Lori Varlotta Will Be the First Woman to Lead California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks

Lori E. Varlotta was named the eighth president of California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks. When she takes office on September 30, she will be the first woman to lead the university in its 61-year history.

California Luthern University enrolls just over 3,000 undergraduate students and more than 1,300 graduate students, according to the most recent data supplied to the U.S. Department of Education. Women make up 57 percent of the undergraduate student body.

Dr. Varlotta comes to Cal Lutheran having served as president of Hiram College in Ohio since 2014. Earlier, she spent 11 years at Sacramento State University, ultimately serving as senior vice president of planning, enrollment management, and student affairs.

“For three-and-a-half decades, working at mission-driven colleges and universities has been a calling, not a career. And the mission at Cal Lutheran to educate leaders for a global society speaks volumes to me,” Dr. Varlotta said. “I am excited and humbled to join forces with faculty, staff, students, alumni, and regents as we collectively move this fine institution to its next level of excellence.”

A native of Pittsburgh, Dr. Varlotta is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. She earned a master’s degree in cultural foundations of education from Syracuse University in New York, and a Ph.D. in educational leadership and feminist philosophy from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.