The Board of Governors for Antioch University is proud to announce Dr. William V. Flores as the new President of the Santa Barbara campus.
Flores will serve as the fourth president of the Santa Barbara campus, succeeding Dr. Nancy Leffert who will retire June 30 after seven years of service.
The board chose Flores from a strong pool of candidates because of his long history of higher education academic leadership.
Flores has also demonstrated a strong commitment to expanding educational opportunities to underserved populations including the Hispanic community. He is a life-long advocate for social justice and sustainability, hallmarks of the Antioch University tradition.
“The committee felt that Dr. Flores had both an impressive background and the visionary thinking to lead AUSB into the future,” said Vicki Ristin, Chairperson of the Antioch University Santa Barbara Board of Trustees. “He understands the diversity and uniqueness of Santa Barbara and our campus, and he demonstrated the personal warmth to convince us he was the perfect choice.”
Antioch University Vice Chancellor Bill Groves commented that the system-wide team is “excited to welcome Dr. Flores and to leverage his vast experience in higher education to help take Antioch University to the next level.”
Most recently, Flores was the President of the University of Houston-Downtown (UHD) where he grew the university in size, reputation, student success, and community engagement. UHD has over 14,000 students and is one of the most diverse institutions in the nation.
Dr. Flores led UHD in a strategic planning process, developing a new vision, mission, strategic plan and metrics for measuring progress. Since he joined UHD in July 2009, the University dramatically expanded online enrollment, partnerships with community colleges and physical size, grew its downtown footprint and opened a satellite campus in northwest Houston.
President Flores earned his Doctor of Social Theory and Public Policy and Master of Arts in Political Science degrees from Stanford University and his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from UCLA.
Flores’ previous appointments include service as Deputy Secretary for the New Mexico Department of Higher Education, Executive Vice President and Provost at New Mexico State University (including interim president), and Dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at California State University, Northridge. He has been an ACE Fellow and Rockefeller Senior Fellow in the Humanities.
Flores remarked, “I am looking forward to joining the Antioch University community. Antioch’s rich tradition of providing innovative learning environments that are rigorous and responsive to student’s needs and its vision of ‘offering learners and communities’ transformative education in a global context that fosters innovation and inspires social action’ is at heart of what I believe as an educator. I’m looking forward to being part of Antioch and contributing to the university’s continued success.”
– Brian Dearth represents Antioch University.