I am pleased to announce that Dr. Hala Madanat has been appointed to serve as San Diego State University’s Vice President for the Division of Research & Innovation.
Hala, who served in the role on an interim basis for two years, has been appointed to the permanent position following a national search. Her appointment became effective on August 1.
Hala proved herself to be exceptional in the interim position, and she was the standout candidate for the permanent position. She brings extensive leadership and expertise in interdisciplinary research, external funding generation, undergraduate and graduate student research, and both community outreach and community-engaged research.
Throughout her interim tenure, Hala led critical conversations and plans around the university’s strategic plan, including our efforts toward achieving “R1” classification as one of the nation’s elite research universities. This would benefit the entire university and its students, enabling access to new sources of funding and driving both economic and workforce development. Of more than 4,000 degree-granting institutions in the U.S., SDSU would become one of less than 20 that are classified as both R1 and a Hispanic-Serving Institution.
A Distinguished Professor of Health Promotion and Behavioral Science and former School of Public Health director at SDSU, Hala was also at the forefront of helping to lead our university in its response to COVID-19 given her background and expertise. From the early days of reports about the virus, and throughout the more than two years we have addressed the pandemic, Hala helped the university address the pandemic from the perspective of an administrator and researcher. She also led a team in applying her research findings to provide culturally and linguistically consistent contact tracing and testing in Latinx, African American, Tagalog- and Arabic-speaking communities in San Diego during the pandemic.
Hala led the university through milestone years for research while overseeing the Division of Research & Innovation. SDSU researchers secured $164.5 million in grant funding in 2022 – a record-breaking year, and a 17% increase over the previous year. This notable achievement is credit to our research community as well as Hala’s strategic support of our growing research mission.
Hala’s other major accomplishments are extensive and include being named SDSU's Albert W. Johnson Distinguished Research Lecturer in 2020 in recognition of her outstanding research focused on health disparities. She has also been serving as principal investigator of a $12 million San Diego State University/UC San Diego Cancer Center Partnership funded by the National Cancer Institute. In 2021, Hala was selected for the Wang Family Excellence Award for Outstanding Faculty Scholarship, the highest honor the California State University system grants to faculty.
As I announce Hala’s appointment and honor her for her many contributions and achievements, I also thank the search committee for its work. Committee members are:
Margaret Henderson, associate librarian, who served as committee chair
Erika Robb Larkins, associate professor of anthropology
Rachel Haine-Schlagel, associate professor of child and family development
Arzu Ozkal, associate professor in the School of Art and Design
Xiao-Bai Liu, associate professor of computer science
Maureen Guarcello, research, analytics, and communications specialist
Michele Goetz, associate vice president and CEO of the SDSU Research Foundation
John Crockett, associate vice president, research advancement
Tracy Love, dean of the College of Graduate Studies
Rebecca Lewison, professor of biology
Sung-Yong Park, assistant professor of mechanical engineering
With our research trajectory, SDSU Mission Valley development, growth of SDSU Imperial Valley and our many creative endeavors, our university is at a critical milestone moment in its 125-year history. I am so pleased that we have a visionary leader in Hala to deliver on our mission and our shared vision.
Please join me in congratulating Hala for her appointment.
Adela de la Torre, Ph.D.
San Diego State University President