Lisa Johnston, assistant dean for student academic services, has announced she will be running for a seat in the U.S. Senate.

“I am a lifelong Democrat and I’ve always been very interested in politics,” Johnston said. “I’ve been working in higher education for the last 17 years and that’s very rewarding, but I’ve kind of been thinking about how I can get more involved in public service and help people at a broader level.”

Johnston has been considering this move for the past several months and has been in conversations with the Kansas Democratic Party. She met with groups in different parts of the state and said everyone has been “extremely supportive and encouraging.”

“I have a committee, a small, core group of folks,” she said. “We’ve been working together, just kind of doing some planning and strategy. The one thing I’m trying to finalize at this point is campaign treasurer, which I should be finalizing relatively soon.”

Johnston applied for a one-year leave of absence from her position at Baker University to focus on her campaign. Although she has yet to receive an official letter, Johnston said both Rand Ziegler, dean of the college of arts and science, and University President Pat Long met and approved her application.

"I was told by (Ziegler) that it has been officially approved, so I'm just waiting to get the official letter," Johnston said. "He and the president met about it and agreed they wanted to be supportive and so I was very thankful about that, because I think that any time anyone is considering taking on getting involved in public service, that that's very important. It's a huge responsibility and a great honor to be considered for something like that, so I was very pleased that they were supportive." <br/>