Patricia A. Pelfrey

CSHE > People > Patricia Pelfrey

Senior Research Associate, Center for Studies in Higher Education.  Co-author (with Margaret Cheney) of A Brief History of the University of California (University of California Press, 2004) and editor of The Pursuit of Knowledge: Speeches and Papers of Richard C. Atkinson (University of California Press, 2007).   Her most recent book is Entrepreneurial President: Richard Atkinson and the University of California, 1995-2003 (University of California Press, 2012), a study  of the Atkinson presidency and the principal issues facing the University of California during this seminal period.   She has also authored or co-authored papers on affirmative action, undergraduate admissions, industry-university relationships, and other higher-education topics.

Before joining the Center in 2002, Pelfrey served for more than thirty years as a member of the immediate staff of five University of California presidents: Charles J. Hitch, David S. Saxon, David P. Gardner, J. W. Peltason, and Richard C. Atkinson.  On her retirement from the Office of the President she was granted the title Assistant to the President Emerita in recognition of her service to the University.

Pelfrey graduated from the Catholic University of America and received an M.A. in English literature from the University of California, Berkeley.  She is currently writing her doctoral thesis on early nineteenth-century ideas about education, learning, and the nature of knowledge.

Current research interests in contemporary higher education include UC’s organization as a multicampus system and the role of the president in UC and in other public research universities. 

Selected publications

“One University: The Evolution of an Idea,” Research and Occasional Papers Series, Center for Studies in Higher Education, January 2011.

“Science and the Entrepreneurial University,” with Richard C. Atkinson.  Issues in Science and Technology, XXVI, No. 4, Summer 2010. 

“Executive Compensation at the University of California: An Alternative View,” Research and Occasional Papers Series, Center for Studies in Higher Education, May 2008.

“Origins of the Principles for Review of Executive Compensation,” Research and Occasional Papers Series, Center for Studies in Higher Education, May 2008.  

“Rethinking Admissions: U.S. Universities in the Post-Affirmative Action Age,” with Richard C. Atkinson.  Invited paper at the UK and US Higher Education Finance and Access Symposium, Oxford University, September 29, 2004.