EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR HAS FAR-REACHING PLANS FOR UCR PALM DESERT

Public Record, The, Aug 15, 2006 by Bonafede, Bruce

Carolyn M. Stark has extensive plans for the Palm Desert campus of the University of California Riverside.

Stark, who has been serving as interim executive director of the campus in the absence of Ken Walters, who is on medical leave, may be appointed permanently to the position. So she is taking her leadership role at the campus very seriously. "We have done extensive planning and we are ready to take this campus to the next level," she said in an exclusive interview with The Public Record.

Stark serves as Assistant Provost of UC Riverside and reports directly to the chief academic officer of the university, Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Ellen Wartella. Prior to coming to UCR in September 2005, Stark was the President and CEO of the Austin Technology Council in Austin, which has become Texas' version of Silicon Valley. "The ATC is a member-driven association of business leaders, working together to promote the growth and continued success of Austin's technology sector," she explained.

Prior to ATC, Stark was Executive Director of the College of Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. Before going to Texas she was in California, where she directed business development for the Stanford Center for Professional Development at Stanford University for ten years. At both universities she specialized in the innovative use of technology in the design and delivery of continuing and professional education.

While not a native to the Coachella Valley, Stark is very familiar with the desert. Her parents live in a country club not far from the campus, and she has been visiting them here for 12 years. "I love the desert," she said. "The land and the sky are so beautiful."

How does she expect UCR Palm Desert to contribute to the desert she loves? "We want to bring the strength of this research university to bear on the issues of the Coachella Valley," she said. "The research and intellectual resources of the university are tremendous and we want to make them available to the community."

According to Stark, UCR Palm Desert's role is not just about opportunities to earn a degree. "Of course degree programs are part of our mission, but we also want to be a catalyst for economic diversity through research and the encouragement of intellectual entrepreneurship."

Both the innovative MBA program through the Heckmann Center for Entrepreneurial Management and the MFA program through the university are up and running. Both continue to evolve as programs, professor-ships, ships, conferences, lectures and events are added. A calendar of academic conferences, community forums, and professional development events will be held throughout the year. Outreach efforts and extension programs are underway and continue to expand.

Research in the fields of technology transfer, renewable energy, conservation biology, Native American studies, and environmental engineering is a methodology, said Stark, by which UCR Palm Desert will contribute directly to many of the valley's most important issues.

"There is a synergy that is building between this institution and the community," she said. "Our mission is to facilitate and encourage that."