Habilitative Systems honors West Side educators including Malcolm X College President David Sanders

The HSI Race and Health Equity Awards are Dec. 12

Seven educators on the West and South Side are being honored at Habilitative Systems Inc.’s 5th annual Race and Health Equity Awards on Dec. 12 at the Garfield Park Conservatory. Pictured from the left are Bernard Clay, Paul Adams and David Sanders. Read the full story in the Austin Weekly News.

The event is a fundraiser for HSI, which provides behavioral health and human services to 17 Chicago communities, many on the West Side. In 1978, HSI launched in a Lawndale church and now offers programs for adult mental health, child case management, crisis counseling and emergency housing, among other services.  

David Sanders, president of Malcolm X College

As president of Malcolm X College, Sanders oversees about 14,000 students, 900 employees and a budget of over $70 million.

Previously, Sanders served as deputy chief operating officer for the City Colleges of Chicago, which Malcolm X College is a part of. In that role, Sanders managed daily operations for the seven City Colleges. He was also the lead executive project manager for the new Malcolm X College and School of Health Sciences, which opened in 2016.

Now, Sanders is helping develop Malcolm X’s West Side campus in Austin, which he expects to open in the spring.

Read the full story in the Austin Weekly News 

“I’m humbled by these things because, obviously, not only one person can achieve greatness,” Sanders said of winning the HSI award. “I think this is really reflective of all the faculty, staff and the administrators that work here every single day.”

Since working at Malcolm X College, Sanders has led the school to 10-year reaccreditation and created an internal department to manage the accreditation process. Under Sanders in 2021, Malcolm X College had one of its highest retention rates at 72%. It also has the highest enrollment among community colleges in Chicago.

“President Sanders just recently indicated that Malcolm X is graduating more nursing professionals than any other educational entity in the state of Illinois,” Dew said. “That’s just amazing, and that’s the kind of thing that we want to highlight.”

“We’ve made Malcolm X a destination place, a place where people want to come,” Sanders said. “That’s obviously evidenced by our enrollment, but it’s also inspired by our employees, the culture that we’ve built here, and the morale that’s here.”

But it wasn’t always that way. Sanders said a decade ago, he heard negative comments about Malcolm X, that it didn’t have a clear vision or mission. Now, Sanders said he’s recognized out-of-town for Malcolm X’s successes.

In addition to overcoming negative public perception of Malcolm X, Sanders said he’s proud of the buy-in he’s gotten from the college’s staff to transform the institution by treating every student as their own.

“It doesn’t matter where they came from, doesn’t matter what their background is, doesn’t matter who didn’t give them what,” Sanders said of Malcom X’s students. “When they walk through that door, they’re our child. We must take care of them. It doesn’t matter whether they’re 11 or 90, they’re our responsibility. And let’s do that as if that was our own child. That actually brought everybody together.”

Sanders said his goal is for Malcom X is to be the No. 1 college in the country in pass rates — which are determined by independent evaluations by Malcolm X’s licensing bodies — and reputation.

“Reputation means that you have not only impacted your operations and culture, but you’ve impacted the community. They see you as a viable educational institution. They see you as a beacon of light. They see you as people who are going to do the best by their children,” Sanders said.

When it comes to education on the West Side as a whole, Sanders said, “I want to see every single student reach their destiny. That’s our goal. We have to do that.”