SSU presidential search begins May 5
Presidential Open Forum to be held on campus
The California State University (CSU) Board of Trustees is beginning the search for the next regularly appointed president of Sonoma State University.
The first meeting of the Trustees’ Committee for the Selection of the President will be held in a hybrid in-person/virtual open forum from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. on Monday, May 5, 2025, in the Student Center Grand Ballroom on campus. During this time, the committee will outline the search process, and the community will be invited to share the preferred attributes they would like the next Sonoma State president to have.
Advanced registration is not required to provide in-person comments, but those wishing to address the committee through the virtual option must register in advance on the Sonoma State Presidential Search web page. The deadline to register to speak virtually during the open forum is Saturday, May 3, at 5 p.m. Confirmed registrants will receive details about how to participate.
Feedback from the open forum and a stakeholder survey available on the presidential search web page will be used to craft the leadership profile and related recruiting materials. The webpage will also include links to a recording of the open forum’s live stream, the stakeholder survey, how to submit a nomination, and information about the search process.
CSU Trustee Mark Ghilarducci will chair the committee. The other trustee members include Jean Picker Firstenberg, Julia Lopez and Darlene Yee-Melichar, as well as Trustee Chair Jack Clarke Jr. and CSU Chancellor Mildred García.
Board policy requires the chair of the CSU Trustees to appoint an Advisory Committee to the Trustees’ Committee. The Advisory Committee is composed of representatives from the faculty, staff, students and alumni, as well as a member of a campus advisory board, all of whom are selected by the campus’s constituency groups. Also on the Advisory Committee is a vice president or academic dean from the campus, and a president of another CSU campus—both selected by the chancellor. Both committees function as one unified group.
Members of the Advisory Committee for the Selection of the President include:
- Emily Acosta Lewis, Academic Senate representative
- Madelyn Boyd, student representative
- Gillian Estes, staff representative
- Allison Ford, faculty representative
- Henry Hansel, community representative
- Gerald Jones, administration representative
- Jazmin Olvera Lara, student representative
- Allyssa Perez Concepcion, alumni representative
- Sean Place, faculty representative
- Ali Pourghadir, community representative
- Vanya Quiñones, CSU president representative
- Robert U’Ren, President’s Advisory Board representative
Over the next several months, the committee will review candidates and conduct interviews, with Sonoma State’s next regularly appointed president announced during the CSU Board of Trustees meeting in November 2025.
About the California State University
The California State University is the nation’s largest four-year public university system, providing transformational opportunities for upward mobility to more than 460,000 students from all socioeconomic backgrounds. More than half of CSU students are from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds, and more than one-quarter of undergraduates are first-generation college students. Because the CSU’s 23 universities provide a high-quality education at an incredible value, they are rated among the best in the nation for promoting social mobility in national college rankings from U.S. News & World Report, the Wall Street Journal and Washington Monthly. The CSU powers California and the nation, sending over 125,000 career-ready graduates into the workforce each year. In fact, one in every 20 Americans holding a college degree earned it at the CSU. Connect with and learn more about the CSU in the CSU newsroom.