Melvin L. Oliver

Melvin L. Oliver, Ph.D. GP’23 has a long career in education and public policy. After completing his Ph.D. at Washington University, St. Louis he became an assistant professor in UCLA’s Department of Sociology and a faculty associate in the Center for Afro-American Studies. An award-winning teacher and researcher, in 1996, Oliver left the academy to more directly impact social policy and became the vice president of the Asset Building and Community Development Program at the Ford Foundation. Under Oliver’s direction, the program developed pioneering grant initiatives to address poverty and racial inequality. In 2004, he returned to academia, serving as dean of social sciences and executive dean of the College of Letters and Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. In 2016, he was named the sixth president of Pitzer College.