Her tenure at Lane highlighted her commitment to sustainability, diversity and equity, and her service in national higher education organizations.
[2][3] Her father, a baker, and her mother, a wartime nurse, had both left school in their teens, but Spilde has said they believed in education and expected their children to become professionals.
[11] The following year, anticipating another 22 percent cut, the funding agency decided the Albany RISE office must close.
[18][19] In 1988, Spilde was appointed executive assistant to the college president,[20] and she also continued as director of Community Education activities for all of Benton County.
[23] Less than a month after Spilde became president, the college observed the nationwide Day of Remembrance, commemorating the September 11 attacks.
[10] Dwindling state funding for higher education over the years meant the college had a greater dependence on tuition.
[24] In two consecutive budget years, Spilde thanked the board of trustees for positive performance reviews, but refused to accept the pay raises they proposed for her.
[28] In February 2017, Lane's board of trustees passed Resolution 612,[30] declaring the college a sanctuary campus in response to Executive Order 13769 limiting refugees from Muslim countries.
Spilde had met with students from Syria and Iran and other countries included in the executive order banning immigrants, and said she was proud of the Board's resolution, which she fully supported.
[31] When Spilde signed the Talloires Declaration in December 2005, Lane became the first Oregon community college to make a commitment to sustainability.
[32] In 2014, Lane won a Green Genome Award from the American Association of Community Colleges, commended "for infusing sustainability concepts into the structure of college policies and procedures... to apply principles of sustainable economics, resource use, and social institutions to learning and working environments.
[34] In 2011, the Association of Community College Trustees presented her the "Mary Y. Martin Chief Executive Officer of the Year Award", for "demonstrating innovation in school programs, published works on post-secondary educational concepts and for special committees she has served on, all of which contribute to making her a national authority on community colleges, workforce development and sustainability".