Kai S. Swanson he/him/his

Special Assistant to the President

• Phone: 309-794-7419
• Email: kaiswanson@augustana.edu
• Office: Bahls CLC 112

Kai Swanson, special assistant to the president since 2005, grew up in Rock Island, just across Lincoln Park from the college from which he would graduate in 1986. His past positions at Augustana include news editor for WVIK-Quad Cities NPR, public relations director for the college, and editor of the Augustana College Magazine. In 2011, he served as interim general manager of WVIK, then in 2014 was interim director of the Augustana Teaching Museum of Art.

Kai serves on the Rock Island County Board, is president of the Rock Island County Forest Preserve Commission, and serves on the boards of Rock Island’s Martin Luther King, Jr, Community Center, the Visit Quad Cities destination marketing organization, and the Genesius Guild classic outdoor theatre. He has been a frequent speaker for both the National Association of Presidential Assistants in Higher Education and the Association of Governing Boards.

Since 1996, he has presented Concert Conversations prior to each Quad City Symphony Orchestra concert, and since 2022 has been host of Saturday Morning Live, a weekly radio program. You can hear recent episodes at https://www.wvik.org/podcast/saturday-morning-live