A Career in Education: Dedicated Liberal Studies Chair Retiring

By Nick Wilson and Angelina Benyamin Rodriguez  

Dr. Lola Berber-Jimenez (left) with Frost student research assistants Alexis Van Howe (middle) and Ava Gibler (right) 

 

Lola Berber-Jimenez, known as Dr. Berber around campus, has served as a faculty member at Cal Poly for the past 28 years, making her mark as a dedicated instructor and chair of the Liberal Studies Department.  

Berber is retiring at the end of the 2022-23 academic year, after helping Cal Poly students to grow and learn in an evolving K-12 landscape.  

An educator with a science background, she also is a champion for science and mathematics. 

Berber has helped to develop a program that does “amazingly well in supporting the science and math of our future teachers,” she said. 

That’s in addition to preparing students to teach core subjects and topics of communal importance, such as environmental literacy. 

“Elementary school teachers need to be prepared in all subjects,” Berber said. “When I say environmental literacy, people think reading, but it’s not just knowing about climate and oceans. Your interaction with your area is super important.”  

She added: “So, we’re drawing from our strength in science and math and the long-lasting support, but we make sure that our curriculum is well-balanced.” 

Colleagues emphasize how dedicated Berber is to the students. Anne Marie Bergen is a former professor at Cal Poly who worked with Berber for 10 years.  

“She created a family,” said Bergen. “She just had that nature of creating that environment for people to do well in; students, staff, faculty.” 

Berber is retiring at a time of change at Cal Poly as the campus converts from a quarter to a semester system, which begins in Fall 2026. 

The transition marks the right time for her, she said, to hand over the reins to the next chair and reunite with her husband, Rafael Jimenez-Flores, a former Cal Poly faculty member, who now serves as the endowed chair in dairy foods at Ohio State University.  

As well as supporting the professional careers of her children, Tomás and Sofía, and new son-in-law, Matt. She is also looking forward to traveling and finding new adventures. 

“It’s time,” Berber said. “It’s a good transition. I just thought ‘Okay, I just got my draft curriculum ready for the semester conversion and the next person will take over the next part.” 

Dr. Berber said that she’ll miss the campus community “a ton,” including fellow faculty, staff and students.  

“The people here are fantastic,” said Dr. Berber. “I learned a ton and had different mentor relationships in terms of growing myself as a chemist, a scientist and an educator.” 

She added: “Faculty welcome our students, and they are super helpful to us again and again, so I love those connections I’ve made.” 

Neil Slavick is a fourth-year liberal studies major and president of the Liberal Studies Student Association.  

Slavick works closely with Berber to plan many of the student events within the department. Together they opened a study room specifically for liberal studies majors. Slavick says he will miss her approachability to come talk about anything from classes to vacation plans.  

“As much as she was a professor, she was also a great friend which is wonderful to have in a department chair,” Slavick said.  

Berber, who’s bilingual and grew up in Mexico City, earned her teaching credential and a bachelor’s degree in chemistry (with a minor in food science) at universities in Mexico.  

She came to the United States in the 1980s to join her husband who was amid pursuing a master’s degree at Cornell University.  

Moving across the country together to obtain academic degrees, Berber earned her Ph.D. in organic chemistry at UC Davis in 1990, and then worked as an assistant professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. 

At Cal Poly, she initially served as a faculty member in chemistry and biochemistry from 1995-2009 before taking over as chair of the Liberal Studies Department in July 2009.  

A large part of her job as chair is building relationships with the other departments to create the best curriculum for liberal studies students.  

“This is something that I think Lola has been very, very brilliant in doing,” said Liberal Studies Professor Russell Swanagon. Swanagon has been working with Berber since she started at Cal Poly and says he has “never seen anybody dive in and work so hard and learn so much and commit themselves” as much as she has.  

Strengthening her influence on local science, Dr. Berber has served as the co-director of the Central Coast Science Project since 1996, a collaborative network of educators and scientists committed to finding ways to improve K-16 science education in California.  

The program has an emphasis on the needs of English learners and high-need schools.  

Looking back on a career surrounded by teachers and those training for a career in education, Dr. Berber calls herself “lucky.”  

“A lot of my friends are teachers because they’re caring, great communicators and play a very important role in society,” she said. “It has been a great community to be a part of. I’m super, super lucky.”