Geraldine Knatz, who served as executive director of the Port of Los Angeles from 2006 until last year, has joined USC’s faculty.

The university said today that Knatz had been appointed to professorships within its Sol Price School of Public Policy and its Viterbi School of Engineering.

At Price, Knatz will conduct research and teach a graduate-level course on seaport policy and management. She is scheduled to instruct a course on environmental and regulatory compliance next year while also researching port management and sustainability for the engineering school.

“I am looking forward to taking my real-world experiences working in the maritime field to students in the classroom,” she said in a statement. “They’ll be able to learn from a practitioner’s point of view and I’m excited to get to know students and see their careers advance.”

Knatz, who holds a doctorate in biological sciences from USC, was the port’s first female executive director.