President Nelsen/Mark Orr

ROBERT S. NELSEN

University President

Dr. Robert S. Nelsen, Sacramento State’s eighth permanent president, comes to Sacramento with his wife, Jody Hawkins Nelsen.

Nelsen’s experience in public higher education spans nearly three decades, most of it spent in the University of Texas system. He was president of UT-Pan American from 2010 to 2014 and most recently served as special advisor to UT’s executive vice chancellor for Academic Affairs.

Nelsen was born in Brigham City, Utah, and grew up on a ranch in Montana. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in political science from Brigham Young University, and his doctorate from the University of Chicago’s Committee on Social Thought, where his fields of study were modern literature, modern philosophy and modern political theory.

In 1989-90, Nelsen taught English at the University of Illinois at Chicago before joining the faculty of the University of Texas-Dallas, where he founded the creative writing program and served as its director. During his 18 years at UT-Dallas, he also was a professor of Literary and Aesthetic Studies, and served as vice provost.

In 2008-09, Nelsen was a professor of English and associate vice president for academic affairs at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. In 2010, he returned to the University of Texas system as the president of UT-Pan American in Edinburg. Among his proudest achievements was leading the effort to merge the university with the University of Texas-Brownsville to create the new University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley, which has a medical school.

He is a prolific and award-winning short-story writer. His play “We Bums” had a three-week run at Dallas’ Deep Ellum Theater in 1995.

Among his many awards and honors, Nelsen was named the 2014 Man of the Year by the Rio Grande Valley Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and received a Literacy Champion award from the South Texas Literacy Coalition in 2012. This spring, the Edinburg City Council unanimously voted to rename a city street “Dr. Robert Nelsen Drive.”

MARK ORR

Director of Athletics

Mark Orr was named Sacramento State’s Director of Athletics on March 27, 2017. He became the University’s 16th athletics director.

During that time, Orr has had a significant impact on Hornet Athletics, helping steer the program to multiple conference championships, record-breaking seasons, NCAA postseason appearances, and excellence in the classroom.

One of Orr’s biggest decisions paid off quickly with the hiring of Troy Taylor as the Hornets’ head football coach prior to the 2019 season. In his first year leading the team, Taylor guided Sacramento State to a share of its first Big Sky Conference title and FCS playoff appearance. The team finished the year ranked ninth in the FCS — the best in school history — and Taylor was recipient of the Eddie Robinson Award while also earning Big Sky Coach of the Year honors. In addition to football’s 2019 title, the Hornets have won 12 additional conference championships under Orr’s watch.

Sacramento State Athletics continues to excel in the classroom under Orr, receiving dozens of all-academic honors every semester. Both men’s basketball and women’s golf have received an NCAA Public Recognition Award every year of Orr’s tenure for having an Academic Progress Rate (APR) score that ranks among the top 10 percent nationally in their respective sports.

Sacramento State remains the only public school in California to ever receive the NCAA Public Recognition Award in men’s basketball, and the Hornets have earned the honor four consecutive years.

Orr graduated from Christian Brothers HS in Sacramento in 1994. He earned a scholarship to play football at Cal, where he played from 1994 to 1998. A four-year letterman defensive back on the California football team, Orr was an honorable mention all-academic Pac-10 selection in 1997 and 1998. He was awarded the Pappy Waldorf Honorary Scholarship for Academic Excellence in 1998 and received the Tiny Bates Memorial Award for Leadership in 1998.

Orr and his wife, April, have two children, Tyson and Jacob.