Carvajal currently serves as president of Valdosta State University, a doctoral-granting, public university located in Valdosta, Georgia.
Carvajal becomes the ninth president of Cal Poly Humboldt, and the first Latino to lead the institution.
Carvajal has served as president of Valdosta State University since 2017, where he led a campuswide consultative goal-setting and strategic planning effort that paved the way for a seven-percent increase in freshman retention and continuous year-over-year increases in enrollment. Under his leadership, Valdosta State has added programs in data science and other in-demand STEM fields and has significantly increased hands-on learning opportunities for all majors, while retaining and strengthening programs in the arts, business and the health sciences.
Prior to leading Valdosta State, Carvajal served a year as interim president at Darton State College and five years as president of Bainbridge State College, both located in Georgia. He previously held senior leadership positions at institutions in Washington and Kansas, as well as administrative positions at liberal arts colleges in South Carolina and Illinois.
Carvajal is a first-generation college graduate and earned a bachelor’s degree in mass communications and sociology from Oklahoma’s East Central University, a master’s in college student personnel administration from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, and a doctorate in educational administration from the University of South Carolina.
