About the Provost
Jose A. Gomez
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Jose A. Gomez is provost and executive vice president at Cal State LA, ranked number one in the nation for the upward mobility of its students. He assumed the role of Cal State LA's chief academic officer on July 1, 2019, in addition to his duties as executive vice president and chief operating officer.
Gomez is a proud product of the communities served by Cal State LA. He was raised in La Puente, in the San Gabriel Valley. A first-generation college student, he enrolled at Cal Poly Pomona through the California State University System’s Educational Opportunity Program (EOP). There, he served as student body president and chair of the 23-campus Cal State Student Association while earning his bachelor’s degree in sociology. Gomez, who was named a CSU Chancellor's Doctoral Incentive Program Scholar, went on to earn master’s degrees in political science and public administration, as well as a Ph.D. in political science, from the University of Southern California, where he was a President Steven B. Sample Fellow. In April 2019, he received Cal Poly Pomona’s distinguished alumnus award.
Throughout his career, Gomez has been an advocate for greater access to higher education. In his 10 years at Cal State LA, he has led major initiatives to expand opportunities for students. These include Cal State LA’s downtown campus, which opened in 2016; Cal State LA’s Prison Graduation Initiative, California’s first bachelor’s degree program taught in state prison; and Cal State LA BioSpace, a regional bioscience collaboration that will include a university incubator to provide laboratories, equipment, and support for students and emerging entrepreneurs.
Gomez also helped develop Achieve LA, a collaboration with the YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles, to create pathways to higher education for youth in underserved communities and to support youth and their families through initiatives promoting civic engagement and academic enrichment.
Before joining Cal State LA in 2009, Gomez served as higher education adviser to the president pro tempore of the California Senate and as executive director of the California Educational Facilities Authority, the state’s higher education facilities financing agency. He also held senior positions in the California Department of Justice and the state Treasurer’s Office.
