Paula Lutz

Dean, College of Arts & Sciences

University of Missouri-Rolla

BS, Chemistry 1976

A  native of St. James, Missouri, Paula Lutz is an alumna of UMR in addition to serving as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry with a life science preference from UMR in 1976. Lutz attended graduate school at Duke University, earning her Doctor of Philosophy degree in microbiology and immunology. She completed post-doctoral work at Duke and the University of North Carolina before returning to UMR as an assistant professor of biological sciences in 1987. In 2000, she was selected as chair of the biological sciences department. She became dean of the College of Arts and Sciences in 2002.

Immunity in children with exposure to environmental lead has been the primary focus of Lutz's research at UMR. Her work has been funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health since 1990. She has been an officer of the Society for Environmental Geochemistry and Health, and has been active in the American Association of Immunologists and Sigma Xi.  She has been recognized consistently with Outstanding Teaching and Faculty Excellence Awards at UMR.

Dean Lutz's goals for the college are ambitious, designed to prepare the College of Arts and Science and UMR for the future and to take a more central role on campus. The College touches every student in every degree program on campus in some way. At the same time, it is much more than simply the critical foundation for learning at UMR. It provides many components of the well-rounded education that defines a university. First and foremost, Lutz plans to increase awareness of the programs offered within the College. She believes that awareness will lead to achievement of her second goal, growing enrollment in all nine degree-granting departments in the College. Her third goal is to find new ways to recognize outstanding teaching and advising, recognizing the critical role of College faculty in these areas. And finally, she is placing increased emphasis on research and other sources of external support.

Lutz and her husband Len have two daughters, Lauren and Alyson. Their hobbies include running, photography, reading, travel and training their Labrador puppy, Abbey. They are also members of UMR's Order of the Golden Shillelagh.