Woodbury University Appoints Four Area Leaders To Board of Trustees

Woodbury University today announced the appointment of four new members to its Board of Trustees – all women — including an emeritus member of the faculty.

Joining the Board of Trustees as new members are:

• Dulari Amin, who came to the U.S. from her native India at age 17 to attend the Fashion Institute of Technology, where she graduated summa cum laude, later obtaining an executive education degree from the Harvard Business School.  A self-made entrepreneur, Amin was most recently co-founder and President of Phenomenon, a brand strategy and creative agency.  From 2006-2017, Dulari boot-strapped Phenomenon to more than 120 employees across two offices and $30+ million in revenue, working with some of the most recognized brands in the world.  Dulari started her career at Dentsu working in the network’s high-growth agencies in New York City and New Delhi. She received Congressional Recognition for Women Entrepreneurs from the U.S. House of Representatives and was named to Advertising Age’s “30 Under 30” roster. She serves on the Young Leaders Council for the Milken Institute. She invests in and is an advisor to several early stage and growth companies. Her focus is consumer brands and disruptive technologies.

• Zelda Gilbert, Ph.D., emeritus professor of psychology who was part of the Woodbury community from 1981 until her retirement in 2013.  During those years she served as faculty, department chair, dean and vice president for academic affairs.  She also wrote and received funding for two Title V grants with a combined value of $5 million, along with a matching fund grant that enabled the university to raise nearly $1 million for its endowment.  From 2008 until 2015, Dr. Gilbert’s research agenda looked at how Chinese women view themselves.  In collaboration with her colleagues, her work resulted in three published papers and four presentations at national and international venues. Dr. Gilbert also served as Assessment Officer for the Department of Psychology from 2010-2015.  Before moving to Los Angeles to begin her tenure at Woodbury, Dr. Gilbert was Assistant Professor of Psychology at Kentucky State University.  She has completed post-doctoral coursework at UCLA in social and political psychology.  She remains active in the field by writing a blog on political psychology.

• Karen Locke, an active volunteer in elementary education, housing and healthcare.  As part of her work in elementary education, she edited, financed, and published a literary and art magazine for school children, established a reading club dedicated to Caldecott and Newberry award winners, raised nearly $500,000 for faculty development and education enrichment, and coordinated a corps of more than 200 volunteers engaged in fundraising efforts.  Locke is a member of the Cedars-Sinai Board of Governors and has served as president of the Amie Karen Cancer Fund for Children at CSMC, advancing family-centered practices, some of which became the standard of care nationally.  She also served on the Board of Directors of Beyond Shelter, a non-profit that delivers long term, high quality housing and community services to homeless and at-risk families.  As a Board Member of Bienvenidos, a non-profit offering comprehensive low-cost health care to underserved communities, she worked with the Venice Family Clinic, the largest provider of health care services to indigent and homeless population in West Los Angeles.  A Los Angeles native, Locke graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Journalism and worked as a newspaper reporter covering, among other stories, the Patty Hearst kidnapping.

• Maria Mehranian, Managing Partner and Chief Financial Officer for Cordoba Corporation, a full service civil engineering, construction management, and program management firm specializing in transportation, education, water, and energy, with offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Santa Ana, and San Diego.  For more than 30 years, Mehranian built Cordoba into one of the top engineering consulting firms in the nation – an effort cited in a case study prepared by the Harvard Business School and the Kellogg School of Business at Northwestern University recording her career growth and the firm’s success.  She has served on the Los Angeles Water Quality Control Board since 2008, having been appointed by Governor Schwarzenegger followed by two consecutive terms appointed by Governor Brown.  Mehranian chaired the Board in 2012 and 2013, and during that period negotiated mitigation measures and remediation programs with a number of oil companies while successfully building consensus among stakeholders.  Prior to serving as Cordoba’s CFO, she managed the company’s urban and transportation planning division.  Her portfolio includes a number of landmark projects that shaped California’s current infrastructure.

The Woodbury University Board of Trustees serves as the institution’s primary governing body, overseeing policy, academics and appointments.  Trustees serve for a minimum of three years, while the Recent Graduate Trustee serves a single two-year term.  The addition of the four new appointees brings the number of active members to 25, plus seven trustees emeriti.

“Each new member of the Board embraces Woodbury’s commitment to providing an interactive learning environment that transforms students into innovative professionals,” said Lawrence Hurwitz, Board Chair. “These talented, dedicated leaders bring to the Board invaluable academic, cultural and career experiences that will shape and enrich the Woodbury community.  We look forward to their service and we value their time and contributions.”

“Like a Woodbury education itself – with its emphasis on personal and civic responsibility, creativity and entrepreneurship – our Board of Trustees draws on a diverse set of professional and life experiences,” said David Steele-Figueredo, President of Woodbury University.   “The Board’s four newest members, part of our commitment to diversify the Board, have made a difference in their respective fields and in the community at large, and Woodbury stands to benefit from their engagement.”

About Woodbury University

Founded in 1884, Woodbury University is one of the oldest institutions of higher education in Southern California. The university ranks 15th among the nation’s “25 Colleges That Add the Most Value,” according to Money Magazine, was voted “Best Graduate School” in the Los Angeles Daily News 2018 Readers Choice Awards, and is a 2018-19 College of Distinction. Woodbury was a finalist for the General Community Service Award, a part of the 2015 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll recognition program. With campuses in Burbank/Los Angeles and San Diego, the university offers bachelor\\’s degrees from the School of Architecture, School of Business, School of Media, Culture & Design, and College of Liberal Arts, along with a Master of Business Administration, Master of Architecture, Master of Interior Architecture and Master of Science in Architecture. The San Diego campus offers Bachelor of Architecture and Master of Architecture, Master of Interior Architecture and Master of Landscape Architecture degrees, as well as a Master of Science in Architecture, Real Estate Development. Visit woodbury.edu for more information.