John J. DeGioia

John J. "Jack" DeGioia (born 1957) became the 48th President of Georgetown University on July 1, 2001. He is the first lay president of the school, and in August 2014, became its longest-serving president.

Early life

DeGioia spent his early years in Orange, Connecticut, and Hanford, California. He graduated from Georgetown University's College of Arts and Sciences in 1979 with a B.A. in English and from the Georgetown University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in 1995 with a Ph.D. in philosophy.

Career

DeGioia served as a senior administrator and as a faculty member in the Department of Philosophy before becoming president on July 1, 2001. He continues to teach a seminar each fall, which is part of a program offering first year students the opportunity to encounter unique courses of study inspired by the Jesuit educational theme of cura personalis (“care for the whole person”).

As President, DeGioia recently completed a $1.5 billion fundraising campaign dedicated to enhancing the lifelong value of a Georgetown education.

Honors and Affiliations

In addition to his role as university president, DeGioia is involved in a number of national education organizations. He currently serves as the Chair of the Board of Directors of the American Council on Education (ACE) and of the Forum for the Future of Higher Education; he also serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the National Association of Independent Schools. DeGioia also serves on the Division I Committee on Academics for the NCAA, and as a commissioner on the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics. He is a member of the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Agenda Council on Values and WEF’s Global University Leaders Forum.

He has been presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Academia by the Sons of Italy, and the “Catholic in the Public Square Award” by Commonweal in 2012. He was also named a “Brave Thinker” by The Atlantic in 2012, and as “Washingtonian of the Year” by Washingtonian magazine in 2008.

He has received honorary degrees from Miami Dade College in 2008, Loyola University, Maryland in 2009, Queens University, Belfast in 2009, Sacred Heart University in 2011, and Mount Aloysius College in 2015. He has also received an honorary fellowship at Glyndŵr University in 2010, as well as the “Esteemed Friend” award from Sophia University in Tokyo in 2014, and was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2010.