Dean's Invited Guest program features SJPD's highest ranking woman
Alumna Diane Urban is acting assistant chief of the San Jose Police Department.
- May 2, 2011
The Dean's Invited Guest Program for the College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences resumes with a visit to Cal State East Bay's Hayward Campus by San Jose's acting assistant police chief Diane Urban '85. Urban is the highest-ranking woman in that department.
Urban, who earned a B.S. in criminal justice administration from Cal State East Bay, will meet with students, Kathleen Rountree, interim dean of CLASS, and others when she comes to campus in May to take part in a commencement reception for the department’s 170 graduates.
Urban will discuss the road that led her from the Criminal Justice Administration Department to her current position, while offering encouragement and inspiration to CRJA students as they prepare to graduate, said Silvina Ituarte, associate professor and chair of the department.
“We are delighted that our graduating students will have the opportunity to meet one of our outstanding alumni,” said Rountree. “Diane Urban is a model of the positive effects our graduates make in their communities.”
The daughter of a street cop, Urban was hired by the SJPD in 1986. She’s worked everything from patrol to the intelligence unit, Special Operations, and M.E.R.G.E. (SWAT), where she was a sniper. She was promoted to sergeant in 1993, lieutenant in 2000, captain in 2004, and deputy chief in 2010.
Urban earned her master's degree in criminal justice from Boston University and graduated from the Senior Management Institute for Police and the West Point Leadership Program.
Rountree initiated the Dean’s Invited Guest Program during the current academic year as a way to connect CSUEB students with community leaders, notable alumni and friends of the college and university. Previous guests have included Evelyn S. Dilsaver '77, an investment-banking manager and member of the CSUEB Education Foundation, and James Houpis, CSUEB provost and expert in environmental sciences, biology and forest science.