Alison Sanders Stepping Down as Assistant Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Chief of Staff

Assistant Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs (AVC-AA) and Chief of Staff Alison Sanders is stepping down from her role at UC San Diego to join UC Santa Cruz as Associate Chancellor and Chief of Staff. Sanders’ last day at UC San Diego will be August 14, 2026.

Since 2019, she has served as AVC-AA and Chief of Staff to former Executive Vice Chancellor Elizabeth H. Simmons and was instrumental in providing oversight of priorities and initiatives for Academic Affairs. During her time at UC San Diego, some of the projects Sanders helped manage included:

Co-chairing the Educational Continuity Task Force as part of the university’s Keep Teaching initiative during the COVID-19 pandemic, offering strategies and resources for effective remote and pandemic-resilient teaching.
Co-chairing the Education Roundtable, a convening of academic affairs leadership to discuss current challenges and opportunities in Academic Affairs.
Providing executive leadership for key Academic Affairs initiatives, including the “Erasing Equity Gaps via Collective Impact” initiative, bringing colleagues from across campus together in a structured way to address complex challenges around student success.
Leading and coordinating high-impact institutional initiatives, managing systemwide and state proposal efforts, leadership development initiatives, supporting executive and administrative reviews and searches, and serving on critical campus committees and task forces.

Over the last nearly seven years, Sanders built strong collaborative partnerships across campus and the UC system, providing strategic counsel to senior leaders, fostering cross-functional collaboration, and advancing initiatives that strengthened academic leadership, shared governance, and community engagement.

Prior to joining UC San Diego in the AVC-AA and Chief of Staff role, Sanders had more than 20 years of experience in higher education. She served as chief of staff to the president of San Francisco State University (SFSU). She was Interim Associate Vice President for Research & Sponsored Programs and served as the Director of the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs at SFSU from 2009 to 2015.

Please join me in thanking Alison for her years of service to Academic Affairs and UC San Diego and wish her well in her new role at UC Santa Cruz. Plans for the hiring of a new Assistant Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Chief of Staff will be forthcoming.

Robert E. Continetti
Interim Executive Vice Chancellor

University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA, 92093