Patrick O'Sullivan, Ph.D.
I have had the privilege of working as the CTLT director since 2013, when a reorganization added the "T" (for "technology") to the what was then the Center for Teaching and Learning. I had served briefly as Cal Poly's director of academic technology in Information Services starting in 2012 before the transition to CTLT. I came to Cal Poly from Illinois State University, where I had served as director of that university's teaching center for seven years. Coming to Cal Poly was an opportunity to return to my California (and California State University) roots.
I had earned a BA in Journalism at San Diego State University in 1978 after my first two years at San Jose State University. It was also an opportunity to return to a Cal Poly campus where I experienced teaching my first college-level courses (1977-78 in the Journalism Department). That came during a six years working as a public affairs reporter (city/county government, politics and elections) for the Telegram-Tribune, SLO's hometown daily newspaper.
The experience teaching at a university prompted me to consider a career move to academia, and to enter graduate school. I earned a master's degree in Communication Management from the Annenberg School for Communication at USC (1989) and a doctorate in Communication from UCSB (1996). I began my academic career in the Department of Communication at Illinois State University. My teaching and scholarly work focused on communication technology use in social and personal relationships as well as innovation diffusion. I earned tenure and promotion to associate professor in 2002.
In 2005 I was selected to be founding director of ISU's newly reconfigured teaching center that merged a faculty technology support unit with the existing teaching center. The opportunity to return to Cal Poly in a similar role in 2012 brought be back to where I first experienced what it was like to be an educator at a university, an experience that had changed the direction of my career and my life.
I believe that I now have the best job at one of the country’s best universities at a time of extraordinary opportunity for Cal Poly to reinvent its tradition of teaching excellence for the new century. It's a joy to work with such a talented and dedicated staff as well as terrific faculty all across campus.
