Archived Workshop

News Article

CSUDH Campus News article on When Women Lead and the Transformation of the CSU Presidency. Read News Article

Back

Previous Women And Leadership Workshop Events

CSUDH Women’s Leadership Workshops

When Women Lead & the Transformation of the CSU Presidency

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2020
11:30 AM - 1:00 PM

VIRTUAL PLATFORM

Panel Moderator

Dr. Laura Talamante
Academic Senate Chair & Gender Equity Task Force Co-Chair

Event Description

In July 2018, for the first time in the system's 59-year history, the majority of presidents of the California State University were female. The following year, the Chronicle of Higher Education June 2019 cover story asked “What Happens When Women Run Colleges?” with the subtitle Democratic, inclusive, communal. That may be the future of college leadership. Increasing female leadership at the top of higher education institutions continues to garner scholarly interest as such leadership increases. The recent Special Issue of the Journal of Higher Education Management: Women’s Leadership in Higher Education, which includes research and reflective essays by female senior leaders that underscores the strengths female leaders bring to the table and the challenges still faced by women aspiring to senior levels of leadership in the academy. Our workshop brings together the experience and insights of three of our current female presidents, allowing attendees the opportunity to learn and advance their own leadership trajectories.

Guest Panelists

Dr. Soraya M. Coley, President of Cal Poly Pomona

Soraya Coley

President 
Cal Poly Pomona

Dr. Jane C. Conoley, President of Long Beach State University

Jane C. Conoley

President
Long Beach State University

Dr. Ellen Junn, President of California State University Stanislaus

Ellen Junn

President
Stanislaus State

Guest Biography

Soraya M. Coley

President
Cal Poly Pomona

Dr. Soraya M. Coley, President of Cal Poly Pomona

Dr. Soraya M. Coley is the sixth president of Cal Poly Pomona. An accomplished educator and administrator, Dr. Coley is the first woman and first African American to be named president of Cal Poly Pomona.

As president, Dr. Coley leads an institution with more than 26,000 students and 2,600 faculty and staff. Under her leadership, Cal Poly Pomona has continued to grow its legacy as the most diverse polytechnic university in the country and as a national leader in promoting social and economic mobility. Dr. Coley formally took office in January 2015, and during her tenure enrollment has grown by 2,000 students and graduation rates have reached historic levels.

Prior to coming to Cal Poly Pomona, Coley held senior leadership positions at the CSU campuses in Bakersfield and Fullerton.

Coley earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. She completed her master’s and doctoral degrees in social planning and social research from Bryn Mawr College where she was recognized as a distinguished alumna. She is married to Ron Coley, who served two decades of active duty as a United States Marine Corps pilot, retiring at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel before building a distinguished career in public service and higher education administration.

Jane C. Conoley

President
Long Beach State University

Dr. Jane C. Conoley, President of Long Beach State University

Jane Close Conoley serves as the seventh President of Long Beach State University. Prior to assuming this role she was the interim Chancellor of the University of California Riverside. She has also held leadership positions at the University of California Santa Barbara, Texas A&M University, and at the University of Nebraska Lincoln. Dr. Conoley is the author, co-author or editor of over one hundred thirty books, articles, and book chapters. Her latest book “Positive Psychology and Family Therapy” was co-authored with her husband, Dr. Collie W. Conoley.

She serves on numerous journal editorial and community service boards. She has received research, teaching and service honors during her career. Both the American Psychological Association and the Association of Psychological Science honored Dr. Conoley with fellow status. Her research and development efforts in school safety, teacher quality, and student achievement have been supported by over 50 million dollars in external federal, state, and private funds.

Ellen Junn

President
Stanislaus State

Dr. Ellen Junn, President of California State University Stanislaus

Dr. Junn has a remarkable and extensive 35-year history with the CSU, having worked at five other CSU campuses prior to joining Stan State. She served as provost and vice president at CSU Dominguez Hills, provost and vice president at San Jose State University, associate provost at Fresno State, associate dean of the College of Health and Human Development at CSU Fullerton, and assistant professor at CSU San Bernardino. She also served as a visiting professor at Indiana University.

She currently serves on numerous Boards, including AASCU’s Millennium Leadership Initiative (MLI) and is a Governor-appointed member of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) and for the California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley. In addition, she has received a number of awards such as being recognized as among the “Top 25 Leading Women in Higher Education” by Diverse Issues in Higher Ed (2017); recipient of the “Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien Education Leadership Award” from the Asian Pacific Fund (2013); “Outstanding Woman of 2020”, by the Stanislaus County Commission for Women (2020); and the “Distinguished Education Leadership Award” by the College of Education, California State University, Fullerton (2020).

President Junn earned a bachelor’s degree in experimental and cognitive psychology from the University of Michigan, where she graduated cum laude and received high honors in psychology. She obtained both a master’s and Ph.D. in cognitive and developmental psychology from Princeton University. In addition, she holds a Management Development Program Certificate from Harvard University. She is widely published and has written numerous peer-reviewed research and journal articles on topics, such as supporting the success of underserved students, the importance of university-community engagement and strategies for supporting non-tenure-track faculty -- especially women and minorities, as well as promoting innovative teaching strategies.

She is the first Korean-American woman president appointed in the US to a four-year public institution. Her husband is a retired physicist, and her son and his wife are faculty in the History department at Brandeis University.