Strengthening Our Leadership Team
Dear LMU Community,
As we embark on a new academic year together, I remain committed to shaping an organization that is mission-aligned, student-centered, and supportive of our teacher-scholar model, while also ensuring that our values of equity, inclusion, belonging, and justice are fully embedded in the life of the university. Through ongoing listening and discernment, I have heard our community’s call for greater integration, agility, and collaboration.
Today, I am announcing a realignment of the President’s Executive Leadership Team to ensure that LMU’s academic quality, distinctive student experience, reputation, services, and infrastructure are fully synchronized for a stronger, more resilient university. These changes are designed to conserve resources and increase our agility and collaboration so we can invest more effectively to advance LMU’s academic excellence, student experience, and institutional resilience. They also reflect extensive conversations, consultations, and feedback I have received from stakeholders and leaders about positioning LMU for long-term success.
Mission Integration: Advancing Belonging, Equity, and Justice
LMU’s enduring commitment to equity, inclusion, belonging, and justice is rooted in our Catholic, Jesuit, and Marymount identity. These values are not parallel to our mission—they are at its heart. Our commitments remain unequivocal. To advance these goals more authentically, LMU will transition to an embedded model, where vital work in support of all community members—ensuring that everyone feels a sense of belonging and inclusion—is carried out as part of Mission Integration. This approach aligns these functions directly within the organizations that drive progress and outcomes rather than operating in parallel. Under this new structure, new mission integration leaders will serve in Mission, Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, and Human Resources, ensuring greater impact and accountability to advance belonging and inclusion efforts for all students, faculty, and staff. Colleagues currently supporting DEI will transition into these areas, bringing their expertise and relationships to advance mission integration priorities.
As we develop and implement this model, I will engage closely with affinity group leaders and our broader community to shape its priorities together. I will be convening a new President’s Council on Mission Integration to ensure that community voices guide this work and that accountability for progress is shared university-wide. I am asking the council to develop recommendations to me on how we best approach this essential work and accelerate progress by November 1, 2025.
In May, LMU announced that Vice President for Mission and Ministry John Sebastian would conclude his service in that role and return to the faculty. Today, I am pleased to share that VP Sebastian will instead continue his leadership as LMU’s first Senior Vice President for Mission, effective October 1, 2025. His experience as a mission leader, faculty colleague, and thought partner uniquely positions him to guide this model. VP Sebastian has consistently integrated LMU’s mission into the daily life of our community—from faculty formation and student retreats to interfaith partnerships—and his leadership will ensure these enduring commitments are lived more fully.
Please join me in expressing appreciation to Vice President Emelyn dela Peña for her service as she has now concluded her tenure with LMU. Since 2022, Emelyn has been a tireless and passionate advocate for equity and inclusion, bringing wisdom, dedication, and care to this work. She has expanded programs, deepened partnerships, and enriched the LMU experience for students, faculty, and staff. Beyond campus, she is a recognized leader in her field, serving as president of the Southern California chapter of the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, where she advanced collaboration and innovation across institutions. She has also been active within the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU) and co-founded the Chief Diversity Officers network as part of her Ignatian Colleagues Program project, further extending her impact nationally. Emelyn’s contributions have laid the necessary groundwork for the mission integration model, and her legacy will continue to shape LMU’s progress in this next chapter. We are grateful for her leadership and wish her well in her future endeavors.
Administration Leadership
I am delighted to announce that I have appointed Senior Vice President John Kiralla as LMU’s next Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, effective October 1, 2025. A university alum and parent, SVP Kiralla is currently our longest-serving executive leader, working at LMU for nearly three decades in both staff and leadership roles across nearly every division of the university—including the Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts Dean’s Office, the Provost’s Office, Business and Finance, Information Technology Services, Administration, Communications, and Government Relations, among others. This breadth of experience has given him invaluable institutional knowledge and a depth of understanding of how LMU functions at every level.
In his current role as Senior Vice President for Marketing, Communications, and External Relations, SVP Kiralla has led LMU to eight consecutive years of record-setting outcomes, advancing the university’s reputation and visibility. He has guided some of LMU’s most complex and high-profile initiatives, including its most visible event, the 2019 U.S. Presidential Debate, and its most attended event, the 2021 Megamencement at SoFi Stadium. SVP Kiralla has also been called upon to lead at pivotal moments: he served as interim Senior Vice President for University Advancement, has chaired multiple senior leadership searches, and was tapped by the LMU Board of Trustees to serve as the university resource and liaison for the recent presidential search. He is currently chairing the Presidential Inauguration Committee. Beyond LMU, SVP Kiralla remains deeply engaged in professional and civic life, serving on boards and advisory bodies, including the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Governors, as well as leadership roles with the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
This restructuring builds on SVP Kiralla’s current role and experience, consolidating essential areas that serve the university community into a cohesive portfolio that strengthens how we serve and support LMU internally and externally. This also reduces the number of executive positions, allowing us to direct resources toward our highest priorities in an era of increasingly competing demands. In his new capacity, EVP/COO Kiralla will oversee Auxiliary and Business Services, Campus Safety Services, Communications and Public Relations, External Relations and Strategic Partnerships, Facilities Management, Human Resources, Information Technology Services, Marketing and Brand Management, and Operations. This consolidation will streamline decision-making, foster cross-unit collaboration, and improve efficiency—all in service of strengthening LMU’s mission and enhancing academic excellence and student-centered initiatives.
Student and Institutional Well-Being
To strengthen LMU’s responsiveness and align leadership more closely with our most essential priorities, Senior Vice President for Student Affairs Kawanna Leggett and Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Aimee Uen will now report directly to me. This realignment restores the historic reporting structure for these roles and reflects my conviction that both student well-being and financial stewardship must be engaged at the presidential level. By streamlining reporting lines, we enhance coordination and ensure that the student experience and institutional vitality remain at the center of LMU’s decision-making.
This change also ensures that the president receives direct counsel from the leaders of Student Affairs and Finance on issues central to student life and institutional health. It reinforces the principle that LMU’s success depends not only on academic excellence but on the holistic experience of our students and the financial sustainability that underpins it.
Expanded and Inclusive Leadership
Vice President for Human Resources Nancy Pluzdrak, who will continue reporting to the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, and Vice Provost for Enrollment Management Maureen Weatherall, who will continue reporting to the Executive Vice President and Provost, will join the President’s Cabinet, strengthening LMU’s talent and enrollment strategies.
Provost Search Underway
LMU is continuing its search for the next Executive Vice President and Provost. With EVP Rae stepping down, she will no longer serve as co-chair of the search committee. Professor Mairead Sullivan will continue as sole chair of the committee. The committee’s work is essential to recruiting an outstanding academic leader who will animate LMU’s mission, reenergize the teacher-scholar model, and strengthen the academic vitality of the university.
Moving Forward Together
These adjustments reflect my view of LMU as a learning organization—one that listens deeply, responds thoughtfully, and adapts with purpose. They are designed to align our structures with our values: being mission-rooted, placing students at the center of our work, supporting the teacher-scholar model, strengthening institutional resilience, and stewarding resources wisely so that we can continue to invest in LMU’s distinctive academic mission.
I am confident in the leadership team we have in place and grateful for their dedication to our students, our mission, and our future. Thank you for your continued engagement and partnership as we advance LMU’s role as a leader in higher education.
With gratitude,
Thomas Poon, Ph.D.
President and Professor of Chemistry