Pepperdine University Graduate School of Education and Psychology Records

At George Pepperdine College, Education and Psychology were initially two separate departments. In 1957, Olaf H. Tegner was named head of the Education Department, then appointed dean of the School of Education in 1970. The School of Education offered Pepperdine's first doctoral degree, the Ed.D., in 1976. After Pepperdine's Los Angeles campus closed in 1981, the School of Education merged with the Psychology Division and both moved to a business park in West Los Angeles named Pepperdine University Plaza. In 1982, the schools were renamed as the Graduate School of Education and Psychology (GSEP).

GSEP offered the Doctor of Psychology degree for the first time in 1986. Between 1988 and 1990, GSEP added master’s degree programs in educational technology, school business administration, and clinical psychology. In 1988 GSEP was the first of Pepperdine’s schools to appoint a female dean, Dr. Nancy Magnusson Fagan. As the programs of GSEP and the School of Business and Management grew with demand from around Southern California, other campus spaces were leased in Long Beach (1990) and Westlake Village (1995).

After the success of the fundraising campaign "Challenged to Lead," the Pepperdine was able to build the Drescher Graduate Campus on Pepperine's Malibu campus. The campus was opened in August, 2003, and houses GSEP, the Graziadio School of Business and Management, and the School of Public Policy. The programs formerly held at Pepperdine University Plaza location were relocated to the Howard Hughes Center in West Los Angeles. In 2010, GSEP introduced MA degrees in school counseling and social entrepreneurship and change. Currently, GSEP programs are offered at the Drescher Graduate Campus in Malibu, the West Los Angeles graduate campus, the Encino Graduate Campus, the Irvine Graduate Campus, and the Westlake Village Graduate Campus.