Western Association of Schools and Colleges

Mark Bookman joined the Commission in 2003. He is Senior Vice President and Provost, and the Zarem Professor of Business and Law, at the American Jewish University (Los Angeles). He received his BA in History, his JD from the University of California, Los Angeles, and is a member of the State Bar of California. Bookman spent nearly two decades in senior administrative positions within higher education and nonprofit organizations, including as Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs at the University of Houston and as General Manager of the Associated Students, CSU Chico. Bookman has made numerous presentations on taxation and unfair competition issues, privatization of services, resource maximization, systems development, and government tax policy toward the nonprofit sector. His books include Contracting Collegiate Auxiliary Services and Protecting Your Organization's Tax-Exempt Status. At the American Jewish University, Bookman has been the Chair of the Department of Business, Director of the Nonprofit Management Program and the Vice President for Administration and Business Affairs.

Bernard Bowler joined the Commission in 2005 as one of its public members. Bowler worked as an executive at IBM for more than thirty years, and continues his life long commitment to education by bringing his financial expertise to several boards and charities. He has served as Chair of the CSU Sacramento Trust Foundation Board for six years. He was also Chair and co-founder of the Linking Education and Economic Development (L.E.E.D. Sacramento) program, which works with Sacramento's K-12 schools to improve curriculum and increase college attendance and employment success. Mr. Bowler likewise served on the St. Hope Corporation Board of Directors, helping to establish a new Charter High School and K-4 elementary school. In 2002, he received the CSU Sacramento President's Award for outstanding service to the University,
to higher education, and the public and common good.

Jerry Campbell, President of Claremont School of Theology (CST), joined the Commission in 2004. Prior to assuming the presidency at CST, he served as Chief Information Officer and Dean of the University Libraries at the University of Southern California. He also served as Vice Provost for Library Affairs and Computing at Duke University. Campbell holds a BA from McMurry University, an M. Div. from Duke University, a Master of Science in Library Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a Ph.D. in History from the University of Denver. He has served as president of the Association of Research Libraries and the Triangle Universities Center for Advanced Studies, Inc. He also has served on the governing bodies of the Research Libraries Group, the Council on Library and Information Resources, the National Institute of Statistical Sciences, the National Humanities Center and the Digital Library Federation. He has contributed articles to books, published numerous articles, and spoken and consulted widely.

Anna DiStefano joined the Commission in 2006, and has served as the Provost for Fielding Graduate University since August, 1996. She has been a part of the Fielding community since 1983, serving in several senior executive capacities including Vice President of Academic Planning & Program Development, and Dean, Human and Organization Development (HOD). DiStefano received her Ed.D. (1977) and her M.Ed. (1972), both in Counseling, from Boston University. Her undergraduate degree, A.B. (1969), was received from Trinity College, D.C. She was also selected as an American Council of Education Fellow, (1987 - 1988). DiStefano's specialized areas of interest are planning and leadership in higher education, especially distributed education; feminism; public schooling; moral development; and conflict resolution. Her most recent publications include co-editing with Jody Veroff a special issue of The American Behavioral Scientist titled Researching Across Difference and co-editing with Kjell E. Rudestam, and Robert Silverman, the Encyclopedia of Distributed Learning.

James Donahue joined the Commission in 2006, and is the seventh president of the Graduate Theological Union, and the first GTU alumnus to serve in this position. Before returning to the GTU in 2000, Donahue served for over fifteen years as Professor of Theology and Ethics, Dean of Students and Vice President of Student Affairs at Georgetown University. He has also held faculty and administrative positions at Boston College and Santa Clara University, and has served as an ethics consultant to various organizations, including the Levi Strauss Corporation, the Department of Defense, and the Catholic Health Association. Donahue's primary research areas and teaching interests include professional ethics, religion in public life, and the issues of organizational and professional ethics. He is the co-author of Ethics Across the Curriculum: A Practice-based Approach, and is currently writing Religion and Professional Ethics. He is the co-editor of Religion, Ethics and the Common Good. He holds a B.A. degree from the College of the Holy Cross, an M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary, and a Ph.D. from the Graduate Theological Union.

