Garilva Elected Mountain View College President

Pastor Don Leo Miraflores Garilva, DMin, was elected president of Mountain View College (MVC) on April 30. He most recently served as a professor and the dean of the MVC School of Theology.  A 1976 AB Theology graduate of MVC, Garilva has a varied background with much of his career devoted to service at MVC.
He is a popular presenter and prolific writer whose literary contributions have appeared in many Adventist publications like Ministry, Adventist Review andthe Journal of Adventist Education.
He began his denominational work as a Bible teacher at Mindanao Mission Academy in Manticao, Misamis Oriental. After a year of service he worked as an assistant chaplain and later as the public relations officer for Mindanao Sanitarium and Hospital. He then took a sabbatical to pursue his Master of Arts degree in Religion,  majoring in Systematic Theology at the SDA Theological Seminary  Far East, now known as the Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies (AIIAS). After completing his masteral studies, he was called to join the pioneering work of opening Central Philippine Adventist College in Alegria, Murcia, Negros Occidental as Dean of Men and Bible teacher. After three years, he became the head chaplain of Bacolod Sanitarium and Hospital while concurrently serving as the church pastor of the Bacolod Adventist Center in Taculing, Bacolod City.
His work at MVC started in 1986 when he was called there as a college Social Science teacher and part-time academy Bible instructor. A year later, Garilva became the first full-time college church pastor and campus chaplain, a post he held for the next 13 years. In 2003 he graduated with a Doctor of Ministry degree from AIIAS after three years of study there. The family then returned to MVC where he took up duties as the dean of the School of Theology.
He is married to Nancy Fordan-Garilva, a registered nurse and clinical instructor in the MVC School of Nursing. They are blessed with two sons, Criscel Leo and Don Leo II. Both are AB Theology graduates of MVC.
He has many dreams and goals for MVC that are rooted in his great love for his alma mater. “My dream for MVC is to become a world-class Seventh-day Adventist tertiary institution of learning at par with any of the church’s colleges and universities -  excelling in academic discipline, mature in spirituality and mission, strong in research, active in extension services, and financially very stable in its operation,” shares Garvila. “With God’s help, all of these are within our reach,” he concludes. [AND]