Dean Trojan Community,
After an extensive and thorough search process, President Folt and I are pleased to announce that Lauretta Hill has been hired to be the new Assistant Vice President/Chief at the Department of Public Safety. Chief Hill will start her new role on January 23.
Chief Hill’s distinguished law enforcement career spans more than 28 years, the last six of which were as the Chief of Police for the Dallas College Police Department, one of the largest community colleges in Texas with nearly 75,000 undergraduate students.
She is a team builder and transformational leader. The search committee was impressed with her outstanding work at Dallas College, where she combined seven separate police departments into one functional police agency. She restructured the department, developed new policies, and hired new staff to align with the institution’s priorities. The changes resulted in consistency in operations across all seven campuses in the college system and enhanced accountability and transparency by the department to the students, faculty, staff, and community stakeholders.
Chief Hill’s inclusive philosophy aligns with our ONE USC Safety Vision. She understands that our community members come from diverse backgrounds and experiences and brings years of community policing experience to help us achieve our goal of having all students, faculty, staff, and neighbors feel respected and safe.
Prior to leading the Dallas College Police Department, Chief Hill served as the Deputy Chief at the Miami Beach Police Department in Florida and the Assistant Chief at the Arlington Police Department in Texas.
Chief Hill earned a master’s degree from Texas Christian University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Arlington. She is a graduate of the FBI National Academy, the Police Executive Research Forum’s Senior Management School, and Cornell University’s program in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Building a Diverse Workforce.
Before closing, I would like to thank the faculty, staff, student, and community members of our search committee, as well as all of you who participated in our community input sessions to share thoughts regarding the essential qualifications required for our next chief.
Please join me in welcoming Chief Hill to our Trojan Family. She and her husband Maurice, along with their sons Jeremiah, 14, and Jonathan, 9, already are house hunting in Southern California.
Sincerely,
Dr. Erroll G. Southers
Associate Senior Vice President, Safety & Risk Assurance