Paloma Arnold, left, and Dr. Elizabeth M. Imhof have been hired as deans at Santa Barbara City College.
Santa Barbara City College recently announced that Paloma Arnold and Dr. Elizabeth M. Imhof have been hired to serve as deans.
Ms. Arnold has been selected as the next Dean of Student Affairs, while Dr. Imhof will serve as the new Dean of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.
Ms. Arnold is a Santa Barbara native and earned her bachelor of arts in history from UCLA and later went on to earn a master’s degree in psychology from Antioch University. She has worked in Student Services at City College for almost 20 years and her career began in the financial aid office before she took the position of Director of Extended Opportunity Programs and Services, said Luz Reyes-Martin, executive director of public affairs and communication for SBCC.
The EOPS program also houses the CalWORKs and Guardian Scholars programs along with three award-winning summer bridge programs: SPARC, Running Start and Transitions. Through her work in the financial aid and EOPS programs, Ms. Arnold developed a passion for serving students and believes that Student Services plays a very important role in students’ academic journey. She also brings strong experience as well as a commitment to equity and serving SBCC’s most vulnerable and marginalized students, Ms. Reyes-Martin said.
Ms. Arnold serves on the board of trustees for Marymount School and Santa Barbara High’s Multimedia Arts and Design Academy. She was the 2019 SBCC Administrator of the Year.
Dr. Imhof previously served as the faculty director of the faculty resource center at City College, where she was the principal investigator for the college’s Title III Hispanc Serving Institution STEM grant, “Removing Barriers to STEM.” She is also an activity director for the Title V Hispanic Serving Institution grant, “Student-Ready: Degree Completion for the Flexible Learner,” Ms. Reyes-Martin said.
Dr. Imhof also formerly worked as the assistant director of the American Jewish Committee in San Francisco, associate director of project interchange in Washington, D.C., and executive director of the American Sephardi Federation in New York City. She now combines her academic interests and her desire to promote equity and diversity-based education at SBCC where she has taught Middle Eastern History, World and Western Civilization, Social Science and co-founded SBCC’s Middle East Studies Program.
Midway in her career, Dr. Imhof began to employ a wide range of student-centered pedagogies. Her position as FRC director enabled her to expand her work and research in affective learning, curriculum design, and to facilitate experiential workshops in Affective Learning and Culturally Responsive Pedagogy. Dr. Imhof has a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in History from the University of Chicago.
email: mwhite@newspress.com