Jackie Donath joined the Commission in 2007. She is Professor and Chair of Humanities and Religious Studies at California State University, Sacramento. Donath earned a BA from Austin College, an MA in American Studies from the University of Minnesota, and a Ph.D. in American Culture Studies from Bowling Green State University. While at Sac State, she has served as Faculty Coordinator for General Education and as campus director of the Urban University Project. She has been a member of the governing boards of the Popular Culture/American Culture Association, the California American Studies Association and AccessSacramento. She has participated in a number of WASC accreditation visits and consulted widely in the CSU system. She has contributed essays to several books in her area of primary interest, American design and visual arts.

Aimee Dorr was appointed to the Commission in 2004. Since 1999, she has been Dean of UCLA's Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. For the four years preceding this appointment, she led the UCLA, and then the UC, Academic Senate in its shared governance system. Dorr's research has focused on the roles of electronic media and technology in children's informal and formal education, the integration of technology into the K-12 and college curriculum, and media literacy. She has extensive experience working with authors of educational materials for home and school, including materials designed to promote early literacy, positive racial attitudes, and 21st century literacies. Dorr is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and the 2004
recipient of the Oliver Johnson Award for Distinguished Leadership in the UC Academic Senate. She received the B.S. in Mathematics and the M.A. and Ph.D. in Psychology, all from Stanford University. Prior to joining UCLA as a Professor of Education, Dorr held faculty appointments in communications and education at Stanford University, Harvard University, and the Annenberg School of Communications at USC.

John D. Eshelman joined the Commission in 2006, and is provost at Seattle University, a post he held from 1989 to 2004 and resumed in July 2006. He has spent thirty years in senior leadership roles at SU, including executive vice president (chief operating officer), interim vice president for finance and business, acting president, and dean of the Albers School of Business and Economics. He began his career at Seattle University in 1969 as a member of the faculty, and is a professor of Economics. He has been involved in accreditation for WASC, NWCCU, AACSB and ABA. He is a past president of the Western Association of Collegiate Schools of Business, and served on national committees of the AACSB. He is involved in many community activities and is a trustee of Seattle Preparatory School and the Fulcrum Foundation. He earned his PhD in Economics from the University of Washington.

John F. Fitzpatrick
joined the Commission in 2006, is currently the Superintendent-in-Residence at Pepperdine University in Los Angeles, and teaches in their doctoral program for Leadership and Policy. He is former superintendent of the Las Virgenes Unified School District, and has served as a member and former chair of the WASC Schools Commission. He is a member of the State Assistance & Intervention Team for the Los Angeles County Schools, and in this capacity, has worked with many urban schools within the Los Angeles Unified School District. He is also an elected member of the American Association of School Administrators Governing Board, at which he represents the state of California. Fitzpatrick has also received the Rose Award from the University of Southern California Graduate School of Education, which recognizes alumni who have provided outstanding leadership in the field of education.

Laurence K. Gould, Jr.
began his first term on the Commission in 2003. He is an attorney who has practiced in Los Angeles with Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton since 1971, specializing in trust and estate matters. He served on the California State University Board of Trustees from 1996 to 2002 and chaired the Board from 2000 to 2002. Mr. Gould is a Trustee of the Della Martin Foundation that has endowed chairs and/or post-doctoral fellowships at Caltech, UCLA, UC Irvine, and USC, for research in mental illness; Treasurer of the John and Beverly Stauffer Foundation; and a Trustee of the California State Summer School for the Arts. A graduate of Yale and of Stanford Law School, he was formerly president of the California Mission Studies Association.

