Hudson County Community College Faculty and Administrators Selected as HACU ENLACE Program Fellows

October 28, 2026

October 28, 2026, Jersey City, NJ – Four Hudson County Community College (HCCC) instructional and administrative leaders have been chosen to participate in the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) ENLACE Mid-Level Leadership Program. They are Dr. Cristhian “Cris” Altamirano, Acting Director of the HCCC Early College Program; Professor Claudia Delgado, Basic Algebra Coordinator and Professor of Mathematics; Raffi Manjikian, Assistant Professor of Chemistry; and Alexa Riano, Senior Executive Assistant to the President and Board of Trustees, and Chief of Staff.

Dr. Cristhian Altamirano, Professor Claudia Delgado, Assistant Professor Raffi Manjikian, and Alexa Riano.

Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) has selected four Hudson County Community College faculty and administrators to participate as Fellows in the HACU ENLACE Mid-Level Leadership. They are Dr. Cristhian Altamirano, Professor Claudia Delgado, Assistant Professor Raffi Manjikian, and Alexa Riano.

The HACU ENLACE Mid-Level Leadership program prepares fellows for senior roles in higher education. The six-month program includes a seminar, practical frameworks, interactive virtual and in-person sessions, a national peer cohort navigating leadership challenges, and engagement with senior leaders and experts.

Dr. Cristhian Altamirano was the Associate Director of the Early College Program and currently serves as the Acting Director of that program. In this role, he collaborates with high school administrators to expand access to higher education through dual enrollment opportunities and college courses taught across Hudson County by HCCC faculty as well as Culinary programs across Essex County. Prior to joining the Early College Program, Dr. Altamirano served as a part-time Academic Advisor and supported Disability Support Services (now Accessibility Services) at the HCCC North Hudson Campus. He brings nearly a decade of experience in student affairs and academic affairs, with expertise in new student orientation, academic advising, accessibility services, branch campus operations, undergraduate/graduate-level instruction, quantitative research in human and animal participants, and early college programming.

A Bolivian immigrant who comes from a family of educators, Professor Claudia Delgado is a leader in curriculum coordination and student success initiatives. She helped increase fall-to-fall persistence through her work as a member of the HCCC Academic Foundations Math multicultural team, a group of four full-time professors who utilize their diverse educational and cultural backgrounds to better understand and support students. Professor Delgado is a mentor to adjunct and full-time faculty, and helped shape the HCCC 2024-2029 Institutional Engagement and Excellence Action Plan.

Raffi Manjikian motivates students to become confident learners, achieve academic success, and transition from college to career. His mentoring of an HCCC student was the subject of a winning 2025 National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development (NISOD) Student Essay contest. As a faculty Fellow of the Genomic Data Science Community Network, Dr. Manjikian guided HCCC students in collecting soil samples for the national Biodiversity and Informatics for Genomics Scholars (BioDIGS), one of the nation’s largest microbiome mapping projects. The students’ work was published in the journal Nature Genetics.

HCCC alumna Alexa Riano is a diligent and forward-thinking educational and community leader who rose through the ranks at HCCC, from Secretary to Executive Assistant to Chief of Staff. An outstanding College ambassador and role model for community college students, she has established and administers procedures to clarify priorities, advance institutional efficiency, inform decision-making, and ensure coordination and timely execution of HCCC plans and projects.