Senior Consultant

William Covino, Ph.D.

Specialties

Leadership development/coaching; Team development; Institutional culture; Organizational change; External relations; Conflict resolution

William A. Covino’s decade (2013-2023) as President of California State University, Los Angeles, was defined by initiatives and accomplishments that intensified the university’s dedication to “engagement, service, and the public good.” Prior to joining Cal State LA, President Covino was Dean of the Schmidt College of Arts and Letters at Florida Atlantic University, Provost at California State University, Stanislaus, and Provost at Fresno State University. A first-generation college student, he began his career with a PhD in Rhetoric, Linguistics, and Literature at the University of Southern California, and held faculty positions at San Diego State University and the University of Illinois at Chicago, where his teaching, scholarship, and publication focused on histories and theories of rhetoric, literacy, persuasion, and imagination.

As Fresno State, Provost Covino received the AASCU William M. Plater Award for leadership in civic engagement. That leadership priority continued during his years at Cal State LA, where President Covino established the Center for Engagement, Service, and the Public Good, which houses the prison BA program that has transformed the lives of incarcerated individuals; the Pat Brown Institute for Public Policy, which established a “Civic University” program for aspiring civic leaders, in partnership with Mayor Eric Garcetti; and an expansive K-12 recruitment program that has fueled record enrollment growth and accelerated progress toward degree.

Education

Ph.D. University of Southern California

MA, California State University Northridge

MA, University of Southern California

BA, University of California Los Angeles