UOP finds president to bring ‘expansive vision’ to state’s oldest chartered university

The University of the Pacific will welcome a new president next year.

The university, which has its main campus in Stockton, announced Thursday that Christopher Callahan – the founding and current dean of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University – will become UOP’s next president.

According to UOP, Callahan was scheduled to make his first visit to the Stockton campus Thursday. He’s also slated to do a listening tour next month at campuses in Sacramento, San Francisco and Stockton. Along with his position at Arizona State, he’s the vice provost of the downtown Phoenix campus and CEO of Arizona PBS.

Callahan will become the 26th president of UOP, California’s oldest chartered university, on July 1.

“I am honored and humbled to be selected as the next president of University of Pacific,” he said in a statement released by the university. “Pacific has a storied history as one of the oldest and most innovative institutions of higher education in the West, but I believe the best days for our university are still to come.

“I think the most compelling characteristic of Pacific is the authentic focus on student success. I have seen firsthand the promise and transformational powers of higher education as a first-generation college graduate.”

According to UOP, Callahan’s hiring is the result of a nationwide search and a unanimous decision by the Board of Regents.

“We were looking for a president who could also bring an expansive vision to our campus – a vision of Pacific that can motivate people to see the future and work for it. We found that person in Chris,” said Kevin Huber, UOP Board of Regents chair.

Callahan succeeds Maria Pallavicini, who served as interim president. She took over in July for Pamela Eibeck, who retired after becoming the first female president in the school’s 168-year history in 2009. Eibeck left UOP following a no-confidence vote by the faculty and a student protest of a planned tuition hike in 2018.