In August, 2023, after a year-long search, the Board of Directors of Wyoming Catholic College selected Professor Kyle Washut as President, the fourth in the College’s 16-year history.

Washut, a Wyoming native, has been with Wyoming Catholic since its inception. Growing up in Casper, Wyoming, he worked in nuclear missile silos and coal mines during his teenage years, receiving an AA in Political Science and a second in Spanish from Casper College in 2003. While in Casper, he studied under two of WCC’s eventual founders, Dr. Robert Carlson and Fr. Robert Cook, and began his journey toward Wyoming Catholic by serving as a dishwasher at the annual Wyoming School for Catholic Thought, where the idea for the College was first proposed.

He graduated from Thomas Aquinas College in 2007 with a B.A. in Liberal Arts, and returned to Wyoming (and Wyoming Catholic) as the inaugural Assistant Dean for Student Life. As such, he played a key role in developing the College’s 21-Day Freshman Expedition, including participating in the first such expedition in 2007. (This program, described as “the most unusual orientation program in the country,” serves as every WCC student’s introduction to “God’s First Book” of Nature, as well as their initiation into the Experiential Leadership Program that is a foundational part of the College’s academic offerings). Washut served in his position as Assistant Dean until departing in the Fall of 2009 to pursue a graduate degree in Sacred Theology from Austria’s International Theological Institute (ITI). While in Austria, he continued to work for the College, coordinating its inaugural high-school (PEAK) and adult education (WSCT) summer programs before returning to Wyoming Catholic as a full-time professor in early 2012.

A Byzantine Catholic who is a strong advocate for the College’s desire to “breath with both lungs,” Washut has served as Visiting Associate Professor of Patristics and Ecclesiastical History at St. Cyril and Methodius Byzantine Catholic Seminary in Pittsburgh. Upon returning to Lander, he taught across the breadth of Wyoming Catholic’s unique curriculum—theology and philosophy, as well as in her distinctive Trivium and Humanities courses—and worked closely with a number of the College’s Administrative offices, including Admissions, Advancement, and the Outdoor Leadership Program (OLP). In the Fall of 2019, he was named Academic Dean, and served in that capacity for four years before being named President in August, 2023.

“Wyoming Catholic College has truly been a lifelong pursuit for me and for my family,” says Washut, who took the reigns in a brief ceremony at the beginning of the Fall 2023 semester.  “I’m an ‘accidental academic,’ really. I grew up in Wyoming, my dad was the police chief in my hometown, we were rooted in my mom’s family of ranchers, and I never imagined myself as pursuing a career in academia. But my involvement in the founding of Wyoming Catholic let me to where I am today, the leader of the best educational institution in the country. And while my years as a professor and then as Dean have shown me first-hand and up-close the many challenges that lie ahead, they have also shown me the extraordinary value of this education and the importance of our mission. Life at a school as proudly counter-cultural as this one will never be easy, but the students and graduates Wyoming Catholic College is forming are one-of-a-kind!”

Recent Interviews and Articles
The Pillar: “’Experience. Delight. Wonder. Wisdom’—WCC president aims for ‘love of reality”
Catholic World Report: “Education as Spiritual Work of Mercy—Talking with President Washut”
EWTN News in Depth: “The Digital Fast & Outdoor Focus for Shaping Graduating Catholics”
de Nicola Center’s 2022 Fall Conference: “Learning to Read ‘God’s First Book’ Once Again”

About the College
Wyoming Catholic College forms students through a rigorous immersion in the primary sources of the classical liberal arts tradition, the grandeur of the mountain wilderness, and the spiritual heritage of the Catholic Church. Grounded in real experience and thoughtful reflection, our graduates love truth, think clearly, and communicate eloquently, engaging with the world as it is.