New interim President of CA State University speaks Portuguese

California State University (CSU) Chancellor Timothy P. White has appointed Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval, Ph.D., to serve as interim president of California State University, Fresno.  Jiménez-Sandoval will assume the leadership of the university on January 4, 2021 with the departure of current Fresno State president Dr. Joseph I. Castro, who will begin in his new role as Chancellor of the California State University.

Jiménez-Sandoval has a long history with Fresno State, having first joined the university as a member of the faculty in 2000. Over two decades of service to the university, he has served as professor of Spanish and Portuguese, coordinator of the Spanish master of arts, chair of the Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures, interim associate dean of the College of Arts and Humanities, and dean of the College of Arts and Humanities.

Jiménez-Sandoval graduated cum laude with bachelor’s degrees in Spanish and History from the University of California, Irvine, where he also earned his Ph.D. in Spanish and Portuguese Literatures. In addition, he has professional certificates in critical theory from Cornell University, in Spanish art history from Escuela de Arte y Antigüedades de Madrid (Spain), and in Portuguese language and culture from Universidade Nova de Lisboa (Portugal).