After two national searches, Kansas University officials have selected one of their own to lead the Office of Admissions and Scholarships.

Lisa Pinamonti, associate director of the office since 2000 and interim director since April 2002, on Wednesday was named to fill the post.

“All along I wanted to be an admissions director,” Pinamonti said. “So when I was presented the opportunity, I figured I’d apply. I’m thrilled and honored to get the job.”

Pinamonti has served as interim director since Alan Cerveny left for the top admissions post at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. After a national search ended in August 2002, Larry Kruse, director of high school and college relations at Oklahoma State University, told KU he would take the admissions and scholarships job but later backed out.

KU officials subsequently conducted another national search that ended with Pinamonti’s appointment.

“I think the whole committee feels very strongly, very positively about the search that was made,” said Kevin Boatright, associate executive vice chancellor and a search committee member. “There was disappointment after the first search ended with the individual at the last minute deciding not to come. The job was left in an interim capacity longer than you might ideally like, though it was no fault of our own.”

Pinamonti, 31, said she opted not to be a candidate for the position when the first search was announced. But after serving as interim director for several months, she decided to apply during the second search.

“The first time, they opened the search pretty quickly, and I didn’t really think about it at the time,” she said. “I wasn’t sure if the timing was right.”

Now, Pinamonti said she could focus more of her time on long-term planning for the office. She said several staff positions were open, and she wanted to work on developing a structure for including more campus departments in the admissions process.

She said the Office of Admissions and Scholarships would continue with a new focus, announced this year, on recruiting top students from Kansas instead of heavily recruiting National Merit scholars from other states.

“We want Kansas students to know this is a great option for them,” she said. “It’s a great idea to be more visible in your own state.”

Increasing minority representation at KU also will be a recruiting goal, she said.

On the scholarship side of the office, Pinamonti said dealing with cutbacks in scholarships provided by the Endowment Association, a result of the economic slowdown, would be a focus in the next few years.

She said no scholarship money would be cut for the 2003-2004 academic year.

“We won’t know how much scholarship money we’ll have (for the 2004-2005 year) until early fall,” she said. “We won’t know how it’ll affect us until we know officially what’s been given to us.”

Pinamonti will earn $79,000 per year to oversee recruitment activities, new student scholarships, application processing and transfer credit evaluation. Her office has a $2 million budget and 32 staff members.

Before coming to KU, Pinamonti worked as an admissions counselor for three years at Pittsburg State University and a year as orientation coordinator at Wichita State University. She started at KU in 1999 as assistant director of on-campus programming.