Leanne Neilson is the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at California Lutheran University. As Provost, Neilson led the development of a new strategic plan, was engaged in California Lutheran’s merger with a seminary and recognition as a Hispanic-serving institution, and spearheaded a university-wide collaboration to overhaul the shared governance system.  

Previously, she served as Associate Provost overseeing graduate programs, accreditation, and assessment. She was a faculty member for 11 years at Cal Lutheran in the department of Psychology, and during that time served for six years as the Director of the Psychology graduate programs. Before her career in higher education, Neilson worked as a staff research associate at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute in the Clinical Research Center for Schizophrenia at Camarillo State Hospital. She is a former chair of the Council of Independent Colleges’ Chief Academic Officers Task Force and was the recipient of the 2019 CIC Chief Academic Officer Award. 

Neilson is a former WSCUC commissioner, former chair of the WSCUC Standards and Handbook Review Committee, and served for five years on the WSCUC Substantive Change Committee, including two years as co-chair.