Jonathan Vaughn

Jonathan Vaughn, Ph.D., was appointed interim vice president for Development & Alumni Relations at SUNY New Paltz in September 2025. He also serves as the interim executive director of the SUNY New Paltz Foundation. Vaughn reports to the president and serves as a member of the President’s Cabinet, the University’s senior leadership team. He leads all philanthropic activities for the University, as well as engagement with New Paltz’s tens of thousands of living alumni.

In his prior role as Executive Director of Development, Vaughn led the campaign planning & implementation for the University’s first-ever comprehensive campaign, Soaring Higher, with the team exceeding the $23M goal with $24.7M raised for New Paltz. He continues to lead planning and implementation for major University campaigns.

A scholar of Jungian depth psychology, Vaughn also serves as adjunct faculty in the Department of Psychology at New Paltz. His academic research focuses on the psychology of place, particularly in an age of climate crisis. Broader Jungian interests include dream analysis, active imagination, mythological symbolism, and cultural complex theory.

Vaughn has served on campus as the elected Secretary of the University Faculty (2021-2025) and as a member of the Friends of the Sojourner Truth Library Steering Committee, the Public Art Committee, the Tree Committee, and the Evolutionary Studies Board, in addition to other roles. Externally, he serves in a volunteer capacity as chair of the International Association for Jungian Studies (IAJS) and as vice chair of the Overlook Mountain Center (Woodstock, New York).

Vaughn joined the SUNY New Paltz community in 2019. In 2022, he led the team that won the Council for Advancement and Support of Education’s (CASE) Best of District II Award for Soaring Higher—The Campaign for SUNY New Paltz Case Statement. He was a recipient of the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Professional Service in 2025.

Prior to his time at SUNY New Paltz, Vaughn served for more than 20 years in higher education and nonprofit sector roles. He worked previously at Cambridge in America (the U.S. office of the University and Colleges of Cambridge, U.K.), the City University of New York, and The Music Center (in Los Angeles, California).

Vaughn earned his Ph.D. in Depth Psychology, with emphasis in Jungian and Archetypal Studies, from Pacifica Graduate Institute. He holds a Master of Arts in depth psychology from Pacifica, a Master of Public Administration from Baruch College, CUNY, a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, and an associate’s degree in acting from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee, and a former resident of Washington, D.C., Beijing, New York City, and Los Angeles, he currently lives and works in New Paltz.