Kristin Sobolik is the Chancellor of the University of Missouri-St. Louis and a Professor of Anthropology. She is responsible for the academic mission of the university and working with the colleges, deans, and faculty on curricular development, innovation, and student success. She oversees research and graduate studies, enrollment management, student retention, community engagement, student affairs, athletics, international programs, university accreditation, and strategic planning. Kristin’s focus is on maintaining and building UMSL’s areas of growth, strength, and excellence to serve our student population and develop the workforce and civically minded citizens of the broader St. Louis region. She is a partner with advancement, alumni engagement, marketing, and communications to promote and support our students and UMSL’s crucial role in our city, region, and state.

Prior to coming to UMSL, Kristin was the dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Wright State University in Dayton, OH, where she helped bring to fruition the modernization and expansion of the Creative Arts Center that includes the Robert and Elaine Stein Art Galleries, the new School of Music studios, and the Tom Hanks Center for Motion Pictures. She guided the development of an area of excellence in policy with the re-envisioned Applied Policy Research Institute (APRI) and the merger of the departments of Political Science and Urban Affairs & Geography into the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA). Kristin envisioned and implemented the New Media Incubator as a shared think-tank space between communication and motion pictures, and she developed the Center for Liberal Arts Student Success (CLASS) that focuses on student retention and workforce development. She was a strong partner in Rise. Shine: The Campaign for Wright State University and helped attain and maintain CoLA’s $20 million in donor gifts for scholarships, capital improvements, and programming. Kristin was honored as a Woman of Distinction by the Girl Scouts of Western Ohio for making significant contributions in STEM fields and giving hope and inspiration to girls through achievements and passion for the community. 

As an interdisciplinary scholar, Kristin is a leader in and helped develop the fields of archaeobiology and paleonutrition with over a hundred publications, books, and presentations.  She earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Iowa and a masters and doctorate in anthropology from Texas A&M University. Prior to her service at UMSL and Wright State, Kristin was a professor of anthropology and climate change at the University of Maine, with continuing faculty associate appointments in the Department of Anthropology and in the Climate Change Institute. She served as an associate dean for Research and External Affairs in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, as well as the chair of the Department of Anthropology and the associate director of the university’s world-renowned Climate Change Institute. She initiated and helped develop the B.A. in the human dimensions of climate change and the Ph.D. in anthropology and environmental policy, obtaining student support as co-PI through a National Science Foundation IGERT grant called the Adaptation to Abrupt Climate Change (A2C2). Kristin initiated, developed, and implemented the Maine Heritage Initiative that evolved into the University of Maine Humanities Initiative (now the Clement and Linda McGillicuddy Humanities Center) to support humanities-based units, programming, and scholarship.