Office of the Provost

About the Associate Provost, Ken Baerenklau

Ken Baerenklau was appointed as Associate Provost on September 1, 2015. In this role, he serves as a cabinet member for both the Chancellor and the Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor, and works with the Provost on a range of issues both internal and external to the campus. Ken’s responsibilities include leading a variety of strategic, institutional, and academic planning efforts; coordinating faculty hiring and student success initiatives; assisting with capital planning, campus budgeting, and enrollment management; leading campus-level assessment activities; and liaising with deans, vice chancellors, and the Academic Senate. Ken also serves as the campus Accreditation Liaison Officer (ALO) for our accrediting body the WASC Senior College and University Commission. 

Ken joined the UCR faculty in 2002 as an assistant professor of environmental economics and policy in the Department of Environmental Sciences. In 2008, he became an associate professor and remained in the Department of Environmental Sciences until moving to UCR’s new School of Public Policy in 2014, where he is currently a professor. From 2008 to 2012, Ken served as Associate Dean for Graduate Academic Affairs in UCR's Graduate Division. And from March 2022 until March 2023, he served as the interim Vice Provost and Dean for Undergraduate Education.

Ken's research focuses on water resource economics and policy. He has served as an Adjunct Fellow in the Water Policy Center at the Public Policy Institute of California, as an Associate Editor for Water Resources Research, and on the editorial boards for the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Land Economics, and Water Economics and Policy. Ken has a Ph.D. in Applied Economics from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, and an M.S. in Environmental Engineering and Science and a B.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Stanford University.