27 years later, Cherie Brown says goodbye to Citrus 

Cherie Brown received a phone call from a friend telling her about a job opening at Citrus and encouraging her to apply. 

Brown was an adjunct at several schools and knew it was time to find one place to call home. 

After submitting her application one hour before the deadline, Brown became the new performing arts professor at Citrus College. 

That was 27 years ago and now, Brown has decided to retire. 

“I am retiring now because I want to go while I still have something to offer,” Brown said in an email. 

Brown said she was thinking about retiring before the COVID-19 pandemic but knew with the uncertainty of that time she did want to leave when the school was in the midst of a struggle. 

Brown has had an abundance of experiences that she believed to be her favorite at the time. They just kept adding up over the years. 

She has taken productions to perform at the Kennedy Center Regional American College Theatre Festival, and has been able to perform alongside her students in summer productions. 

Though she has her own professional and personal victories, some of her favorite moments were about her students. 

Brown said she has had students compete in the Irene Ryan Acting competition. One of her students also was directing and won their competition and therefore went to the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. 

Brown grew up in a performing arts family, so she has always been surrounded by acting and music. 

Brown said her father was a musician, her grandfather was in a band, her aunt was a world-famous flute player and her mother and other aunt were singers. 

As she said, it was in her blood. 

One of the biggest lessons Brown learned at Citrus was to always have people around that are as good as or better than. 

“Every adjunct I have hired has provided an expertise that helped to build the strength of the department,” Brown said. “Leave your ego at the door and realize that leadership is about taking advice as well as giving it and giving over to someone else’s idea when it’s obviously a stronger choice.” 

That strength is seen in her teaching partner, Dan Volonte. They have worked as a team at Citrus for 20 years. 

Volonte is head of the Emerging Theatre Technologies program and program director for Technical Theatre and Design. 

Brown said she could not be more proud of their relationship. 

Brown also had learned the need for communications and collaboration which she sees in her favorite class to teach, acting. 

“What I love the most about teaching acting is that ‘Aha!’ moment when a student makes a critical breakthrough in their artistic development,” Brown said. “These breakthroughs are always organic and come in their ‘own time’.  And when it happens it’s a thrilling moment all around.”

Brown created the spring show Citrus TheatreWorks that highlights students who have been studying for a while.

Cherie Brown works through a scene with Performing Arts Students Blake Gutierrez and Jayson Zavala, on April 7, 2025. Photo by Jacqueline Horan, Clarion.

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She said she is extremely proud of her students as they are the focus of her work. 

Brown said her proudest moments have come when she hears she had made an impact in her students’ lives.

“(It) makes me tear up a little when I think of that,” Brown said. 

Over the years, she said she has had many who stand out and have become her chosen family. She has even hired some students as adjuncts. 

“Citrus students are truly the kindest people,” Brown said. “Respectful, hard workers and dedicated. I tease them saying that because of their demeanor , it makes it twice as hard to get them to get into the mindset of a serial killer if that’s what the role calls for!”

After her 27 years, she sees a strong comeback in the department and knows her replacement will lead eager students in the right direction. 

“It’s a wonderful profession,” Brown said. “ And I don’t think I’m done…it’s just time to turn my attention to other opportunities.”