The Georgetown University Board of Directors named an official search committee Jan. 10 to identify candidates to serve as the next university president.
The 12-person committee, consisting of professors, graduates and members of the board of directors assisted by search firm Isaacson, Miller, will be tasked with reviewing candidates and selecting the new president by July 1, 2026, according to an email to community members from board chair Thomas A. Reynolds (GSB ’74). The committee has received about 160 applications so far.
Reynolds said the presidential search committee will prioritize Georgetown’s Jesuit identity, leadership and community as it reviews candidates.
“As we move forward, the Board of Directors has indicated that the position of the new President is to articulate and implement the University’s vision for excellence; to sustain the University’s strong Catholic and Jesuit identity in collaboration with Jesuit leaders; to foster a sense of community, shared purpose and collaboration among the University’s faculty, staff, students and alumni; and to ensure Georgetown continues its leadership in higher education on a national and global level, among other priorities,” Reynolds wrote in the email.
The search committee includes five Georgetown graduates: search committee chair Kevin Warren (GSB ’84), Suzanne Donohoe (COL ’92), W. Robert Berkley, Jr. (GSB ’95), Mannone Butler (GSB ’94, LAW ’99) and Frank McCourt, Jr. (CAS ’75). It also includes four professors: Paul Almeida, the dean of the McDonough School of Business; Kathleen Maguire-Zeiss, the chair of the neuroscience department; law professor Anupam Chander; and professor of Italian Nicoletta Pireddu.
The remaining members of the search committee are Rev. Daniel Patrick Huang, S.J., Rev. Ronald Mercier, S.J., and Jeanne Ruesch, a Georgetown parent who will serve as the committee’s vice chair. Berkley, Butler, Huang, McCourt, Mercier, Ruesch and Warren are all members of the board of directors.
Notably, no current students will serve on the committee, though past Georgetown search committees, including the committee that selected current Interim President Robert M. Groves as provost in 2012, have included students.
Ethan Henshaw (CAS ’26), the president of the Georgetown University Student Association (GUSA), said he thinks students should have opportunities to give the search committee input as they review candidates.
“When you’re choosing the next president of the university, you’re choosing the direction and the policies the university will have for years to come, if not decades to come,” Henshaw told The Hoya. “And so it’s very important that students have feedback on that. It’s our university, and I think this decision will affect us more than it will affect anyone else.”
President Emeritus John J. DeGioia (CAS ’79, GRD ’95) was Georgetown’s first lay president, meaning he is not a member of the clergy. Besides DeGioia, all previous Georgetown presidents have been Jesuits; a woman has never served as Georgetown president, and only one president, Patrick Healy, S.J., has been non-white.
Darius Wagner (CAS ’27), GUSA’s vice president, said he thinks it is important for the search committee to consider diverse candidates for the presidency.
“You want to make history,” Wagner told The Hoya. “For too long in Georgetown’s history, a lot of marginalized voices have been just excluded from the process, and so obviously this is a chance to make history. We want the best candidate to win, but we know oftentimes the best candidates are often candidates that have never been heard before.”
“That’s something that we would love to see, in addition to the candidate aligning with the values that are important to us and that are important to the student body,” Wagner added.
DeGioia established multiple social justice initiatives during his tenure, including the university’s Working Group on Slavery, Memory and Reconciliation, which advises the president on acknowledging and recognizing Georgetown’s relationship with slavery. DeGioia also promoted diversity and sustainability on campus and advocated for LGBTQ+ students and students with disabilities.
Maurice Jackson, a Georgetown professor in the history and Black studies departments who worked closely with DeGioia and serves on the Working Group on Slavery, Memory and Reconciliation, said the new president should be committed to racial justice, as DeGioia was.
“I miss him, and he is a special human being. What he did for this university as a whole, but also for guaranteeing Black education and also for working within the city, we’ll be hard-pressed to replace him,” Jackson told The Hoya. “We must guarantee that anybody who replaces him meets the criteria of caring about African American people, caring about this city,” Jackson added.
Wagner said it is essential that a presidential candidate emphasizes diversity as one of the university’s core values.
“Especially in a time where DEI at higher universities are under assault, we need a president who is ready to stand firm in our university’s beliefs, in which we know it’s true that diversity is good, who is committed to advancing ways for our university to be more diverse, not just racially but also socioeconomically, and is committed to fighting and advocating for students who are in the most marginalized positions,” Wagner said.
Ajani Stella contributed to reporting.