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Wilkinson College Faculty

»Our Faculty

Wilkinson College faculty and administration work together to provide a challenging, interactive, and dynamic learning environment. Our professors infuse their classes with the most advanced knowledge in the disciplines and heighten the learning experience with co-curricular opportunities and mentoring. 

Faculty advisors guide students through their academic journeys with student-faculty collaborative research, study abroad, internships, capstone courses, and individual study. 

As mentors, teachers, scholars, club advisors, research collaborators, and campus leaders, our faculty expand what we know about the world and model civic engagement for our community members.

Our faculty is committed to advancing academic research, improving health care, generating cultural understanding, protecting the environment, and creating technical and social change.

Click here for a complete list of faculty.

Presidential Fellows within Wilkinson College


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Presidential Fellow, Department of Political Science: Dr. Mark Chapin Johnson Trustee

Dr. Mark Chapin JohnsonDr. Johnson spent several decades as an entrepreneur starting and building national businesses prior to becoming a Chapman University Trustee and Professor. After a wide ranging and intriguing business career he returned to the university campus to receive his undergraduate degree at Chapman and graduate degrees at Claremont Graduate University. Traveling to nearly 100 countries with his sons over many years created a strong sense of wonder and curiosity about the American Dream and how it came about. These life journeys led him to study American Politics and the Comparative Politics of the Middle East to try and understand “how things really work”. Although continuing to be deeply involved in philanthropic, political, and academic organizations and boards, he continues to research and study The Founders, Congressional Decision Making and the extremely volatile history and behavior of the Middle East.

Presidential Fellow in Peace Studies: Nadia Murad

nadia-murad-large.jpgNadia Murad is a survivor of the 2014 genocide of the Yazidi people by ISIS in Northern Iraq.  Over 600 people from her village were murdered including Ms. Murad’s mother and six of her brothers and stepbrothers.  Ms. Murad was one of more than 6,700 Yazidi women and girls taken prisoner by the Islamic State in Iraq. She successfully escaped from her captors and was taken in by a neighboring family who was able to smuggle her out of the Islamic State controlled area, allowing her to make her way to a refugee camp in northern Iraq.

In 2016, Ms. Murad was named the first Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human trafficking of the United Nations (UNODC).  To help survivors rebuild their lives, she plays a central role in developing the Fund for Survivors of Conflict Related Sexual Violence, recently endorsed by the UN Secretary General and adopted by the UN Security Council (Resolution 2467).  Since 2015, she has been working to bring ISIS before the International Criminal Court on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity.

In 2018, Ms. Murad received the Nobel Peace Prize and also was the recipient of the Václav Havel Human Rights Prize and the Sakharov Prize.

Presidential Fellow: Dr. Lori Varlotta

Lori Varlotta in a blue suit jacket with brown short curly hair infront of a tree. Dr. Lori E. Varlotta is the most recent past president of California Lutheran University, president emerita of Hiram College (OH), and senior vice president emerita of Sacramento State. In addition to these C-suite roles, she has held deanships and directorships for the last four decades  at mission-driven colleges and universities—large and small, public and private, stand-alone and system-embedded. While on research leave from California Lutheran, she is enjoying a Presidential Fellowship at Chapman University. Here, she serves as a guest lecturer, a student affairs advisor, and a presenter on programs and panels related to the 2024–2025 Exploring the World theme: Gender and Sexuality.

At both Hiram and California Lutheran, where Dr. Varlotta held the CEO role, she was the first woman to hold the post. In each case, she was recruited to lead systemic changes to reposition the university for the future.

Varlotta took the helm at Hiram College just as it was facing financial exigency. Her first call to action was to refinance the college’s long-term debt. She and her lean team then went on to log six consecutive banner fundraising years and redesign the entire academic structure. After positioning Hiram on stronger ground, Varlotta was recruited to lead California Lutheran University through the global pandemic and a number of internal crises impacting the campus.

 

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