Dr. Messina is the president of Spokane Falls Community College. She is a passionate supporter of student success and equity and committed educator who has served nearly 30 years in community colleges. Kimberlee's career path includes service as a "freeway flyer" adjunct faculty, a tenured Spanish instructor, a two-term academic senate president, and an instructional dean of STEM at Santa Rosa Junior College, a large single-college district in Northern California. She served as the vice president of Instruction and Institutional Research and interim president at Foothill College, in the Foothill De Anza District, before joining the San Mateo County Community College District as the interim vice chancellor of educational services and planning. Her focus was strategic planning, student equity and the development and implementation of Guided Pathways.

A native of Sacramento, California and a first generation college student, Kimberlee holds a bachelor's in sociology and a master's in Spanish from CSU Sacramento and a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership from UC Davis. She has served on a number of accreditation site teams and was a member of the Board of the Association for California Community College Administrators (ACCCA) and Chair of the Management Development Committee.