professor, administrator and national advocate for higher education, Dr. Spangler has devoted her career to community colleges and their students. She has successfully led three of the largest, most diverse and complex urban institutions in the country. She served first as president of Los Angeles City College, the flagship institution of the Los Angeles Community College District, and then as chancellor of Oakland Community College, the largest community college in Michigan. In her leadership roles she has been at the forefront of change and at the center of some of the most important thinking about the future of education in large, diverse and growing communities. Dr. Spangler has successfully led complex institutions undergoing strategic reorganization.

Since becoming the seventh chancellor of the Houston Community College district in March 2007, Dr. Spangler increased access from 55,000 to more than 72,000 students in just three years. Under her leadership, HCC has reached out to communities across the region and internationally to provide expanded higher educational opportunities, making the college more essential to the city's success.

To RSVP for the WPG luncheon go online to http://www.wpghouston.org/orders/html.