Sinda Vanderpool

Background

About Sinda Vanderpool

Dr. Vanderpool has served as St. Mary's University's President and Vice Chancellor since July 2022. In this role, she has steered substantial growth and strategic development including drafting and launching the University's Strategic Plan, Expanding Minds; Inspiring Hearts. She significantly expanded the university's campus footprint and achieved substantial increases in fund development for endowments and capital in her first three years. She also shepherded the inaugural graduate program for the university focused on Catholic Leadership. From 2004 to 2022, Dr. Vanderpool served as a faculty member and then academic leader at Baylor University. At Baylor, she became a passionate advocate for helping all students flourish. She gained the title chief student success officer at Baylor University in 2012 when she began providing leadership directly to a team of professional staff, faculty, and peer mentors all aimed at helping students throughout their college experience. The hub of these activities, the success center, incorporates the first-year experience, disabilities services, and academic advisement in addition to robust academic support initiatives. During the ten years when she served in this role, Dr. Vanderpool built—from the ground up—support services for student veterans, pre-law students, first generation college students, minority students, and low-income students where none had previously existed. Dr. Vanderpool was able to expand the success center by focusing on external relations and advancement efforts. She successfully managed three significant federal and private grants. And, during this time, several endowments were established to support food insecure students and first-generation college students in perpetuity.