Juan Sánchez Muñoz, a first-generation college graduate of the University of California (UC), will assume his role as Chancellor of UC Merced in early July. No stranger to leading in challenging times, Dr. Muñoz led the recovery efforts at the University of Houston-Downtown (UHD) after a category 4 hurricane. Muñoz comes to UC Merced from UHD, where he has served as president since 2017.
“It is an honor and a privilege to lead UC Merced, a campus that distinguished itself in just 15 years as an exemplar of educational opportunity,” Muñoz said in a statement. “Having dedicated my career to student success and creating access to the transformational power of higher education across racial and social lines, I’m excited to continue that work at the University of California, a world-renowned public institution.”
Prior to his career in higher education, Muñoz was a secondary school teacher and also served as a sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps. He earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a Master of Arts in Mexican-American Studies with an emphasis in literature from California State University, Los Angeles. Muñoz was awarded a Doctorate of Philosophy at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he studied curriculum and instruction in the Division of Urban Schooling.
According to the announcement, UC Merced educates the highest percentage of first-generation and low-income students in the University of California (UC) system and will accommodate 10,000 more students after the completion of Merced 2020, a public-private partnership that will enable the campus to double in size.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been tasked with…
Brown and Caldwell, a leading environmental engineering and construction firm,…
Humboldt State University, one of four campuses within the California…
