Dr. Alexander Gonzalez is the 11th president of California State University, Sacramento, one of the largest universities in the 23-campus system.
Soon after his appointment in July 2003, President Gonzalez set about to transform Sacramento State in to a premier metropolitan university and a destination campus. His bold initiative “Destination 2010” seeks to make Sacramento State a campus of choice for students in the Sacramento region and elsewhere.
Before coming to Sacramento, Dr. Gonzalez served from 1997 to 2003 as president of Cal State San Marcos where he successfully calmed a fractious campus, managed a period of rapid growth and directed successful fundraising campaigns. Prior to that he served 18 years at Fresno State, starting as a faculty member in the Psychology Department, which he later chaired. From 1991 to 1997, he was the university’s provost and vice president for Academic Affairs.
Dr. Gonzalez serves on the Board of Directors for Valley Vision, LEED (Linking Education and Economic Development) and Sutter Health. He serves on the Board of Trustees at Pomona College. He served on President Bush’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans. His service on several boards and commissions include six years as a commissioner for the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, the accrediting agency for higher education institutions in the western United States. He also served as chair of the Governing Board of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities. His commitment to the CSU system includes serving on a work group that reviewed and recommended corrective action on remedial education, and, more recently, as a member of a committee of presidents considering policy on enrollment management, the CSU’s Technology Steering Committee, and the Institute for Teaching and Learning.
Dr. Gonzalez holds a doctorate and master’s degree in psychology from UC Santa Cruz. He received his bachelor’s degree in history from Pomona College, where he graduated with honors and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He spent a year at Stanford University as a postdoctoral fellow of the Ford Foundation and the National Research Council conducting research on the psychology of time. He also attended Harvard Law School and served in the United States Air Force.
