SDSU's New Leadership

With the start of the new academic year on Aug. 25, SDSU welcomes a new provost and senior vice president and three new deans.

Chukuka Enwemeka, Provost and Senior Vice President

Chukuka S. Enwemeka started his new role as provost and senior vice president on July 1.

Enwemeka has more than 20 years of academic leadership experience, including 11 years as tenured professor and dean at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee and New York Institute of Technology and 10 years as tenured professor and chairperson at the University of Kansas Medical Center.

As the chief academic officer of the university, the provost provides the leadership required to achieve the highest standards in teaching, scholarship, creative activities and service.

The provost is a key participant in all major university policy, establishing, coordinating and implementing academic goals, educational policy, curriculum planning and development, program review, funding support, resource allocation and personnel actions pertaining to faculty and academic staff.

“I look forward to working closely with President Elliot Hirshman and the leadership team to elevate the national and international profile of SDSU to the next level,” Enwemeka said. 

J. Dennis Cradit, Dean of the College of Business

J. Dennis Cradit joined SDSU this summer as dean of the College of Business Administration.

Cradit served since 2006 as dean of the College of Business at Southern Illinois University. In 2012, he was tasked with additional responsibilities as deputy to the chancellor for innovation and economic development.

He led SIU’s efforts to instill innovation and entrepreneurship into the curriculum, writing a plan for campus-wide implementation and integrating the university’s initiatives with regional economic development efforts.

A native Texan, Cradit has a Ph.D. in cognitive and social psychology from the University of Iowa.

“It is humbling to have an opportunity to join such an outstanding university as San Diego State University, and to be in such a dynamic part of the nation,” Cradit said.

“The College of Business Administration is an outstanding institution with a steady record of success and innovation, but it is also clear that those who represent the college, internal and external, are poised to move even higher and farther.  I look forward to getting to work.  We all have a very exciting future ahead of us.”

Joseph F. Johnson, Dean of the College of Education

Joseph F. Johnson became SDSU's dean of the College of Education after serving SDSU for almost a decade. A graduate of SDSU's education master's program, Johnson assumed his new role in April.

Johnson started at SDSU as a professor of educational leadership and executive director of the National Center for Urban School Transformation, which helps urban schools to achieve exceptional academic results.

Johnson has served as a school district administrator in New Mexico, a state education department official in Texas and Ohio and director of student achievement and school accountability at the U.S. Department of Education.

He received a master’s degree from SDSU and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas, Austin.

Morteza “Monte” Mehrabadi, Dean of the College of Engineering

Morteza “Monte” Mehrabadi will serve as the dean of the College of Engineering.

Mehrabadi came to SDSU in 2007 as chair of mechanical engineering and became dean earlier this year.

He received a Ph.D. from Tulane University, where he taught for 16 years before becoming department chair. His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy.

Mehrabadi has been a visiting faculty member at the Laboratoire de Mecanique des Solides, Ecole Polytechnique in France; at Tohoku University in Japan; at the University of California, San Diego; and at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C.