Dr. Sam Lee
Innovator, Leader, Founder of the USC International Academy, Dean of Language Arts and Enrollment Management at Citrus College
Teaches:
Credit for Prior Learning
Sam Lee leads statewide efforts to promote Credit for Prior Learning as a key strategic focus of the California Community College Chancellor’s Office. His love for the power of education to open doors of opportunity really took root during his years (1987-1989) teaching ESL at a university in Wuhan, P. R. China. Founder of the USC International Academy, and dean of Language Arts and Enrollment Management at Citrus College, Dr. Lee found himself serving as Norco College Vice President, where he led the development of the MAP Initiative since its inception in 2017.
With more than 30 years of higher education teaching and administrative experience, Dr. Lee is an innovator and leader focused on developing scalable solutions that promote equitable access, completion, transfer, and career attainment.
His focused leadership ensures California has the support and training needed to develop new practices, articulate courses at scale, align academic and professional (industry) competencies, and bring our colleges to our communities through offers of credit for prior learning for working adults, apprentices, and veterans statewide
masterclass DESCRIPTION
What if colleges could recognize what learners already know, and turn their experience into momentum toward a credential, degree, and career?
In this powerful Catapult Masterclass, Dr. Sam Lee explores Credit for Prior Learning (CPL) and its potential to transform how institutions recognize learning that happens beyond the traditional classroom. From workplace experience and military training, to industry certifications, apprenticeships, challenge exams, portfolios, and noncredit learning, CPL creates opportunities to validate real knowledge and skills and translate them into meaningful college credit. But CPL is about more than awarding credit. It’s about access, equity, completion, and creating clearer pathways for learners.
Dr. Lee challenges educators and institutional leaders to examine the entire CPL journey: from policy and faculty evaluation to advising, student awareness, transcription, and degree planning, and to identify where eligible learners may be missing opportunities. Designed for faculty, administrators, counselors, advisors, workforce and CTE leaders, registrars, veterans coordinators, and institutional teams, this masterclass moves beyond the question of why CPL matters and focuses on how institutions can make it work at scale. With more than 30 years of higher education teaching and administrative experience, Dr. Sam Lee has helped advance Credit for Prior Learning for working adults, apprentices, and veterans across California. And he can help your system too.
Learning has already happened. The question is: Are we recognizing it?
MASTERCLASS TRAILER
Program
The Future of Learning
The Future of Learning is a cutting-edge masterclass program that explores how emerging technologies, workforce shifts, and global megatrends are reshaping the educational landscape. Through provocative and insightful sessions on artificial intelligence, the metaverse, and the evolution of work, participants will gain a strategic view of what lies ahead for learners, educators, and institutions. This series equips education leaders with the foresight and tools to adapt curriculum, learning environments, and pathways to opportunity—ensuring students are not only prepared for the future but empowered to shape it.
