Cal State Fullerton alumna Pamella Oliver, currently serving as associate vice president for academic programs, will assume the position of the university’s provost and vice president of academic affairs on Jan. 1.
She will serve until June 30, 2020, or until a national search for a permanent provost and vice president is successfully completed, according to a Dec. 3 announcement by President Fram Virjee. She replaces Kari Knutson Miller, who has served in the role since January.
Oliver, a 1994 graduate with a master’s degree in psychology, returned to her alma mater in 2001 as an assistant professor of child and adolescent studies, and has served in a number of leadership positions — from chair of her department’s personnel committee to member of the College of Health and Human Development’s Dean’s Faculty Advisory Council and Strategic Planning Committee. She was a faculty mentor and an faculty advisory board member for the McNair Scholars Program and served on the Academic Senate’s University Curriculum and Assessment committees.
Her teaching, research, leadership and service to the campus has been recognized with a number of college and department honors, including Outstanding Teacher-Scholar, Outstanding Faculty Member and Outstanding Alumnus. She received fellow status in the Western Psychological Association in 2014.
She has been serving as associate vice president for academic programs since July 2016. In that role, she has overseen a wide range of programs, centers and initiatives, including the Office of First-Year Experience, Academic Advisement Center, University Honors Program, Undergraduate Studies and General Education, Graduate Studies, Writing Across Curriculum, the Scheduling Office and Health Profession Advising.
She has worked with colleges and divisions on a number of major campuswide initiatives from the general education review mandated by the California State University and GI 2025 initiatives. In addition, she has been accreditation liaison officer for the WASC Senior College and University Commission and an “instrumental member of the WSCUC Committee that is actively preparing the institution for its accreditation review,” said Virjee.
“I would like to expressly thank and welcome Pam to our Titan senior leadership team,” Virjee said in his announcement. “Never one to seek the limelight, Pam neither sought nor expressed a desire for this change. That said, when asked, she agreed wholeheartedly and without reservation because of the care, dedication and love she has for our university.
“I want to publicly recognize and honor that devotion, and to assure her and you that our entire team — dare I say the entire Titan Family — stands ready and excited to work with her to continue to move our beloved university community forward and upward.”
In addition to her CSUF master’s degree, Oliver earned her bachelor’s degree from UCLA and her doctorate in clinical psychology from USC.