Harrisburg – Dr. David L. Soltz, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Central Washington University, has been selected to serve as the next president of Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania.

The Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education’s (PASSHE) Board of Governors made the selection today at the conclusion of a national search. Dr. Soltz will begin his tenure at Bloomsburg on January 7. He will replace Dr. Jessica S. Kozloff, who has served as the University’s president since July 1994. Dr. Kozloff will retire at the end of the year.

Dr. Soltz was named provost of Central Washington in August 2001. Previously, he served for five years as dean of the College of Natural and Social Sciences at California State University at Los Angeles. He began his academic career there in 1974 as an assistant professor in the Department of Biology.

“Dr. Soltz will bring to Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania a distinguished record as both an educator and administrator,” said Board of Governors Chairman Kenneth M. Jarin. “He is an excellent choice to lead Bloomsburg into the future.”

PASSHE Chancellor Dr. Judy G. Hample called Dr. Soltz “a talented leader who will serve both Bloomsburg and the Commonwealth well.”

“Dr. Soltz is uniquely qualified to provide the necessary leadership to continue Bloomsburg University moving forward in a very positive direction,” said Dr. Joseph Mowad, a member of the University’s Council of Trustees and chairman of the presidential search committee.

Dr. Soltz said he is looking forward to assuming the Bloomsburg presidency.

“I’m excited and honored to be named the next president of Bloomsburg University ,” Dr. Soltz said. “I’m impressed with the outstanding faculty and students at the university, as well as its beautiful campus. I look forward to leading this fine institution to a higher level of excellence and my wife and I are looking forward to joining the Bloomsburg community.”

Dr. Soltz earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in zoology from the University of California at Berkeley, and a Ph.D. in biology from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).

As provost at Central Washington, Dr. Soltz serves as the chief academic officer of the 10,000-student university located in Ellensburg, Wash. The university offers 60 bachelor’s degree programs and 20 master’s degree programs and has an annual operating budget of $85 million. He recently oversaw completion of the university’s five-year regional accreditation and was responsible for implementing the school’s long-range strategic plan and for recently revising and updating that plan.

He reorganized the Office of the Provost to better serve students and faculty and to strengthen both undergraduate and graduate education, assessment and student academic support services. He initiated a planning process involving the university’s six regional centers co-located on community college campuses throughout the state. The centers now offer upper division programs that serve more than 1,200 students in business and accounting, law and justice and engineering technology.

Dr. Soltz has been involved in budget management, external fundraising, enrollment management and efforts to enhance campus diversity. He also has made several official visits to China on behalf of the university to negotiate cooperative agreements between the institution and various Chinese universities.

As dean of the College of Natural and Social Sciences at Cal State- Los Angeles, Dr. Soltz oversaw 15 departments with an annual operating budget of $20 million. He helped establish learning outcomes for all degree programs, improved academic advising and increased the level of grant funding for the College.

Dr. Soltz was a member of the faculty at Cal State- Los Angeles for four years before being promoted to associate professor in 1978 and to full professor in 1982. A year later he was named department chair.

He was named chair of the Department of Biological Sciences at Cal State-Long Beach in 1988, a position he held until 1995, when he was named acting dean of the school’s College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics.

Dr. Soltz is a member of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists and the Ecological Society of America. He has made numerous presentations at regional and national conferences and has published a large number of articles on a variety of subjects related to conservation and the environment. He once played the role of Mathew Brady (based on William Jennings Bryan) in the courtroom scene from “Inherit the Wind” as part of Central Washington University ’s Darwin Week Program.

He is a member of the Board of Directors of the United Way of Kittitas County and serves on the Strategic Planning Task Force of Kittitas Valley Community Hospital.

Founded in 1839, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania enrolls approximately 7,900 students, including about 800 graduate students. It offers 67 undergraduate and 19 graduate degree programs and employs about 412 full- and part-time faculty.

With more than 110,000 students, the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education is the largest provider of higher education in the Commonwealth.The 14 PASSHE universities offer degree and certificate programs in more than 120 areas of study. Approximately 405,000 PASSHE alumni live and work in Pennsylvania.

The state-owned universities are Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock, and West Chester Universities of Pennsylvania. PASSHE also operates branch campuses in Clearfield, Freeport, Oil City and Punxsutawney and several regional centers, including the Dixon University Center in Harrisburg.