Welcome, President Peñalver!
By • August 12, 2026 0 398
Fifty years ago, the Rev. Timothy Healy, S.J., became the 46th president of Georgetown University. His tenure was marked by breakthrough moves, with Georgetown’s national visibility growing as he increased the endowment, set expansion goals, won a NCAA basketball championship and celebrated the university’s bicentennial in 1989.
Healy’s predecessor, Robert Henle, S.J., had overseen a chaotic period, marked by student protests, but also by welcoming women as full-time Georgetown College students and establishing financial constraints.
Twenty-five years ago, John DeGioia became the 48th president of Georgetown University, having worked under Healy as well as under his successor, Rev. Leo O’Donovan, S.J. In office for a record 23 years, DeGioia initiated many programs, moved an expanded Georgetown onto the global stage and resigned in late 2024 due to health issues.
This past July, Eduardo Peñalver became the 49th president of the university, arriving from Seattle University. This legal scholar, blessed with an inquisitive mind and an engaging personality, is the second lay person to lead the 237-year-old institution, the first Catholic and Jesuit university in the U.S.
It is noteworthy that Peñalver went on an eight-day silent retreat, informed by Ignatian spirituality, a few months ago. He said at the time: “Georgetown is this precious thing, for the Jesuits, for the global Catholic community and for the country. It’s doing something no one else is doing. What are the things I need to be doing to prepare myself to do well, not for myself, but to help this institution continue to thrive?”
Amid all the uncertainties besetting educational life in America, Georgetown University appears well positioned for local and global success. DeGioia left a platform to build amazing things in the future, as Robert Groves, then interim president, pointed out in a June interview with The Georgetowner.
Peñalver looks to us like the right man for the right job at the right time.
