Eileen Strempel Named Vice President of Academic Affairs and Provost

University of San Diego (USD) President James T. Harris III, DEd, announced Wednesday that Eileen Strempel, PhD, will be the university's next Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, effective July 1, 2025. 

Strempel comes to USD following her tenure as the Inaugural Dean of The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, with faculty appointments in both the School of Music and the School of Education and Information Studies. 

“Dr. Strempel’s extensive experience and deep commitment to student access and success align with USD’s mission, vision and values,” said Harris. 

In addition to her scholarship and training as a musician, Strempel is a noted higher education researcher, focusing on how to expand access to education for underserved populations, especially in the STEM fields. She views access to education as one of the principal social justice issues of our time.

“USD’s mission and commitment to foster peace, work for justice and lead with love deeply resonates with my heart and my scholarship in higher education,” Strempel said. “These themes are central to USD’s new strategic plan and I look forward to working with President Harris and the entire campus community on bringing the plan and its important goals to fruition.” 

During her tenure at UCLA, Strempel was named a “top 10 dean of U.S. colleges and universities” by CollegeCliff. Before arriving at UCLA, she served as the senior vice provost for academic affairs at the University of Cincinnati. Prior to that, she served in a variety of roles at Syracuse University over a seventeen-year span, where she was awarded a Kauffman Foundation eProfessorship and the prestigious ACE Fellowship (with a placement at Colgate University). 

Strempel received her Bachelor of Music from the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music, her doctorate from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, and has completed Harvard University’s Institute for Educational Management. She has served both as an American Council on Education (ACE) Fellow and a 2022-23 Fellow in the AGB Institute for Leadership and Governance in Higher Education. Especially dedicated to the mentorship and sponsorship of women in leadership, she is a contributing author in the newly released book, Thriving as a Woman in Leadership in Higher Education.

Strempel is a noted international opera singer and was honored as a Presidential Scholar in the Arts. Her musical interests focus on the compositions of women composers, and the breadth of her musical scholarly work includes eight recordings, dozens of commissions, articles, and edited volumes that examine the political, social, and musical contexts of the most influential female composers of our time.

Strempel is a proud and devoted mother of two sons and an avid marathon runner.

— USD News Center