Gene Sandan, a higher education advising professional with more than 20 years of experience, will join the University of Oregon as director for college and career advising in Willie and Donald Tykeson Hall.

Sandan serves as student success and advising director for the College of Natural and Social Sciences at California State University, Los Angeles. He starts at the UO Feb. 18 and will help direct programs that prepare undergraduate students for success, both in the classroom and in post-graduate careers. He will oversee more than 25 professional advisors who will be working in Tykeson Hall.

He will also work collaboratively with advising leaders from the College of Arts and Sciences, Division of Undergraduate Studies, Career Center and others across campus to launch and assess a new framework for integrated academic and career advising.

Sandan said he looks forward to the challenge of developing a unified advising team that receives the training and support they need to best serve students.

“Student success is in the spotlight at UO, which is very exciting,” he said. “By taking the bold step of embracing a more centralized advising model, I think students will have an easier time finding the support and resources they need.”

No stranger to university campuses or the advising profession, Sandan said he started out as a student peer adviser during new student orientation at the University of California, San Diego, a job that helped him discover a passion for helping students transition to university life and find the right classes. He later became an intern in the academic advising office at UCSD, and as graduation approached he landed a full-time position in the office.

“I walked in the graduation ceremony on Saturday and walked into the office that next Monday to my first day of work as a professional advisor,” he recalled. “I’ve been very fortunate and blessed with great professional opportunities.”

Not only did UCSD provide 16 years of professional growth for Sandan, but it also was where he met his partner, Chia Herr, when they were both members of Circle K International, the Kiwanis student leadership organization on campus. They are now the parents of a 2-year-old daughter, Meilani.

Sandan is working to finish a doctorate in education at the University of Southern California. His dissertation focuses on how educational policies affect marginalized groups and how college campuses can provide equity across student populations.

Kimberly Johnson, assistant vice provost for advising, said Sandan’s experience working at multiple institutions that have implemented new advising methods — as well as his work advising students in the sciences, social sciences and humanities — made him well-suited for his new role.

“He is a thoughtful leader who speaks not only the language of faculty, but also the language of students,” Johnson said. “His social justice framework will also serve as a vehicle to provide greater access and equity for all UO students.”

—By Kim Lamke Calderon, University Communications