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Ex-UCLA Law School Dean Susan Westerberg Prager Named Next President of Occidental College
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Former UCLA Law School Dean Susan Westerberg Prager has been selected by the Occidental College Board of Trustees as the school’s 13th president.
A 1964 graduate of Stanford, Prager received her law degree at UCLA and served as its dean for 16 years. She also spent 14 years on the Stanford board of trustees, before accepting a position at Dartmouth College.
She returned to UCLA in 2001.
“We are delighted that a comprehensive national search has led us to a distinguished California educator to serve as Occidental’s next president,” Catherine Selleck, chair of the Occidental Board of Trustees said in a release. “Susan Prager has a deep understanding of higher education gained from years of experience as a student, teacher, trustee and administrator. Her commitment to the Occidental mission of excellence, equity and the life-long value of a liberal arts education made her the unanimous choice to lead the College to even greater achievements in the future.”
During her career, Prager has received many awards. In 1985 she became the second woman to serve as president of the Association of American Law Schools, the leading professional organization in her field.
“It is a great privilege to carry on Occidental’s long tradition of excellence and to help further its innovative climate and strong sense of purpose,” Prager, who will be Occidental’s first woman president, said in a statement.
“Occidental is a remarkable place, where faculty are vigorously devoted to their students and where students and faculty engage together in and out of the classroom, often with exciting research,” Prager said. “I’m drawn to Occidental in significant part because it sees itself as offering a breadth of opportunities to a diverse and highly motivated group of students determined to make a difference in their professional and civic lives.”
Prager, who is married to Los Angeles attorney James Prager, will begin her new post July 1.
Copyright 2006, Metropolitan News Company