Samuel Bersola, assistant vice provost in the UCLA Graduate Division, has been named an American Council on Education fellow. The award was announced April 23 and gave the distinction to Bersola along with 30 other educators from across the nation named 2014-2015 fellows. The ACE Fellows Program, established in 1965, is designed to strengthen institutions and leadership in American higher education by identifying and preparing emerging leaders for senior positions in college and university administration. The program combines retreats, interactive learning opportunities, visits to campuses and other higher education-related organizations and placement at another higher education institution to develop a high level of skill and experience in a single year.
Bersola has 25 years of experience serving students in all four sectors of California’s higher education: the independent colleges and universities, the University of California, the California State University and the California Community Colleges.
At UCLA, he oversees directors in the Graduate Division in the areas of graduate academic affairs; financial services and fellowships; outreach, inclusion and diversity; information technology and institutional research; budget and personnel; and operations and external relations. He taught a Fiat Lux course on Asian Americans and leadership last fall at UCLA and serves on the board of the East West Players, the nations’ premier Asian American Theatre.
Bersola has published research on the transitions from college to graduate school and from high school to college as well as the influence of high-stakes accountability assessments on teaching and curricula. He began his career in undergraduate admissions, working in the admissions offices of the University of Southern California, California State University Maritime Academy and Amherst College, specializing in the recruitment and retention of underrepresented students. He also taught high school mathematics and college counseled students in California, Massachusetts and Great Britain. He served as vice president and dean of student services at Mission College in Santa Clara, Calif. Before arriving at UCLA in 2008, he served as chief operations officer and executive director of residential life at UC Santa Cruz.
Bersola earned a Ph.D. in educational policy from Stanford University, an Ed.M. from Harvard University, and B.S in civil engineering from UC Berkeley.
