Lester Manzano, PhD

Lester Manzano, PhD (he/him) serves as Assistant Vice President for Student Academic Services in the Student Success division where he provides strategic leadership for academic services departments including: First and Second Year Advising; New Student Programs; Scholars Programs (Achieving College Excellence TRIO Student Support Services, Academic Enrichment Programs, Leadership Scholars Program); the Student Accessibility Center; Student-Athlete Academic Services; and the Tutoring Center. He previously served as Associate Dean of Students in the Division of Student Development and as Assistant Dean in the College of Arts and Sciences. Prior to arriving at Loyola in 2005, Manzano served as Director of Residence Life at Lake Forest College and Assistant Director of Residential Life at Colgate University.  

A member of NASPA–Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education since 1997, Manzano served on the Conference Leadership Committee for the 2025 NASPA Annual Conference, chaired the local arrangements committee for the 2011 NASPA Region IV-East Conference, was director of the 2011 and 2012 NASPA Undergraduate Fellows Program (NUFP) Dungy Leadership Institutes, and served as national chair of the NUFP Board in 2013–2015. In 2023, he served as a faculty mentor for NASPA’s Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) Leadership Academy.  

Manzano holds an appointment as Clinical Assistant Professor in the School of Education where he teaches graduate courses in the Higher Education program; he is also an Associate Faculty member of The Graduate School. He has presented papers at the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) and the Association for Asian American Studies (AAAS) annual meetings, and he has published work in the Review of Educational Research, the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, and the Journal of College Student Development. In 2022, he was recognized by Loyola University Chicago’s School of Education with the Dean’s Distinguished Alumni Award.  
 
Manzano holds a PhD in higher education from Loyola University Chicago, an MEd in higher education and student affairs administration from the University of Vermont, and a bachelor's degree in psychology from Carnegie Mellon University.