Jolene Koester will be stepping in for Joseph I. Castro, who resigned on Feb. 17 after it was revealed that he was involved with numerous mishandled Title IX allegations while serving as president of Fresno State.

Before being offered this position, Koester served as CSUN’s fourth president, preceding former President Dianne Harrison. Koester established the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for Performing Arts, Institute for Sustainability, and the Abbott and Linda Brown Western Center for Adaptive Aquatic Therapy while leading at CSUN.

“With her institutional knowledge of the university and longstanding history of service to higher education, Dr. Koester is the perfect person to lead the CSU during this time,” said Lillian Kimbell, chair of the CSU Board of Trustees, in a press release. “CSU’s graduation and retention rates have reached all-time highs, but there is still a great deal of work to be done. We appreciate Dr. Koester’s passion and commitment to rejoin the university.”

Koester will officially assume the role of interim chancellor on May 1 and will hold the position for roughly 12 months while the Board of Trustees continues to search for Castro’s permanent replacement.