California State University (CSU) Chancellor Mildred García has appointed president emerita of Texas A&M University-Texarkana Emily F. Cutrer to serve as interim president of Sonoma State University. Her tenure will begin on August 1 and she will serve for approximately 12 months while the CSU Board of Trustees conducts a national search for the university’s next regularly appointed president.
In making the appointment, Chancellor García has charged Dr. Cutrer with taking meaningful and specific steps during her tenure to address ongoing fiscal challenges facing the university.
“Sonoma State University is encountering enormous financial pressures caused by declining enrollment and exacerbated by increased labor costs, the demand for specialized services and general operating cost increases,” said Chancellor García. “Thus, I have directed Interim President Cutrer—an innovative leader with long-demonstrated expertise in developing programmatic synergies and administrative efficiencies—to take steps to bring the university’s academic programs and administrative infrastructure in line with its financial resources. To this end, I have asked her to immediately establish agreements to enable the administrative infrastructure of Sonoma State to be offered through CSU shared services to reduce operating costs. I have also directed her to evaluate Sonoma State’s academic programs within the context of the university’s financial reality, while maintaining the programs’ academic excellence.
“Dr. Cutrer possesses a singular and proven ability to break down silos to advance organizational change. She is a visionary leader who is able to inspire and align campus constituents. And above all, she is committed to student success and inclusive excellence. For these reasons, I have every confidence that she is the right leader for Sonoma State at this critical moment in the university’s history.”
The interim appointment marks a return to the CSU for Cutrer, who served as provost and vice president for academic affairs at California State University San Marcos from 2006 to 2013. Cutrer left CSU San Marcos to become president of A&M Texarkana, a role she held for more than 10 years before retiring in 2023. Under her leadership as president of A&M Texarkana, the university saw expansion of academic programming to meet community needs, development of student success programming, and steady increases in enrollment, persistence and graduation rates.
“I am humbled and honored that Chancellor Mildred García has entrusted me with the stewardship of this extraordinary university,” said Cutrer. “I look forward to learning from and working with faculty, staff, students, and the larger community to address pressing issues, while enhancing Sonoma State’s unique character.”
In her nearly 40-year career in higher education, Cutrer has served a wide range of public institutions. Prior to her roles at A&M Texarkana and CSU San Marcos, Cutrer served as dean of the New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at Arizona State University West, where she established the college’s first community advisory board and alumni board and established a summer bridge program for community college transfer students, as well as the development of first-year programming. Cutrer’s higher education career began at the University of Texas at Austin, where she served as a faculty member in the Department of American Studies from 1986 to 1990.
Cutrer earned a bachelor’s degree in American studies, and a master’s and Ph.D. in American civilization from the University of Texas at Austin.