Lori Beth Way receives CSU’s Wang Family Excellence Award

When she joined San Francisco State University, Dean of Undergraduate Education and Academic Planning Lori Beth Way made student success her top priority. Now, just three years later, her own success in that work is being recognized: California State University (CSU) Chancellor Timothy P. White will honor Dean Way with the Wang Family Excellence Award for Outstanding Staff Performance on January 22, 2019. 

Established by CSU Trustee Stanley T. Wang and his family in 1998, the annual award is the highest honor bestowed by the Chancellor’s office and recognizes four outstanding faculty members and one staff member in the CSU system who have distinguished themselves through exemplary achievements in various academic disciplines. Dean Way is being recognized for her efforts to bolster student success, which include motivating faculty and staff to be actively involved in the Student Success Plan, overseeing curricular policy improvements and student success analytics, and hiring 20 new advisors who focus on graduation and student retention.

“Dean Way puts students at the center of everything she does,” said San Francisco State President Les Wong. “She has taken the lead for the campus in implementing our Student Success Plan while also running a complex and large division and leading several other major initiatives.” 

In June 2018, after serving as interim dean of undergraduate education and academic planning for nearly two years, Way stepped seamlessly into her current position. Since then she has spearheaded efforts to increase the success of transfer students, study the best ways to improve students’ grades and created a meta-major in health, a specially designed program of interdisciplinary courses.

“Dean Way is an astonishingly successful leader and collaborator in creating transformative change at San Francisco State University,” said Professor of History Trevor Getz. “It is principally through her efforts that the campus culture around curricular design for student achievement has been entirely redefined. The resulting concrete changes in how we think about our curriculum, our advising and our service to students are central to the strategies we are pursuing to improve the University.”

“I’m excited to be working with students, faculty, staff and administrators to increase retention and graduation rates for all students,” said Way. “Our campus student success plan is an ambitious framework to support students for rigorous academic work that will prepare them both for exemplary personal and professional lives after graduation. SF State helps prepare students to give back to their families and communities while pursuing their passion.”

The Wang Family Excellence Awards will be presented to Way and the other four 2019 honorees at a ceremony on January 22, 2019 in the Chancellor’s office in Long Beach.