This January, the Cal State San Bernardino Palm Desert Campus welcomed its first instructional tenure-track faculty member specifically hired for the campus, Pablo Gomez. This marks an important milestone in the campus’s 34-year history – since its inception, all faculty members have been non-tenure adjunct faculty.
 


One of the challenges the Palm Desert Campus has experienced over the years is that it has a 100 percent reliance on academic program delivery from departments on its San Bernardino campus. While this dependence provides tremendous advantages to PDC, housing its own faculty will benefit the campus in many ways: they are generally more available to students, they develop courses and programs, they conduct research involving students and they participate in campus events.
 


Gomez was born in Mexico City, and obtained his Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 2003. He will begin as an associate professor of psychology at PDC, teaching cognitive psychology and statistics/methods courses. While his research interests lie on perceptual decision making and visual word recognition, he is also interested in expanding the use of reproducible research practices in psychology.
 


Bob Ricco, chair of the psychology department at CSUSB, says, “Dr. Gomez is an internationally known expert on the cognitive and neurological processes involved in reading, and with more than 50 publications in professional journals and books, and substantial experience mentoring students in research at DePaul University, he brings with him the resources needed to spearhead our efforts at providing PDC students with substantial opportunities to obtain direct training in conducting scientific research. In the past, PDC students interested in apprenticing with a faculty member in their research lab had to travel to the San Bernardino campus, but with the arrival of Dr. Gomez, and with future planned hires of this kind, we are extending the range of educational experiences available at PDC. Dr. Gomez is very enthusiastic about our students. He is Latino, fluent in Spanish and clearly relatable as a mentor. He was a first-generation college student himself, and he knows the rewards inherent in teaching and mentoring first-generation students.”
 


Additional instructional tenure-track faculty members will be hired at PDC later this year in the areas of hospitality management, cybersecurity, history and kinesiology. All of these faculty members will benefit PDC tremendously as the campus continues to enhance academic programs, elevate students’ experiences and build its capacity to serve.
 


The CSUSB Palm Desert Campus offers bachelor’s and master’s degrees, a doctorate in educational leadership, and teaching credentials and certificates. With more than 1,600 students, it is the Coachella Valley’s four-year public university and plays a vital role in educating and training the region’s growing population.
 


For more information about the CSUSB Palm Desert Campus, contact Mike Singer in the Office of Strategic Communication at msinger@csusb.edu or (760) 341-2883, ext. 78107, or visit the campus website at pdc.csusb.edu.