Samantha Swindell

Samantha “Sam” Swindell was selected as the vice provost for undergraduate education in September 2026. A career-track scholarly professor in the Department of Psychology and a WSU alumna, Swindell has dedicated nearly three decades to advancing undergraduate education and student success at WSU.

As vice provost for undergraduate education, Swindell will help shape the academic experience for undergraduate students across WSU. Working collaboratively with deans, faculty, and student support teams, she will guide curriculum enhancements and policy improvements that support student success, expand access and opportunities for learning, and help create an educational experience in which every student can thrive.

Prior to serving as vice provost, Swindell was the associate dean for undergraduate studies in the College of Arts and Sciences, where she led efforts focused on curricular development, assessment of student learning, evidence-based teaching practices, and student success. Her leadership included efforts to improve outcomes in foundational courses across disciplines, as well as work with colleagues to develop the college’s Career-Ready, World-Ready initiative, which helps students recognize and articulate skills developed through their academic experiences.

Throughout her career, Swindell has played a leading role in initiatives designed to strengthen undergraduate education at WSU. As co-principal investigator and institutional leader for WSU’s Transformational Change Initiative, she helped develop an integrated approach to student success centered on faculty development, peer mentoring, family engagement, student well-being, and academic resilience. The initiative earned national recognition from the American Council on Education as a model for advancing student success.

In addition, Swindell has been recognized for teaching excellence on multiple occasions in her professional career, including the President’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 2014. She has also held leadership roles in undergraduate program assessment, including serving as a faculty assessment fellow and helping establish assessment of student learning as a formally recognized faculty activity. In 2025, she received WSU’s inaugural Assessment Champion Award in recognition of her longstanding leadership in undergraduate program assessment.

An experimental psychologist by training, Swindell applies the science of learning to evidence-based practices in teaching, training, and mentoring. She has taught courses spanning introductory psychology, research methods, motivation, self-control, and principles of learning, as well as graduate-level preparation for instructors teaching introductory psychology. Earlier in her WSU career, she served as undergraduate program director in the Department of Psychology, where her work included curriculum development, student recruitment and retention, program assessment, and undergraduate research opportunities.

Swindell earned her Bachelor of Arts with honors in psychology from the University of Puget Sound in 1993 and her master’s and doctoral degrees in experimental psychology from Washington State University in 1995 and 1998, respectively.