Distinguished Professor Jim DeKloe founded the Industrial Biotechnology program of Solano College in the North San Francisco Bay area in 1997. This program emphasizes biomanufacturing by training students to work in companies that have located in the biotech manufacturing cluster in Vacaville, CA (located half way between San Francisco and Sacramento). This program was one of the first in the United States designed to teach the skills and knowledge required to go into the manufacturing (rather than research) sector of the biotech industry. Since its founding, this program has served as the model for biomanufacturing programs all around the country. He recently designed a Certificate of Achievement in Cell and Gene Therapy – the first certificate of its kind in the country to focus on this emerging field.
In 2015 Jim led the successful effort that resulted in the approval for Solano College to offer a Baccalaureate Degree in Biomanufacturing: that made Solano College one of only fifteen community colleges approved to offer a Baccalaureate degree for the first time in California history. The Bachelors degree launched in Fall 2017 and the first cohort graduated in May 2019. The seventh cohort will begin their career journey in Fall.
Graduates have enjoyed a near 100% placement rate so far. Putting these programs together with partnerships with both high schools and graduate programs, this creates a complete educational pathway from articulated high school programs to several certificates to an Associates degree that flows seamlessly into the Bachelors degree with admission into one of eight different graduate schools; this pathway has multiple entry and exit points.
Jim also worked on a campaign in 2012 that resulted in Solano College receiving a $348 million bond to pay for capital construction. He then played a key role working with architects to design a $34 million building on the Vacaville campus that contains four biomanufacturing built to mimic a biomanufacturing facility. He serves as a Board member of the newly formed California Biomanufacturing Center, as a Board member of non-profit Bioprocess2Bioproduct Network, and serves on the advisory committees of multiple college and high school biotechnology programs across the United States.
Recently the National Association of Biology Teachers awarded Jim the Ron Mardigian Biotechnology Teaching Award, the highest award that can be granted to someone teaching biotechnology. Also this year Jim was chosen as one of the sixteen “Modern Makers” of the Manufacturing Innovation Institutes. https://www.manufacturingusa.com/modern-makers/jim-dekloe In 2000, the Association of Community College Trustees chose Jim as the Distinguished Faculty Member of the Pacific Region which includes the Western United States and Canada, Hawaii Alaska and Guam. In 2011 Solano College faculty chose Jim as the Distinguished Faculty Member of the Year. In 2016, he and his colleague Ed Re were finalists for an Award of Excellence of the American Association of Community Colleges.
Jim currently serves as a Co-Principal Investigator of grants from the National Institute for Innovation in the Manufacture of Biologics (NIIMBL), from the National Science Foundation, from the Bioindustrial Manufacturing and Design Ecosystem (BioMADE), and from the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine. In the past he served as co-chair of the NIIMBL Workforce and Education Committee and serves on BioMADE’s Education and Workforce Development committee and as co-chair of its Professional Development sub-committee.
In 2022 he wrote and received a $2.9 million COMPASS grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine.