In spring 2024, Seattle Pacific University selected Dr. Kathy Lustyk as the new Vice President for Academic Affairs. The purpose of the position of Vice President for Academic Affairs is to assist with on-campus student support, help faculty members ensure academic prowess and academic standards are being met, and to ensure SPU’s mission and its goals are being integrated.

Prior to being hired as vice president at SPU, Lustyk served as a dean at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona, before going on to serve as Vice Chancellor and Associate Chief Academic Officer at ERAU in 2020. 

Lustyk served as a professor in SPU’s department of psychology and had worked at SPU for 20 years before being hired at ERAU in 2017. 

Seattle Pacific University School of Psychology, Family, and Community Professor Baine Craft shared his thoughts on Lustyk as a former colleague,

“Dr. Lustyk was a valuable member of our psychology department and made significant contributions to our psychology program both as a faculty member as well as when she was the chair of the department for a brief period” Craft said. “She was a brilliant researcher who not only did amazing and cutting edge research in the area of women’s health but also used her research as a means by which to teach and mentor students, many of whom went on to do graduate studies in psychology”

Graduating from the University of Washington in 1988 with a Bachelors of Science in Psychology, Lustyk attended UW as a graduate for four years before graduating as a Doctor of Philosophy in Physiological Psychology and a minor in Endocrinology before soon working as a professor at SPU. 

You can now visit Lustyk’s office in Demaray Hall, room 210.

“Given Dr. Lustyk’s tenure as a faculty member at SPU along with alumni family members, she has deep connections and a significant commitment to SPU” Craft said. “Her personal Christian faith positions her to make decisions to secure not only the financial stability of the university but also the university mission.”