Sonya Lutter

Sonya Lutter is an American financial planner, academic, author, and professor. She is the director of Financial Health and Wellness in the School of Financial Planning at the Texas Tech University College of Human Sciences.

Education and early life Lutter grew up in the rural town of Kingman, Kansas, where her grandparents were custom harvesters of wheat, whose worked involved seasonal long-term travel in the Midwestern United States. She graduated from Kingman High School in 2000. She was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in personal financial planning from KSU in 2003.

Career and research Lutter began her career as a marriage and family therapist. She became an assistant professor of family studies and human services in 2010 at KSU, a position in which she held until she was promoted to an associate professor in 2014, and was a Mary L. Vanier endowed professor. While under her leadership, the School of Family Studies and Human Services changed names to the Department of Applied Human Sciences.

In 2014 the Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education gave her an outstanding journal article award. In 2017 the Financial Planning Association awarded her with the Best theoretical research paper award.

She served as the director of research and education for Herbers & Company for one year.

She has served as associate editor for the Journal of Family and Economic Issues, on the editorial board of the Journal of Financial Therapy and on the international scientific board of the Italian Journal of Sociology of Education. She also serves as the Executive Director of the Institute for Systemic Financial Professionals.

Selected publications

Dew, Jeffrey, Sonya Britt, and Sandra Huston. "Examining the relationship between financial issues and divorce." Family Relations 61, no. 4 (2012): 615-628. Britt, Sonya L., David Allen Ammerman, Sarah F. Barrett, and Scott Jones. "Student loans, financial stress, and college student retention." Journal of Student Financial Aid 47, no. 1 (2017): 3. Klontz, Bradley, Sonya L. Britt, Jennifer Mentzer, and Ted Klontz. "Money beliefs and financial behaviors: Development of the Klontz Money Script Inventory." Journal of Financial Therapy 2, no. 1 (2011): 1.