About the President

Maura B. Mast, PhD

Dr. Maura B. Mast was named the 23rd President of Seattle University on June 25, 2026, following a unanimous vote by the university’s Board of Trustees. She joined the university on September 1.

Dr. Mast received her BA from the University of Notre Dame with a double major in mathematics and anthropology and her PhD in mathematics from the University of North Carolina. Her mathematics research in differential geometry focuses on the geometry of two-step Riemannian nilmanifolds.

Throughout her career, Dr. Mast has been an advocate for student success in mathematics, with a deeply held conviction that mathematics can be used in a way to overcome injustice and inequality. She is an award-winning teacher; has received numerous grants to support her teaching and research; and has held leadership positions in several professional mathematics societies. In addition to her mathematical research, her publications include a co-edited book celebrating 100 years of contributions by women to mathematics and a quantitative reasoning textbook, Common Sense Mathematics, which was honored by the Mathematical Association of America’s Daniel Solow Author’s Award in 2022 for its impact on undergraduate education in mathematics. In recognition of her advocacy for women in mathematics, Dr. Mast was named a Fellow of the Association for Women in Mathematics in 2019.

Dr. Mast is a member of the Clavius Mathematics Group, an international association of Catholic mathematicians that meets annually as a community to conduct mathematics research and engage in dialogue about the relationship between faith and reason.

In 2015, Dr. Mast became the first woman—and first mathematician—to serve as Dean of Fordham College at Rose Hill, an undergraduate liberal arts college that is part of Fordham University in New York City. Before joining Fordham, she held tenured positions at the University of Massachusetts Boston and the University of Northern Iowa, as well as visiting positions at Northeastern University, Wellesley College, and the University of Notre Dame. Dr. Mast stepped down from her role as dean in 2025 and spent the 2025–2026 academic year completing the third edition of Common Sense Mathematics and conducting research on international Catholic higher education.

Dr. Mast and her husband, Jack, have three adult children.