Lynnette Zelezny

Lynnette Zelezny was appointed to serve as the fifth president of CSU Bakersfield in March 2018. Zelezny is the first woman to serve in the role.

Zelezny had been provost and vice president of academic affairs for Fresno State since 2014. In that capacity, she was the campus's chief academic officer.

She joined Fresno State in 1988 and served in a variety of roles including associate provost, dean and associate vice president for the division of Continuing and Global Education, associate dean for the Craig School of Business and chair of the psychology department, where she was also a lecturer, assistant professor, associate professor and professor.

Zelezny has served as a visiting professor at the University of Stockholm in Sweden, an American Council of Education Fellow at Towson University in Maryland, and as a Fulbright Scholar in Germany. She was a nominee for the U.S. Professor of the Year awarded by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.

An applied social psychologist, Zelezny has published research related to the environment, health, leadership and student success for underrepresented students.