Michael L. Jackson joined the Commission in 2008. He was appointed vice president for Student Affairs at the University of Southern California in June 1995. He is responsible for providing leadership for the Division of Student affairs and its comprehensive student life program for 32,000 students and 300 professional and support staff. In 2005, Jackson was named interim vice president for student affairs and enrollment services. Prior to coming to USC, Jackson had been dean of students at Stanford University, where he worked in student affairs for over 15 years. He is a member of the California Educational Facilities Authority, past president of the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (2002-03) and a professor in higher education at the USC Rossier School of Education. He holds an A.B. in Anthropology from Stanford University and M.Ed. and Ed.D. in Educational Administration from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Linda K. Johnsrud, appointed to the Commission in 2007, has served as the Vice President for Academic Planning and Policy for the University of Hawai'i System since March 2006. In 2005, she served as acting/interim chancellor for UH West O'ahu. Author of more than 100 scholarly publications and refereed presentations, Johnsrud has written extensively on work life issues of faculty and administrative staff, with particular attention to issues of morale, mobility, and mentoring. She was elected 2006-07 President of the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE), an international association of scholars in the field of higher education. In 2000 she was elected to lead the Postsecondary Division of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) and served on the AERA executive council (2000-02). In 1998-99 she was selected as a Fellow of the American Council on Education. Johnsrud earned a PhD in higher education from The Ohio State University in 1988.

Roberts Jones, appointed to the Commission in 2007, is the President of Education & Workforce Policy, LLC, a policy consulting firm whose singular focus is the advancement of education, training and workforce policy. He also served as the President and CEO of the National Alliance of Business, the Assistant Secretary of Labor under Presidents Reagan and Bush, in senior positions in two major U.S. corporations, and as a Chief of Staff to two Congressmen. Having held senior leadership positions in the legislative and executive branches, and with extensive experience in the private sector, he has been personally engaged in every major piece of education, training and workforce legislation for the past forty years. Among his many affiliations, Mr. Jones serves on the boards of American College Testing (ACT), the Business Higher Education Forum (BHEF), the National Center for Education Accountability (NCEA), the National Council on Teaching America's Future (NCTAF), and the National Teacher Hall of Fame.

Thomas McFadden joined the Commission in 2007. He is President Emeritus of Marymount College, where he served as President from 1992-2006. He was also a member of the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges of WASC from 1999-2005. Dr. McFadden previously served as academic vice president at St. John Fisher College in Pittsford, NY, and as a dean and faculty member at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia, PA. He holds a B.A. in Philosophy from Cathedral College, Brooklyn, NY, a Masters in Theology from Gregorian University, Rome, Italy, and a Doctorate in Theological Studies from Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. He has published widely in areas of Catholic theology.

Leroy M. Morishita joined the Commission in 2007. He is the Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Administration & Finance at San Francisco State University, a post he has held since 2002. His career with San Francisco State University has spanned two decades in a variety of positions and he currently oversees the areas of budget, finance, human resources, risk management, enrollment management, information technology, capital planning, facilities, housing, and audit. Morishita has participated extensively in CSU system and S.F. State committees and task forces. His board memberships include Chair of the California State University Risk Management Authority Executive Committee; the San Francisco Planning & Urban Research Association; Asian Community Mental Health Services; and Japanese American Citizens League Health Benefits Administrators. Morishita holds an Ed.D. in Administration, Planning and Social Policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education; a M.S. in Counseling from San Francisco State University; and an A.B. in Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley.

Sheldon Schuster, appointed to the Commission in 2007, is currently the President of the Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences (KGI) in Claremont, CA. Prior to joining KGI, Dr. Shuster was the Interim Assistant Vice President for Research, Director of the Biotechnology Program and Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Florida. His research focused on the mechanism of tumor drug resistance and the rational design of potential anti-tumor therapies based on studies of specific enzyme structures. His work has been funded by the National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society, and has resulted in over 140 peer-reviewed publications and ten patents. He has also been active in leadership roles in BIO and the Council for Biotechnology Centers and is presently Associate Editor for Biotechnology of the journal Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education (BAMBED). Dr. Schuster is a graduate of the University of California, Davis and earned his Ph.D. from the University of Arizona.

