Meet the President
Meet The President
Dr. Adela de la Torre became the 9th president of San Diego State University in 2018, following a distinguished career of more than three decades as an accomplished economist, public-health researcher and higher-education leader in both California and Arizona. She is the first Chicana and first woman to serve as the president of the university.
Furthering its ascendance as one of the nation’s leading research universities and pursuit of R1 classification, SDSU received a record-breaking $229.8 million in research grants and contracts in 2023-24. And with a proud and active alumni network of more than 500,000 worldwide, the university has received $650 million in gifts during the five years of her presidency.
Under President de la Torre's leadership, the breadth, depth and diversity of curriculum and academic programs at SDSU have all greatly improved. She has driven the development of new curriculum and degree programs at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, and has been a strong advocate for expanding the university’s ability to offer doctoral degrees and post-doctoral research opportunities. With an eye toward inclusiveness and access, she has reduced equity and achievement gaps for underrepresented minority students and Pell grant recipients, while expanding student, faculty and staff diversity. Nearly all measures of student success have risen under her leadership.
Before her arrival at SDSU, President de la Torre was vice chancellor for Student Affairs and Campus Diversity at University of California, Davis (UC Davis). Prior to that she served for 14 years as director for the UC Davis Center for Transnational Health, chair of the UC Davis Chicana/Chicano Studies Department, and director of the Hispanic Center of Excellence in the College of Medicine at the University of Arizona, where she was also director of the Mexican American Studies and Research Center. She was a professor at California State University, Long Beach, the University of Arizona, and UC Davis, where she was the first Chicana to earn the title of Distinguished Professor. President de la Torre earned her bachelor’s degree in the political economy of natural resources from the University of California, Berkeley, where she also went on to earn a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in agricultural and resource economics.
Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, President de la Torre is the granddaughter of Mexican immigrants and daughter of a single mother who taught in public schools for 40 years. She holds a deep appreciation for cultural traditions, the importance of family and hard work, and for the transformative power of education.
Global Perspective, Greater Impact
President de la Torre brought to SDSU a global perspective, and a mission of building on the university’s unique leadership role in bridging the San Diego region’s and world’s diverse communities.
In late 2020, under President de la Torre’s charge, SDSU launched a five-year strategic plan called “We Rise We Defy” with goals of growing its research enterprise and global presence and impact, while enhancing access and expanding academic programs at its locations in San Diego; Imperial Valley; Mission Valley; the Republic of Georgia; Oaxaca, Mexico; and its dozens of other onsite and online global programs. By early 2024, only 3.5 years later, the university had marked 75 percent completion of activities and success metrics contained in the plan. That spring, the university began plans to expand the strategic plan for the next five years.
Core to unlocking SDSU’s vast potential is enhancing its standing as a leading research institution, a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) and an Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution (AANAPISI). President de la Torre’s student-centric strategy focuses on driving student opportunity and success through university growth and resiliency, while emphasizing equity, access, sustainability and community engagement.
Rise in Research and Academic Excellence
Under President de la Torre's leadership, the breadth, depth and diversity of curriculum and academic programs at SDSU have all greatly expanded. She has driven the development of new curriculum and degree programs at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, and has been a strong advocate for expanding the university’s ability to offer doctoral degrees and post-doctoral research opportunities.
She has reduced equity and achievement gaps for underrepresented minority students and Pell grant recipients, while expanding student, faculty and staff diversity. Results in student success have been dramatic, including a six-year graduation rate for undergraduates that has surged to 79%, significantly outpacing a national average of 60%.
With a proud and active alumni network of half a million graduates, gifts to SDSU totaled more than $136 million in 2023. And furthering its ascendance as one of the nation’s leading research universities, SDSU received $192 million in external research-grant funding in 2023, the most in school history. The funds are supporting crucial areas of research and community work, including boosting vaccine uptake and community health, developing better batteries for electric cars, engineering more efficient rocket propulsion systems, reducing disease, addressing issues related to the environment and homelessness, addressing issues of homeland security, and advancing innovation in cybersecurity.
University Expansion and Regional Impact
One of President de la Torre’s mission-critical strategic priorities is the ongoing development of SDSU Mission Valley. Along with the new Snapdragon Stadium, which opened in September 2022, SDSU kept another promise it made to the community when it opened a 34-acre river park on the site in early 2024. It features more than four miles of pedestrian and biking trails, multi-use recreational fields, basketball courts, fitness equipment, children’s playgrounds, picnic areas, an outdoor classroom, and more. The next phase of development at SDSU Mission Valley includes the Innovation District, a modern incubator with up to 1.6 million square feet of campus, technology and commercial space. The mixed-use site also will include residential and retail development.
Once completed, SDSU Mission Valley will generate an additional $3 billion each year for the local economy and will support more than 17,000 jobs. And, importantly, it will allow SDSU to increase enrollment by up to 15,000 new students.
Meanwhile, also in early 2024, the university held a groundbreaking ceremony for a new $80 million STEM education and research facility at SDSU Imperial Valley. Funded by the California Legislature, the facility in California’s “Lithium Valley” will prepare students to benefit from the major economic development and professional opportunities created by sustainable extraction of the element, which is vital to renewable energy technology. SDSU Imperial Valley also recently launched a four-year liberal studies degree and a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics and a Master of Science degree program in Homeland Security.
Also under President de la Torre’s charge, SDSU received federal designation as an Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution (AANAPISI) and has sustained its designation as a Hispanic-Serving Institution.
For her leadership and visionary initiatives driving the growth of SDSU, President de la Torre has received numerous awards, including the 2022 Visionary Award for Innovation & Economic Opportunity from LEAD San Diego; Honorary Doctorate degrees from Georgia’s Tbilisi State University in 2022 and Ilia State University in 2023; the 2021 Eagle Leadership Award from the Latino Leaders Network; the 2021 Cool Woman of 2021 from Girl Scouts San Diego; and the 2019 Union of Pan Asian Communities 45th Annual Leadership Award.
Before SDSU
Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, President de la Torre is the granddaughter of Mexican immigrants and daughter of a single mother who taught in public schools for 40 years. She holds a deep appreciation for cultural traditions, the importance of family and hard work, and for the transformative power of education.
Before her arrival at SDSU, President de la Torre was vice chancellor for Student Affairs and Campus Diversity at University of California, Davis (UC Davis). Prior to that she served for 14 years as director for the UC Davis Center for Transnational Health, chair of the UC Davis Chicana/Chicano Studies Department, and director of the Hispanic Center of Excellence in the College of Medicine at the University of Arizona, where she was also director of the Mexican American Studies and Research Center.
President de la Torre was a professor at California State University, Long Beach; the University of Arizona; and UC Davis, where she was the first Chicana to earn the title of Distinguished Professor.
She earned her bachelor’s degree in the political economy of natural resources from the University of California, Berkeley, where she also earned a master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Agricultural and Resource Economics.
