Dr. Milton Richards, who was re-elected to the Yosemite Community College District, YCCD, Board of Trustees in November, has been chosen to be the board’s president in 2025.

Richards is a former administrator at Stanislaus State University who represents Area 3, which includes Turlock, Hughson, Denair and a small part of northern Merced County. He was unopposed in the Nov. 5, 2024, election and will be serving his second four-year term.

Also winning re-election without opposition in November was Trustee Darin Gharat, who is retired after a 27-year career in law enforcement. He is in his third term in Area 5, which includes parts of Modesto, plus Salida and Ripon.

Two other YCCD trustees retained their seats after easily defeating challengers in November.

Leslie Beggs, a former MJC adjunct professor first elected in 2016, will continue to represent Area 6, which includes much of Modesto.

In Area 7, incumbent Antonio Aguilar won a second full term after joining the board in 2018 to fill an open seat. Area 7 includes parts of south Modesto as well as Ceres. Aguilar is retired from the Turlock Unified School District.

The remaining trustees have terms that run through 2026. They are Don Davis in Area 1 (Waterford, La Grange, all of Tuolumne County and parts of Calaveras, Alpine and San Joaquin counties), Nancy Hinton in Area 2 (Riverbank, Oakdale and eastern Stanislaus County) and Jenny Nicolau in Area 4 (Patterson, Newman, West Side, and parts of San Joaquin, Merced and Santa Clara counties). Nicolau was chosen to be board vice president in 2025.

The YCCD includes Modesto Junior College’s East and West campuses as well as Columbia College. MJC serves about 26,000 students and Columbia College about 4,000 students.