Eleanor Danzler Siebert was appointed to the Commission in 2004. She is Provost and Academic Vice President at Mount St. Mary's College, where she has also chaired the Department of Physical Sciences and Mathematics. Dr. Siebert is author of Experiments for General Chemistry and Foundations for General Chemistry; and has co-edited Teaching Tips: Innovations in Undergraduate Science Instruction, College Pathways to the Science Education Standards (NSTA Press, 2001/04), and Methods of Effective Teaching and Class Management for University and College Teachers of Science (Kendall/Hunt Publishing, 1997). She has served as president of the Society for College Science Teachers and College Director of the National Science Teachers Association. Dr. Siebert received the 2001 Outstanding Undergraduate Science Teacher award. She has served as a Consultant for the College Board and is the Chief Reader for the Chemistry AP Program at the Educational Testing Service. Dr. Siebert received her B.A. in Chemistry from Duke University and her Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Carmen Sigler, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at San Jose State University, was appointed to the Commission in 2007. After completing her undergraduate education in Argentina, she received A.M. and Ph.D. degrees in Romance Languages and Literatures from the University of Michigan. Her field of specialization is Golden Age Spanish Literature and she has published books and scholarly articles on topics related to Renaissance Spanish literature and foreign language education in Spain, Argentina and the United States. Prior to serving as Provost, Dr. Sigler was Teacher Education Coordinator, Associate Chair for Curriculum, and Department Chair in the Department of Foreign Languages at San Jose State. She also served as Dean of the College of Humanities and the Arts, Interim Vice President for University Advancement and Acting Dean of the College of Social Work. An active member of the community, she serves on the Board of Trustees of Montalvo Center for the Arts, Opera San Jose, the Hispanic Foundation of Silicon Valley and the YMCA Metro Board.

Larry Vanderhoef, President of the University of California, Davis, joined the Commission in 2007. He came to UC Davis in 1984 as executive vice chancellor and provost. Previously, he held faculty positions at the University of Illinois, where he also served as department head, and at the University of Maryland, College Park, where he was appointed provost. His research interests lie in the general area of plant growth and development, and in the evolution of land-grant universities. Chancellor Vanderhoef has served on various national commissions addressing graduate and international education, the role of a modern land-grant university, and accrediting issues. The 2006 Northern California International Leadership Award was presented to him by the Northern California World Trade Center and the California Business, Transportation and Housing Agency in recognition of his efforts to increase UC Davis's international engagement. He holds B.S and M.S. degrees in biology from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, and a Ph.D. in plant biochemistry from Purdue University.

Mary (Sue) Wesselkamper, president of Chaminade University of Honolulu, joined the Commission in 2004. When she was appointed as president in 1995, she was the first woman to preside over a university in Hawaii, the first to head a Marianist sponsored university, and one of approximately two dozen lay women who were presidents of Catholic colleges and universities in the nation. Before coming to Chaminade, Wesselkamper was Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences and Associate Professor of Social Work at the College of New Rochelle in New York. Her professional and scholarly interests include cross-cultural learning, experiential learning, and planning and program assessment. Dr. Wesselkamper is currently a member of numerous Boards, including the American Council of Education's Women Leaders in Higher Education-Hawaii.

Michael M. Whyte, was appointed to the Commission in 2006, and has served as Provost and Accreditation Liaison Officer of Azusa Pacific University since 2002. As Provost, Whyte leads six schools, one college, and 400 full-time and 700 adjunct faculty. He also supervises enrollment management, academic services, seven regional campuses, and the university's diversity program. He was a professor at Northern Arizona University from 1996-1999 and, in 1995, was a National Defense Fellow and Visiting Professor at Howard University. From 1986-1995, he was Senior Associate Professor (Tenure) at the US Air Force Academy. Whyte earned a B.S. in International Affairs/American Politics at the US Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colorado, and a M.S. and Ph.D. in Education from the University of Southern California . He served two terms on the WASC Proposal Review Committee and has chaired a number of WASC visiting teams.

Paul Zingg, appointed to the Commission in 2007, is President of California State University, Chico. Prior to coming to CSU, Chico, he was Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. He also served as the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Cal Poly, and the Dean of the School of Liberal Arts at St. Mary's College of California. Dr. Zingg has published ten books and nearly 100 articles on American higher education, student learning, educational leadership, sports history, and intercollegiate athletics. He was appointed a Fellow of the American Council on Education in 1983-1984 and has received support for his research from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Dr. Zingg received a B.A. in History from Belmont Abbey College, North Carolina, an M.A. in History from the University of Richmond, VA, and a Ph.D. in History from the University of Georgia, Athens.