April Summitt

Dr. Summitt first joined the La Sierra University community in 2013 as the University’s first Dean of General Education. In that role she worked with colleagues and Faculty Senate to effect significant policy changes and revitalize the general education program. In 2016, Dr. Summitt was appointed Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Not only has she shaped a strategic plan for the 16 departments of the College that includes necessary foci on building pathways to facilitate student access to and through college, but also she has made connections and partnerships with local school districts, the Riverside Chambers of Commerce, Riverside Police Department, and the Department of Health and Human Services, to name a few. Developing partnerships include the Arlington Youth Innovation Center, Kaiser Permanente Riverside Medical Center, the Mission Inn Foundation, and Bourns, Incorporated.

Dr. Summitt is well qualified to assume the role of the University’s Provost. She holds a PhD in History from Western Michigan University, has authored four books, two of them refereed publications, as well as numerous scholarly articles. Her record as a teacher at both undergraduate and graduate levels at Andrews University and Arizona State University is exemplary.

Additionally, Dr. Summitt served as a founding member of the interdisciplinary School of Letters and Sciences at Arizona State University’s Polytechnic Campus. While there, she co-founded the department of Interdisciplinary Humanities and Communication and a program in History and Culture with six program tracks for which she drafted the curriculum: Environmental History and Culture, History and Culture of the American Southwest, History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, History and Public Policy, Archival Preservation and Digital Media, and History for Secondary Teachers. While the titles of the programs and school have changed somewhat since she left Arizona State University for La Sierra in 2013, the mark of her work still remains in this innovative transdisciplinary program.

The campus community has long been impressed by Dr. Summitt’s commitment to the mission of Adventist higher education as well as the ethos of La Sierra University and its mission to seek truth, to know God, and to serve others.

Thus, without reservation and upon the recommendation of the Provost Search Committee and Executive Committee, President Fehr presented Dr. April Summitt’s candidacy to University Council for ratification on June 11, 2020, at which time, University Council approved Dr. Summitt’s appointment as Provost effective July 1, 2020.