Trinity Christian College Appoints New President

April 23, 2015 -- Kurt D. Dykstra, the mayor of Holland, Mich., has been appointed to serve as the next president of Trinity Christian College.

Dykstra, an attorney who is also senior vice president and community president of Mercantile Bank of Michigan, will take over as president of the college in Palos Heights, Ill. on July 1, 2015.

“I am honored and humbled to be selected as Trinity’s eighth president,” said Dykstra, who has been Holland’s mayor since 2009.

“Leah (his wife) and I know that God has guided Trinity throughout her history and trust God has great things planned for Trinity’s future.”

Dykstra succeeds Dr. Steven Timmermans who left last year to become executive director of the Christian Reformed Church.

Liz Rudenga, former provost, has been serving in the role of interim president since June 1, 2014. She will continue in the position through June 30, 2015, the end of this academic year.

“We are very pleased and excited that the Board of Trustees has approved the appointment of Kurt Dykstra as the next president of Trinity Christian College,” said Marty Ozinga III, chair of Trinity’s Board of Trustees, in a Trinity Christian College press release.

“Into the role of president, he brings many talents, along with a commitment to the Lord and to Christian higher education and impressive professional experience as a lawyer, banker, Christian college instructor, and public servant.”

Dykstra has been a part-time member of the faculty at Hope College in Holland for more than a decade, teaching upper-level courses in economics, business and political science. In addition, he has mentored and offered career guidance to students.

Dykstra grew up in Oostburg, Wisc. and was the first in his family to graduate from college. He earned his Bachelor of Arts (Magna Cum Laude) at Northwestern College, in Orange City, Iowa, and his Juris Doctor at Marquette University Law School, in Milwaukee, Wisc., graduating first in class (Summa Cum Laude).

While at Marquette, he was elected the editor-in-chief of the Marquette Law Review. He is a former judicial law clerk for Justice Ann Walsh Bradley of the Wisconsin Supreme Court and practiced law for 15 years at two National Law Journal 250 firms.

Dykstra said he looks forward to bringing his passion for Christian higher education to the role of president. For the past seven years, he has served on the board of Northwestern College, his alma mater.

Dykstra’s wife is the assistant director of admissions at Hope College. The couple has two teenage daughters, Juliana and Emma-Elisabeth.

The family is active in Pillar Church, a dual-affiliation congregation of the Reformed Church in America and the Christian Reformed Church in North America. Leah Dykstra serves as the vice president of the council at Pillar.

“I have long admired and cared for the work that Trinity Christian College has been called to do, and hearing the announcement that you have chosen Kurt Dykstra as its next president feels like a marriage made in heaven,” said Rev. Timothy Brown, president of Western Theological Seminary, in Holland, in the press release.