Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Dr. James L. Rodríguez is the interim provost and vice president for Academic Affairs at California State University, Bakersfield, where he oversees the entire academic division that encompasses seven administrative units, four academic schools, the Antelope Valley campus and approximately 70 percent of the university’s budget. Before his appointment as interim provost and vice president for Academic Affairs, Dr. Rodríguez served as dean of the School of Social Sciences and Education and professor of Child, Adolescent and Family Studies.
Prior to his appointment at CSUB, Dr. Rodríguez was a professor of Child and Adolescent Studies at California State University, Fullerton, where he held a number of administrative and leadership positions, including interim assistant vice president of Institutional Research and Analytical Studies, interim associate vice president for Student Affairs, acting chair of the Department of Chicana/o/x Studies, interim faculty athletics representative, co-chair of the university’s Graduation Initiative, and as an inaugural diversity and inclusion fellow. Dr. Rodríguez also held a tenured faculty appointment in the College of Education at San Diego State University, where he directed the Bilingual Single Subject Credential Program and collaboratively developed and engaged in innovative school partnerships. He has also held appointments as a visiting scholar in the Department of Psychology at Pomona College and at Educational Testing Service. He is a research fellow at the Latinx Education Research Center at Santa Clara University.
Dr. Rodríguez has published widely on the psychological development and education of ethnic minority populations in the United States, with an emphasis on immigrant children and families and English learners. He has extensive experience working with and supporting diverse student populations and communities, advancing and advocating educational equity and academic success, and developing and engaging in school and community partnerships.
Dr. Rodríguez served on multiple editorial boards and as an expert advisor and consultant for various California Department of Education projects including the Early Childhood Educators Competencies, the Early Childhood Education Faculty Initiative Project, and the Preschool English Learners Resource Guide. He is active in a number of professional organizations and has held professional leadership roles, including the Founding and Steering Committees of the Latinx Caucus of the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD), for which he served as the inaugural chair. He also has served on the SRCD Ethnic and Racial Issues Committee, as co-chair of the 2012 SRCD Themed Meeting on the Positive Development of Minority Children Committee, and on several SRCD task forces. Dr. Rodríguez has served on the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting Planning Committee and in various AERA Division E roles, including program co-chair and program reviewer, the Committee on Diversity and Equity, and chair of the Early Career Mentoring Seminar. Dr. Rodríguez has served on the boards of several organizations, including the Kern County Network for Children and the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education.
Dr. Rodríguez was a George Blumenthal Fellow at the Center for Studies in Higher Education at the University of California, Berkeley and also completed the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities’ La Academia de Liderazgo (Leadership Academy) in 2022. Dr. Rodríguez previously completed the Executive Leadership Academy at the University of California, Berkeley, and the NASPA AVP Institute.
A native of Calexico, Calif., Dr. Rodríguez earned his B.A. in psychology from Pomona College and Ph.D. in Child and Adolescent Development from Stanford University. He has been awarded numerous fellowships and awards. At CSUF, he received a Faculty Advisor of Distinction Award, the Jewel Plummer Cobb Diversity in Education Award, and the CSUF Faculty Service Award twice. Dr. Rodríguez has also been awarded a Ford Foundation/National Research Council Predoctoral Fellowship, an American Psychological Association Minority Predoctoral Fellowship, a James Irvine Foundation Dissertation Fellowship, a William Lincoln Honnold Fellowship, a Los Angeles Philanthropic Foundation Scholarship, and was a National Hispanic and Pomona College Scholar multiple years.
