Young woman teaches in front of a blackboard
Dean Nori Sogomonian poses on the SBVC campus wearing navy blue

Before she was dean of arts and humanities at San Bernardino Valley College, Nori Sogomonian, Ed.D was a kid playing in the fountain with her siblings at the liberal arts building. 

Sogomonian's father, Aram M. Sogomonian, taught political science and law beginning in the late 1960s, and when she enrolled in classes, "professors would say, 'I remember when you were little,'" she said.

Sogomonian earned a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in Spanish – her mother's first language and one of four languages her father spoke. She returned to SBVC as an adjunct instructor in 1993, coming on board as a full-time Spanish faculty member a year later. 

"I do feel very grounded here – I feel like when I was growing up, the institution, the location, was a stable reference point for me," Sogomonian said. 

She also met her husband at SBVC; he worked in the auditorium, and his aunt, an administrative assistant, introduced him to Sogomonian. Learning has long been a family affair, and Sogomonian, her husband, and her father all took classes together to brush up on new technology. 

"Valley is like my home away from home … I still meet people who say, 'I had your dad's class,'" said Sogomonian, who got to sign the wall of her father's office in the liberal arts building before it was torn down in 2025. 

Like her father, Sogomonian is a "lifelong learner" and impactful teacher. She taught linguistics as a Fulbright Scholar in her mother's native Nicaragua in 1999 and was named Outstanding Professor at SBVC in 2024. She became dean of arts and humanities in January 2026. 

Now, some of her former students have asked to return as adjuncts, and she has a front-row seat to creative and learning processes. "I'm just amazed at the work our faculty do with our students to get them to produce what they produce," she said. "It's a lot of fun."