This message originally included an incorrect title. It has been updated to remove the inaccuracy.
I am happy to announce that P.K. Agarwal will join us as UC Santa Cruz's new dean of University Extension, effective Aug. 1.
Chancellor Cynthia Larive and I are thrilled to add such an accomplished executive to our team at UC Santa Cruz. P.K. has had a distinguished career in high tech spanning the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. He is a national leader in academics and technology. Most recently, he was founding CEO and dean of Northeastern University Silicon Valley, a satellite campus of the Boston institution. In three years, he grew the program to 750 students, launching new programs and working with major employers throughout the region while also stressing diversity and inclusion.
Before joining Northeastern, he was CEO of TiE Global, a multinational nonprofit dedicated to the growth of entrepreneurship, with 13,000 members in 61 cities in 18 countries. Prior to TiE, he was appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger as the first director of the Department of Technology Services for the state of California.
UCSC Silicon Valley Extension serves about 15,000 students annually, providing more than three-dozen extension courses and certificate programs that allow those in the workplace to advance their professional skills. In addition, UNEX facilitates valuable collaborative programs between our Santa Cruz campus and Silicon Valley businesses. It is also home to Smarter Balanced, which designs and administers standardized assessments for roughly 7 million K-12 students, as well as UC Scout, which ensures every student in the state can take courses needed for college admissions by offering online college preparation and Advanced Placement courses.
I am deeply grateful to Therese Ammiro, assistant UNEX dean and director of our Information Communications Technologies Division, for her work and leadership as interim dean of UNEX since the retirement of Lynda M. Rogers last spring.
I also would like to thank members of the UNEX dean search committee, chaired by University Librarian Elizabeth Cowell. The committee brought forth an exceptionally talented pool of finalists, and I am extremely appreciative of their work.
