Educated as a scientist with an emphasis in neurophysiology, Vivian Vidoli is a professor of
biology at California State University, Fresno, where she also serves as Dean of the Division
of Graduate Studies.
During her tenure as Dean of Graduate Studies, she became the first female to serve as president of the Western Association of Graduate Schools. She was elected to serve as chair of the Board of Directors of the national Council of Graduate Schools and she has also served as chair of the Graduate Record Examinations Board.
>Additionally, she is frequently called on as consultant to a wide variety of groups, from the State of Louisiana Board of Regents to a national reviewer for the U.S. Department of Education. Her professional activities range from appointed membership on the Statewide Science Advisory Committee to founder of the first California State University Student Research Competition.
Dean Vidoli is interested in all levels of education--undergraduate, masters, and doctorate. Perhaps most important and personally rewarding, however, has been her constant and firm commitment to the cause of graduate studies in general, and to the master’s degree in particular. As project director of major grant-supported programs at California State University, Fresno, she has been instrumental in making available creative new programs of support for student advancement toward graduate education. This creativity received national recognition in 1994 through the CGS/Petersons Award for Innovation in the Recruitment and Retention of Minority Students.
Her imaginative energy has served to inspire the development of responsive programs including those at distant sites and those that recognize certificate programs of advanced study. At the state level, she has been involved in the establishment of joint doctoral programs with the CSU and UC systems, and in actively promoting inter-institutional cooperation. She is a member of the statewide UC/CSU Joint Graduate Board. Nationally, she has become known as an advocate for the growing role that comprehensive universities such as those in the California State University system must now play in our nation’s future, and of the critical need for ready access to this education for students of all backgrounds.