Topeka, KS – Washburn University announced today that Dr. Laura Stephenson will be the interim vice president of academic affairs. Stephenson will replace Dr. Juliann Mazachek who has accepted a position as president of Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas. Stephenson has served as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences since 2014.
After assuming her new duties in May, Stephenson will provide primary administrative leadership for all academic activities and faculty affairs for Washburn’s six colleges and schools. She will establish academic priorities for the university and oversee nearly a thousand faculty and support staff.
Stephenson joined Washburn University in 1985 as an assistant professor in the Psychology Department. She served as chair of the department from 2000 until 2004 when she became associate dean of the college and served as interim dean for a year before being named to the position permanently.
A native of Columbia, Missouri, Stephenson earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Goucher College in Towson, Maryland. She went on to earn her masters and doctorate in clinical psychology at the University of Kansas. She completed her training as a clinical psychologist at the Texas Research Institute in Mental Sciences and holds a license as a clinical psychologist in Kansas.
Stephenson will remain in the role as interim vice president of academic affairs while the university conducts a national search for a permanent replacement for Mazachek. The university said that there will be more information about the search process for a permanent replacement in the coming months.
Founded in 1865, Washburn University is a public institution with nearly thousand students involved in more than 200 academic programs. Washburn’s programs lead to certification, associate, bachelor, master’s degree or doctor of nursing practice and juris doctor degrees. The programs are offered through Washburn’s six primary academic units – the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Applied Studies, the School of Business, the School of Nursing, the School of Law and the Washburn Institute of Technology (Washburn Tech.)
All programs are offered on either the 160-acre residential campus in the heart of Topeka, KS, at Washburn Tech’s campus on the West side or in the East Topeka facility. Washburn University is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association and many of the individual programs have additional accreditations.
