Dr. Victor jaime, president of Imperial Valley College–and a 1977 graduate of the college–is pictured at his desk with his associate’s degree diploma and his doctorate degree behind him.

On the wall over the desk of Dr. Victor Jaime, president of Imperial Valley College (IVC), are two diplomas—the two he holds most dear. One is the associate’s degree he earned at IVC in 1977; the other is his doctorate from Northern Arizona University earned in 1999.

He has more degrees, including a master’s from San Diego State University and an educational specialist degree from Point Loma Nazarene University. But the two on the wall hold a special place for Jaime, who was born and raised in the Imperial Valley.

The degree from IVC, a community college in this California desert southwest region, set him on his educational path and the doctorate was a culmination of that journey, one that took him

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Hildy Carrillo, executive director of the Calexico Chamber of Commerce, shows some of the artwork that is such a critical part of her life.

To walk into the office of Calexico Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Hildy Carrillo is to instantly recognize all that matters to her from the photographs of her family, including her new granddaughter, to the stacks of materials for the city’s annual Mariachi Festival, to her own artwork, a dazzling display of various mediums that have become a form of release and expression.

That office is very much a microcosm of her life—a balance of roles that co-mingle in a way that is both business like and eclectic but always with an eye toward what is best for the city, the chamber, family, friends and the culture she holds dear.

As a chamber executive, she is in charge of marketing local business and building, maintaining and serving

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Pictured from left to right are Kay Day Pricola, executive director of the Imperial Valley Vegetable Growers Association, Linsey Dale, executive director of the Imperial County Farm Bureau, and Cherie Watte, executive director of Imperial Valley Water (IVH2O), photographed by a wagon used in the early days of farming.

Individually, the executive directors of the Imperial Valley’s three leading agricultural organizations advocate for the farmers they represent to ensure their interests are represented at all levels of government—local, state and federal.

Together, they represent a voice for the Valley’s agricultural industry—the industry upon which the Valley was founded, that to this day continues to drive the local economy as a billion dollar catalyst for growth, and that has faced an unprecedented period of change under the tenets of the nation’s largest agriculture-to-urban water transfer and the difficult realities of an ongoing drought.

The executive directors this article refers to are Linsey

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