President, Cal State Long Beach

Conoley was named Cal State – Long Beach’s seventh president and first woman leader in 2014. The university, which was founded in 1949, had 39,435 students enrolled as of last fall, as well as more than 2,400 full-time and part-time faculty members. It offers more than 190 academic programs in eight colleges. She previously held leadership posts at UC Riverside, UC Santa Barbara, Texas A&M University and the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Conoley’s primary academic interest is interventions with children with disabilities. She chairs Everyone Home Long Beach, a city initiative to address the homelessness crisis and its impact on the city.

YEARS ON THE LA500: 5