Dianne F. Harrison, a veteran educator in Florida and California, was named Thursday as the new president of California State University Northridge.

Harrison will succeed Jolene Koester, who retired in December after 11 years in the post. Northridge provost Harold Hellenbrand has been serving as interim president.

Since 2006, Harrison has been president of Cal State Monterey Bay, a campus of about 5,000 students located on the former Ft. Ord Army Base in Seaside. At Northridge, she will assume the reins of one of the nation’s largest public universities with 34,000 students and a budget of more than $300 million.

The campus is the only public four-year university in the San Fernando Valley and is home to the $125-million Valley Performing Arts Center, a long-held dream for a campus that took years to rebound from devastating destruction caused by the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

“I am excited and honored to be selected as president of another fine institution within the California State University system, and look forward to working together with the entire campus community on the many opportunities for the future,” Harrison said in a statement.