Jose Luis Alvarado, who has served as associate dean for the College of Education at San Diego State University since 2010, has been named dean of Cal State Monterey Bay’s newly created College of Education.

Dr. Alvarado will begin his new duties July 14.

“We are pleased that Dr. Alvarado has agreed to lead our College of Education,” said CSUMB President Eduardo Ochoa. “The position attracted a strong field of candidates. However, the breadth of his experience and his vision of the role the college could play, both within the university and in reaching out to the larger community, helped Dr. Alvarado emerge as the clear choice of the search committee.”

As part of the academic reorganization of the university that goes into effect July 1, the College of Education and the College of Health Sciences and Human Services were created from programs that were previously housed in the College of Professional Studies. As associate dean at SDSU, Dr. Alvarado was responsible for the college budget, personnel issues, college governance, university relations, academic programming, technology security and system upgrades, and college policy.

He said that serving in this administrative capacity strengthened his commitment to equity, social justice, research, preparing tomorrow’s education professionals, and building strong partnerships with K-12 schools.

Prior to joining SDSU, Dr. Alvarado worked as a behavior specialist for a county mental health day treatment program, taught in an elementary special education classroom, worked in program implementation for a regional special education office and served as an on-call crisis counselor.

His research is focused on effective personnel preparation, implementing efforts to close the achievement gap, effective instruction, multicultural education, and behavior support for culturally and linguistically diverse students with disabilities.

He has published in journals such as “Multicultural Perspectives,” “Remedial and Special Education, Behavioral Disorders,” “Rural Special Education Quarterly,” and “Assessment for Effective Intervention.” Dr. Alvarado has also been principal investigator and co-principal investigator for more than $2.5 million in projects funded by the U.S. Department of Education and the University of South Florida.

Dr. Alvarado earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology and master’s in special education from San Diego State University and his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia.