POMONA — Pomona-born astronaut Victor Glover is returning to his Alma Mater to serve as a full-time administrator in the wake of his historic piloting during the Artemis II Mission around the moon, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo announced Wednesday.
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Glover’s position at the Central Coast college “will focus on strategic initiatives and fostering partnerships and philanthropy,” the university stated in a news release.
HOUSTON, TEXAS – AUGUST 28: U.S. President Donald Trump (L) awards the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to pilot Victor Glover during a ceremony honoring Artemis II crew members at NASA’s Johnson Space Center on August 28, 2026 in Houston, Texas. Artemis II crew members, NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, traveled further into space than any other humans before on the first crewed mission around the moon in more than 50 years. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Artemis II Astronaut Victor Glover claps after throwing out the ceremonial first pitch before a game between the Angels and the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday, June 12, 2026, at Angel Stadium. (AP Photo/Wally Skalij)
(L-R) Mission specialist Jeremy Hansen of CSA (Canadian Space Agency), pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch and commander Reid Wiseman walk out of the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building ahead of the launch of the Artemis II at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on April 01, 2026 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The 322-foot-tall Artemis II Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft will take the astronauts around the moon and back, 230,000 miles out into space and the farthest any human has ever traveled from Earth. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
In this handout image provided by NASA, The Artemis II crew – (from left) Mission Specialist Christina Koch, Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen, Pilot Victor Glover, and Commander Reid Wiseman – pause for a group photo inside the Orion spacecraft on their way home. Following a swing around the far side of the Moon on April 6, 2026, the crew exited the lunar sphere of influence (the point at which the Moon’s gravity has a stronger pull on Orion than the Earth’s) on April 7, and are headed back to Earth for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on April 10. (Photo by NASA via Getty Images)
NASA’s 322-foot-tall Artemis II Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft lifts off from Launch Complex 39B at Kennedy Space Center on April 01, 2026 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The 10-day mission will take NASA astronauts Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover and Mission Specialist Christina Koch and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen around the moon and back. If all goes according to plan, the astronauts will fly 230,000 miles out into space, the farthest any human has ever traveled from Earth. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
His position is effective Sept. 1.
Glover will provide counsel to President Jeffrey D. Armstrong and other senior leaders and “help shape Cal Poly’s long-term strategies that position the university (including the Cal Poly Maritime Academy) as a global leader in polytechnic education, research innovation and workforce production.”
“My ‘Learn by Doing’ experience at Cal Poly was the launch pad for my journeys around the world and the moon,” Glover said. “Though I feel like I’ve never left, to be able to come back to this institution that has meant so much to me and to my family is a gift. I am excited to give that gift in service to student success.”
Glover will work with the president, provost and college deans on strategic initiatives, partnerships and philanthropy aimed at expanding the university’s leadership in engineering, applied computing, aerospace, aviation, maritime, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, autonomous systems and national defense.
Glover, and the other members of April’s Artemis II mission around the moon, were awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor — the highest U.S. space award — by President Donald Trump on Aug. 28 at Johnson Space Center in Houston. Only 30 other astronauts had received the Congressional Space Medal of Honor before that ceremony.
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Glover graduated from Cal Poly in 1999 with a degree in engineering. He was also a student-athlete in wrestling and football before going to be a Navy fighter pilot.
“I could not be more thrilled to have Victor back to Cal Poly and work alongside him to accelerate our success with Learn by Doing and keep it thriving for decades to come,” said Armstrong. “Victor is the embodiment of how far Learn by Doing can propel a Cal Poly graduate, and we share a vision of ensuring that our university continues to produce future generations of pioneers and leaders.”
Glover joins Cal Poly after recently retiring from the Navy. His other achievements include piloting the second-ever crewed flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon; living aboard the International Space Station for 168 days from November 2020 to May 2021; and traveling beyond low Earth orbit and around the moon as part of Artemis II’s Orion spacecraft.
Glover met his wife, Dionna, an alumna of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, on campus while they were students in the 1990s.
The couple now has four daughters, all of them Cal Poly students or recent graduates, according to the university.
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