Paula Luff

Associate Vice President for Financial Aid


Paula Luff serves as the associate vice president for Financial Aid at DePaul University. In her role, she oversees the Financial Aid Office which is responsible for ensuring institutional compliance with all federal/state legislation and regulations, administering aid programs and developing and evolving institutional policies regarding leveraging institutional grant funds to meet the enrollment management goals of the university.

Prior to joining DePaul in 2003, Paula served as a financial aid administrator at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Loyola University. She also has experience at Carlow University, Seton Hill University and Carnegie Mellon University.

Paula is an expert in financial aid trends and strategies that promote enrollment growth, diversity and quality, and in the Illinois Monetary Assistance Grant Program. She is a member of the Executive Council of the National Direct Student Loan Coalition, which visits Washington quarterly to meet with members of Congress and the Senate regarding Direct Loan issues. (DePaul is the nation's largest private university in loan volume in the Federal Direct Lending Program.) For 2010-11, she is serving as Legislative Chair for the Illinois Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. Paula is also the co-founder of the Illinois Private Aid Director Consortium and a member of the Executive Board for the Midwest Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (MASFAA).

Paula holds a bachelor of arts in English/writing and a bachelor of science in psychology from the University of Pittsburgh, where she graduated cum laude. She is currently pursuing a master's degree in public services from DePaul.

Paula can be reached at (312) 362-8091.

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