Officials at California State University, Long Beach Announce Selection of New Dean for College of Health, Human Services

Ken Millar, current dean of College of Professional Studies at Florida Gulf Coast University, has been selected dean of the College of Health and Human Services at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB). He will begin his new position on June 1.

Millar brings to Cal State Long Beach 27 years of administrative experience in higher education. Throughout his career he has increased external funding in support of faculty research and scholarly activity, enhanced fund raising and community outreach and bolstered student enrollment.

“Dr. Millar’s breadth of experience and his impressive list of accomplishments as a faculty member and administrator will be a major addition to the College of Health and Human Services, our campus and our region,” said Don Para, CSULB’s interim provost and senior vice president for Academic Affairs. “In addition to his strong record of accomplishments, Dr. Millar demonstrates a high level of collegiality, positive energy and enthusiasm.”

The College of Health and Human Services is the second largest college at CSULB with more than 7,500 declared majors within its programs. Departments in the college include Communicative Disorders, Criminal Justice, Family and Consumer Sciences, Health Care Administration, Health Science, Kinesiology, Nursing, Physical Therapy, Professional Studies, Graduate Center for Public Policy & Administration, Recreation & Leisure Studies and Social Work.

Since 2006, Millar has served as dean of the College of Professional Studies at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers, Fla. There, he oversees the divisions of Justice Studies, Public Affairs, Resort and Hospitality Management and Social Work. Over the past two years, he has led the college through difficult financial times, working to protect jobs, professional development funds and graduate assistant support.

During his tenure as dean, Millar established a mentoring program among senior and junior faculty members to encourage and support scholarship and research, collaborated throughout the university to provide programs that enhance professional development and has overseen the construction of a new state-of-the-art building for the Resort and Hospitality Management and the Professional Golf Management programs.

“I am looking forward to providing leadership to an enormously talented group of scholar-practitioners in all the disciplines represented in the College of Health and Human Services,” Millar said. “Many of the faculty in the college are on the cutting edge of research in their fields and my job will be to provide the infrastructure support and climate to nurture and enhance their development of new knowledge and skills.

“Despite the fiscal challenges faced by higher education in California, I look forward to the opportunity of leading the educational mission of preparing the next generation of professionals in all the diverse fields represented in the college,” he added. “I look forward to furthering the community outreach/service aspects of our college and, through the actions of our faculty and students, making our community a better place to live and prosper.”

Before joining Florida Gulf Coast University, Millar served as director of the School of Social Work at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, dean of the School of Social Work at Louisiana State University, dean of George Williams College of Health and Human Services at Aurora University in Illinois and director of the School of Social Work at Aurora University.

He earned his doctorate at the University of Texas at Arlington, his master’s in social work at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia, and his bachelor’s degree at Sir George Williams University in Montreal, Quebec.

Millar is recognized as a leader in the field of social work. In 1991, he was selected as Social Worker of the Year by the Arkansas Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers. That same year, he developed a partnership with the state public child welfare agency. The partnership was one of the first in the country and became a model for state public child welfare-university collaborations nationally. He has authored or co-authored numerous articles and book chapters and co-authored two books. He is currently working on a text on child abuse.

Millar replaces Ron Vogel, who left CSULB in 2009 to become provost at California State University, Dominguez Hills.

-- Linda Fontes