The academic program at the University of Puget Sound takes great pride in its excellent teaching, which is both challenging and accessible. We offer more than 50 areas of study, advance wide-ranging experiential learning opportunities, and collaboratively partner with Student Affairs to fully develop student learning across our residential campus.

We’re a leading institution for Fulbright awards for students, a highly ranked school in terms of graduate school placement, especially in the sciences, and our students have excellent placement rates in medical and law schools. We have several well-regarded graduate programs—in Education, Public Health, Occupational Therapy, and Physical Therapy—that deliver vital training for the region.

  • Puget Sound is ranked seventh nationally among small schools of top Peace Corps volunteer-producing colleges and universities in 2020. Over the past 10 years, Puget Sound has consistently been named a top school. Currently, 12 alumni are volunteering in countries around the world. Since the Peace Corps’ founding in 1961, more than 320 alumni from Puget Sound have served abroad as volunteers. Among national colleges with less than 5,000 undergraduate students, Puget Sound consistently ranks among the top five in the number of alumni serving in the Peace Corps.
  • The Race & Pedagogy Institute (RPI) and the RPI National Conference, held every four years to engage issues of race and to discuss the impact of race on education.  The conference attracts more than 2,000 local, regional, national, and international participants.
  • The Freedom Education Project Puget Sound (FEPPS) is the first Bachelor of Arts degree in a prison in Washington state.
  • The one-of-a-kind PacRim Program, which began in the early 1970s, develops intercultural competence and global citizenship in students through an immersive study abroad experience in several Asian countries, including pre-departure training and study, as well as optional post-trip research or internship opportunities.
  • Our students regularly receive highly-competitive post-graduate fellowships: Fulbright, Marshall, Boren, Watson—and 90% of students are employed, continuing their education, or engaged in public service six months after they graduate.

Our faculty are remarkable researchers, scholars, and artists, as our annual Celebration of Creative Inquiry attests. The Princeton Review notes that our faculty-student interaction is some of the best in the nation.  We are one of only 40 Colleges That Change Lives, and are described as “a bright spot on the map of American higher education. Students searching for thoughtful professors, a lively interdisciplinary vibe, friendly classmates, and a beautiful setting ought to add the university to their short list.”

I invite you to join us at the University of Puget Sound, where our intellectual, creative, and experiential vibrancy will lead you, as our motto says, to the heights!

Drew Kerkhoff, Ph.D.
Provost
provost@pugetsound.edu

Janis Chen
Executive Assistant to the Provost
janischen@pugetsound.edu
Point of contact regarding: Provost’s scheduling, faculty contracts, Office of the Provost administrative support

 

Office of the Academic Deans

Gareth Barkin, Ph.D.
Dean of Operations & Technology
barkin@pugetsound.edu
Point of contact regarding: Curriculum, course scheduling, summer term, University Bulletin, academic technology

Nick Kontogeorgopoulos, Ph.D.
Dean of Experiential Learning
konto@pugetsound.edu
Point of contact regarding:  Academic standards (academic honesty, grade disputes), university enrichment (student grants and research awards), experiential learning, civic engagement, study abroad

Julia Looper, Ph.D.
Dean of Graduate Affairs
jlooper@pugetsound.edu
Point of contact regarding: Graduate programs, Academic Commencement, Institutional Review Board (IRB)

Amy Spivey, Ph.D.
Dean of Faculty Affairs
aspivey@pugetsound.edu
Point of contact regarding: Academic budget, temporary full-time faculty hiring, academic equipment funds, faculty office assignments

Malia Fusiara
Administrative Specialist
mfusiara@pugetsound.edu
Point of contact regarding: Academic Deans' scheduling, Daedalus, Regester, Midsummer Social, other academic affairs events

Jenna McMichael
Data and Records Specialist
jmcmichael@pugetsound.edu
Point of contact regarding: Department website/publications, Faculty Senate and standing committees support, IRB proposals

Kate Peterson
Office Manager
kpeterson@pugetsound.edu
Point of contact regarding: Enrichment, adjunct and guest contracts, student surveys 
 

Offices and Programs