Sociology professor and academic leader Roberta Espinoza has been named vice provost for global-local initiatives at Loyola Marymount University. She will begin on June 1.
In the newly created position, Espinoza will serve as LMU’s senior international officer and have broad oversight for a variety of institutional priorities, including study abroad, global partnerships, and national and international fellowships.
“Roberta Espinoza is a forward-thinking, creative, and ambitious leader, and I’m excited she has agreed to join our team,” said LMU Executive Vice President and Provost Thomas Poon. “This new position further advances our bold institutional commitment to expand on LMU’s status as a center for global imagination and its impacts.”
Espinoza, a professor of sociology at Pitzer College, is also interim associate dean for global and local programs and director of the Institute for Global/Local Action and Study. In these roles, she developed numerous initiatives and programs that involved faculty and students in global/local themes and topics in curriculum, research, and community engagement. She also supervised the Global Local Mentorship Program, which introduces first-year students to immersive study abroad and local community engagement via mentors and advisers, and oversaw the Office of Fellowships and Scholarships, which supported 14 students who received Fulbright Fellowships in the 2016-17 academic year.
“I am honored to join LMU to help build global and local initiatives aligned with its institutional mission to cultivate conscious global citizens that will become leaders in producing social change,” Espinoza said. “I look forward to working with all members of the LMU community to develop innovative and creative ways to engage with our rapidly globalized world.”
Espinoza earned her Ph.D. in sociology from UC Berkeley, and is the author of several books and articles on diversity, inclusion and access, including Pivotal Moments: How Educators Can Put All Students on the Path to College (Harvard Education Press, 2011) and Working-Class Minority Students’ Routes to Higher Education (Routledge, 2012). In 2016, she received the inaugural Claremont Colleges Diversity Teaching Award.
LMU also announced the hiring of modern languages and literature Professor José I. Badenes, S.J., as associate provost for undergraduate education; and Kathleen Weaver, biology professor and associate dean of learning, innovation, and teaching at the University of La Verne, as associate provost for research and professional development.
“Together, these three key leaders will advance our strategic academic initiatives and ensure that LMU remains a transformational educational experience,” Poon said.
