Ken O’Donnell is Vice Provost at California State University Dominguez Hills. He works closely with the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Michael Spagna, leading the division’s work on program quality, resource allocation, faculty affairs and development, student success and engagement, and innovation.
CSU Dominguez Hills is a Masters Public institution serving 17,000 students, most from historically underserved minority populations, the first in their families to attend college, and eligible for federal financial aid. It ranks first in California for the number of bachelor’s degrees awarded to African-American students. Dominguez Hills has distinctive academic programs in health, education, business, and the arts and sciences.
Ken connects student success efforts and high-impact educational practices across multiple departments and divisions, advancing work to improve our understanding of educational effectiveness, equity, and student engagement. CSU Dominguez Hills is committed to sharing all it discovers in this area, as a national model and laboratory for student success.
Before coming to Dominguez Hills Ken was Senior Director of Student Engagement at the CSU Office of the Chancellor, leading system-wide offices and projects to strengthen STEM education, community engagement, transfer and articulation, and general education, all toward improving learning and persistence and closing achievement gaps. Ken has written about and addressed numerous conferences and workshops around the country on the intersections between deep learning and student success, the benefits of locating college learning in real-world contexts, and the role of public universities in higher education reform.
Before coming to the CSU Ken was a member of the screenwriting faculty and an assistant dean at the film school at Chapman University. He and his wife Cyndi live in Southern California.