Sep Eskandari has been named associate provost, effective June 18.

Eskandari brings extensive strategic and leadership experience to the role of the associate provost. He has served Cal Poly Pomona in a number of leadership capacities including as; department chair of biological sciences, academic senate vice chair, academic senate chair, interim associate vice president for Academic Planning and Faculty Affairs, and most recently as the interim associate vice president for Academic Planning. He has been an active contributor to key initiatives, including the University Strategic Plan, Academic Master Plan, tenure-track faculty hiring plan and multi-term class scheduling.

As associate provost, he will be engaged in divisional and cross-divisional initiatives and will lead various planning efforts related to class scheduling, faculty and staff hiring, budget, academic policies, enrollment and academic space utilization.

Sep obtained a bachelor's in chemistry and master's in biology from Cal Poly Pomona, and a doctorate in physiology from UCLA. After completing a post-doctoral fellowship in neurobiology at UCLA, he joined the faculty of the biological sciences at Cal Poly Pomona in fall 2000. As a faculty member, he led a very active research program with over 40 peer-reviewed publications and over $3 million in external funds in support of his research.

Provost Sylvia A. Alva thanks the search committee, co-chaired by Seema Shah-Fairbank and Victor Okhuysen, for conducting an efficient and successful search.