CSUSM Names Two New Deans

Cal State San Marcos recently hired two new deans to fill vacancies in the College of Business Administration (COBA) and Instructional and Informational Services (IITS).

Jim Hamerly, Ph.D. became dean of COBA on June 1 after previously serving as the College's interim dean since fall 2014.

“Dr. Hamerly has acquired a cadre of stellar experience in academia as well as private and corporate business that has prepared him well to lead and guide the College from a unique, dual perspective,” said CSUSM Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Graham Oberem. “In addition to his exceptional teaching abilities, his leadership efforts have focused on supporting student success academically and professionally.”

Over the course of his three decade career in business, Hamerly developed a record of distinguished leadership, serving six years as corporate vice president of AOL Time-Warner, Netscape Communications Corporation and Pages Software, and as the founder, president and CEO of numerous companies. Hamerly also has ten years of corporate research experience at Xerox Webster Research Center and Palo Alto Research Center.

In 2002, Hamerly joined CSUSM as an adjunct faculty member in CoBA, teaching entrepreneurship, corporate venturing, customer analysis, management information systems and operations management. In 2007, he became the director of Business Community Relations, overseeing the signature program Senior Experience, organizing events and mentoring students.

“I am humbled and honored to serve as dean,” said Hamerly. “I am excited about our college’s future and look forward to working with faculty, staff, students, alumni and community partners to advance our programs, while exploring new opportunities to maintain the college’s leadership position on-campus and in the region. I’ve enjoyed teaching and interacting with thousands of students in my ten years at CSUSM, as well as working with over 500 community partners, and look forward to this new challenge.”

Hamerly holds a Bachelor of Science from MIT, a Master of Science from UC Berkeley and a Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He has had over 50 professional peer reviewed papers and presentations published in various journals, including the Journal of the Optical Society of America, Journal of Applied Photographic Engineering, Journal of Photographic Scientists and Engineers, Physics Today and Vision Research.

Kevin Morningstar joined CSUSM on July 1 as chief information officer (CIO) and dean of Instructional and Informational Services (IITS).

As CIO and dean of IITS, Morningstar is responsible for the management and support of technology throughout campus.

“Mr. Morningstar has built a strong record of developing and implementing forward-thinking technology plans, working collaboratively across all areas of the campus community, managing the investment of millions of dollars of technology and equipment infrastructure, and leading and mentoring departments with large numbers of professional staff,” said Oberem.

Previously Morningstar served at Cal Poly Pomona since 2004, most recently in the position of associate chief information officer for Academic Technology. Prior to that he held information technology positions for the cities of Azusa and Colton.

“I feel very honored to be appointed to the position of dean and chief information officer at California State University San Marcos,” he said. “CSUSM strives to be a leader in the use of information technology that supports the teaching and learning mission, and that was a distinguishing characteristic that attracted me to this opportunity.”

Morningstar holds a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Redlands and a bachelor’s degree in economics from California State University, San Bernardino.