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(JULY 29, 2009) Long-time Pierce College administrator Joy McCaslin, Ph.D., has been named Interim President of the college by the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees. She will replace Robert Garber, president since February, 2006, who is retiring Saturday (Aug. 1).

As Interim President, Dr. McCaslin will lead the 24,000-student campus while a committee conducts a nationwide search for a permanent successor.

Dr. McCaslin, 57, has served Pierce College for the past 21 years. Since 1996, she has been the Chief Student Services Officer, serving first as Dean and then in her current position as Vice President.

In this role she has presided over, among other areas, Admissions and Records, Financial Aid, Counseling, Health Services, matriculation and extended opportunity programs.

Born in Illinois and raised in Sylmar, California, Dr. McCaslin began her college education at Pierce College. She transferred to the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in cultural anthropology. She received her master’s degree in special education, with an emphasis in learning disabilities, from the University of California, Riverside.

Dr. McCaslin earned a Ph.D. in education, specializing in educational psychology, from UCLA.

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