Psychologist Named First Woman To Serve As Cal State Long Beach President

LONG BEACH (CBSLA.com) — An educational psychologist who has been a dean at the University of California, Santa Barbara has become the first woman to be appointed as president of California State University, Long Beach.

Cal State's governing board named Jane Close Conoley on Tuesday as the new leader of Cal State Long Beach. The school has an undergraduate enrollment of over 30,000 and is the most-applied to campus in the Cal State system.

When she starts work in July, Conoley will be taking over the presidency from Provost Donald Para, who has held the job on an interim basis since former president F. King Alexander left in June to lead Louisiana State University.

She comes to Long Beach from UC Santa Barbara, where since 2006 she served as the dean and professor of educational counseling in the Graduate School of Education.