President's Message

Whether you are a new or returning student, please allow me to welcome you to Woodbury University!

Your experience as an undergraduate or graduate student will be one of the most important of your life. It should be exciting, challenging, and fulfilling. You will meet new friends here, as well as faculty and staff, who will help shape your future – as you will theirs.

The faculty and staff here have one thing in common: they are dedicating their professional lives to you and your success! Some have spent literally decades preparing to fulfill their roles here at Woodbury. And many, many more have gone before in the history of this university, a legacy that dates from 1884. Woodbury is the second oldest institution of higher education in Los Angeles (founded just four years after USC).

Now you are part of that history, in most cases engaged in studying things that were not even imaginable in 1884. Yes, the world has changed. But the need for highly educated, thoughtful, creative, dedicated graduates has not changed! In fact, the world needs such people more than ever. And that is why Woodbury exists.

The educational experience of which you will be a part is truly a partnership – between students and other students, between students and faculty, between students and staff and the whole community that we serve. You will receive our best efforts, and you will gain the most from this time in your life if you give your best efforts in return. And so will all those whose lives you touch while you’re here and after you leave – your loved ones, your family, your community, your world.

Seize the day, seize the opportunity, seize the present and the future, and make it all a better place and a better time!

Your fellow traveler on this journey,

Dr. Barry Ryan, J.D., Ph.D
President & CEO