Office of the Vice President of Mission Integration

Catherine Punsalan-Manlimos, Ph.D.
Vice President for Mission Integration
Professor of Theology and Religious Studies

Catherine Punsalan-Manlimos rejoined Seattle University in 2022 as the inaugural Vice President for Mission Integration and Professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies. She returned to SU after serving for three years as Assistant to the President for Mission Integration at the University of Detroit Mercy.

Her relationship with Seattle University began in 2004 when she joined the faculty in Theology and Religious Studies. Over the years, she has held key leadership roles, including Director of Catholic Studies and founding Director of the Institute for Catholic Thought and Culture, helping deepen the university’s engagement with Catholic intellectual and spiritual traditions.

Catherine’s journey in Jesuit education began at Ateneo de Manila University, one of five Jesuit universities in the Philippines. There, she earned a bachelor’s degree in physics and a master’s in theological studies, later teaching at Ateneo before pursuing her Ph.D. in Systematic Theology at the University of Notre Dame.

It was at Ateneo that she first encountered Ignatian Spirituality and developed a theological curiosity that continues to shape her vocation. Her early academic work focused on the intersection of religion, science, and the preferential option for the poor. Today, her scholarship and leadership center on Catholic higher education—particularly Jesuit education—and its transformative potential in today’s complex and diverse contexts.

A guiding question in her work is: What does it mean to offer a Jesuit educational experience today that is deeply contextual and as transformative as the one she experienced over 30 years ago at Ateneo?

Her recent publications include contributions to Women Engaging the Catholic Social Tradition (Paulist Press, 2022) and Catholic Higher Education and Catholic Social Thought (Paulist Press, 2022). She also co-edited “Why We Can’t Wait”: Racism and the Church (Orbis Books, 2023) with Tracy Sayuki Tiemeier and Elisabeth T. Vasko.