Albert Vasquez will join Cal Poly Pomona as the interim associate vice president for strategic enterprise risk management, effective Nov. 5.
Vasquez will oversee the renamed Office of Risk Management, which includes enterprise risk management and environmental health & safety (EH&S). He will be responsible for developing a strategic vision, framework and implementation plan for enterprise risk management, including, assessing the university’s health and safety programs, hazardous material compliance, financial, operational, and reputational risks in collaboration with departments across campus. He will help prepare the campus for a system-wide audit of Cal Poly Pomona’s health and safety programs.
Vasquez is currently the assistant vice chancellor for the enterprise risk management division at University of California, Riverside. He was previously the assistant vice chancellor of campus and public safety at University of California, Merced. In addition, he served as the dean of campus security, student health, athletics, and safety, and chief of police at Santa Monica College.
In his professional roles Vasquez has overseen athletics, business continuity, EH&S, emergency management, police, enterprise risk management, safety, student health, student psychological services and transportation. He has also held part-time faculty positions, teaching subjects such as communications for crisis situations and strategic communications.
Vasquez has received numerous awards throughout his career, including the University of California System’s Award of Excellence and the Risk and Safety Spotlight Award for Excellence in Collaboration. He brings extensive, hands-on experience with campus crisis situations and has served as the regional commander for the United Nations International Police Task Force.
Vasquez holds a doctoral degree from USC and master’s degrees in homeland security studies and criminal justice from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School and Chapman University, respectively. He received his bachelor’s in criminal justice from Cal State LA and was a Salzburg Global Studies-Fellow in Salzburg, Austria.
Vasquez will be assisted by retired annuitant Valerie Eberle as a risk analyst on Nov. 1.