Innovate Southwest Indiana - Evansville

Christopher M. Pietruszkiewicz, affectionately known as "Prez P" on campus, began his tenure as the 24th President of the University of Evansville on July 1, 2018. Prez P has effectively guided the University through unprecedented times. During the first global pandemic in 100 years, he remained focused on the University’s future, advancing the institution with student-focused initiatives that included the building of academic and institutional programs with a goal of establishing a strong framework for sustainable growth, and further solidifying the identity and mission of the University recognizing the eighteen words that define what we do at UE: to empower each student to think critically, act bravely, serve responsibly, and live meaningfully in a changing world.

Prez P recognizes that college is much more than a degree – college prepares students for an ever-changing world by bringing academic to life through real world internships, expanded hands on learning experience inside and outside the classroom, and adding Change Lab courses allow students to follow their passion.  With our faculty, staff, and community, Prez P has helped re-define the value of a college education – taking knowledge and turning it into action.  He has developed a passion for linking the University with the community by creating partnerships to fulfill the responsibility of the University to enhance quality of life.  Under his leadership, UE was awarded a historic $30 million Promise Neighborhood grant from the United States Department of Education, with a total investment of $62 million including matching funds. The grant was one of only three awarded in the country in 2023 and the only one awarded to a university and a city working together. Prez P also helped the institution achieve the second and third highest fundraising years in the history of the University dating to 1854, providing support for an innovative and forward-focused future.

A tax attorney, President Pietruszkiewicz worked as a trial lawyer in the Tax Division of the United States Department of Justice in Washington, DC, and as an attorney and advisor for the United States Department of Education. In 2000, he entered academia as an adjunct professor at George Mason University School of Law and in 2001, joined the law faculty at the Louisiana State University Law Center in Baton Rouge, where he later served as vice chancellor for business and financial affairs at LSU. Beginning in 2012, President Pietruszkiewicz served for six years as Dean of the Stetson University College of Law in Tampa Bay, Florida.

In Evansville, he served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Southwest Indiana Chamber of Commerce and the Economic Development Coalition of Southwest Indiana – and serves on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of the now merged Evansville Regional Economic Partnership. He is a member of the Welborn Baptist Foundation Board of Directors, and the Rotary Club of Evansville. 

President Pietruszkiewicz also serves on the NCAA Division I Board of Directors and is a member of the Finance Committee and Administrative Committee. He is the past Chair of Board of Directors of Independent Colleges of Indiana, the collective voice for excellence and choice in higher education for all students that represents Indiana’s 29 private, non-profit, regionally accredited colleges, and universities.  He is an active member of the Council of Independent Colleges, the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, and the National Association of Schools and Colleges of the United Methodist Church.  He previously served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Law School Admissions Council and held various leadership positions in the American Bar Association, Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar.  Among the founding university presidents of CUSP, the College and University Sustainability Project, President Pietruszkiewicz helped to create a consortium of like-minded institutions to achieve cost-efficiency by providing a platform of high-value services that are not accessible to individual institutions.

He is married to Siobhan Pietruszkiewicz, a graduate of Georgetown University with a bachelor's degree in sociology and Spanish. She is a licensed clinical social worker with a master's degree in social work from Virginia Commonwealth University. Her experience in social work has focused on workforce development and the child welfare system, working both in clinical settings and as a researcher, grant writer, program evaluator, and instructor in college and law school, focusing on at-risk children and their families. They were both NCAA and high school basketball officials and have been strong advocates and volunteers for Special Olympics.  They have two sons, Ryan who is at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC and John, who attends Reitz Memorial High School in Evansville, IN.