WASHINGTON (OSV News) – Georgetown University’s board of directors unanimously voted to name Eduardo M. Peñalver, president of Seattle University, as the 49th president of Georgetown University in Washington, the Jesuit school announced Oct. 15.
Peñalver, also a Rhodes scholar and a former dean of Cornell Law School, begins his new role July 1, 2026, the announcement said.
“We are pleased to welcome Eduardo Peñalver to Georgetown University,” Thomas A. Reynolds, chair of Georgetown's board of directors, said in a statement.
“President Peñalver is an exceptional leader steeped in the Catholic and Jesuit tradition who brings a wealth of experience in higher education, a global mindset, a commitment to social justice and academic excellence, and a bold vision for Georgetown’s future,” Reynolds said. “We look forward to him joining our Georgetown community.”
Peñalver said in a statement, “I’m deeply honored to have the privilege of serving as Georgetown’s next president.”
“I would like to thank the Presidential Search Committee and Georgetown’s board of directors for entrusting this role to me at such a pivotal time for Georgetown and for higher education,” he said, adding, “I am also grateful to Jack DeGioia for his decades of transformative leadership and to Interim President Bob Groves for his careful stewardship this past year.”
Peñalver has been the 22nd president of Jesuit-run Seattle University since 2021, and was the first layperson to lead the university since its founding in 1891.
As he begins his new role, Peñalver said he plans to bring his experiences leading another Jesuit university to Georgetown.
“At the center of our work, (Jesuit universities) share an interest in students as whole persons, focusing on their experiences both inside and outside the classroom,” he said. “We share an aspiration to do more than teach a skill or impart knowledge, but to get students to grapple with the deeper questions, to pursue more ambitious goals like wisdom and understanding and meaning, in their academic work and in their lives.”
Groves was named interim president after John J. DeGioia, Georgetown's longtime president, stepped down last November to recover from a stroke.
Peñalver also called it a “full-circle moment” to return to Washington as it is the city where he and his wife, Sital Kalantry, a law professor, first began their careers.
“This is an exciting moment in Georgetown's history – with the expansion of the Capitol Campus, the creation of new, interdisciplinary programs, a renewed focus on access and affordability, and a commitment to finding innovative solutions to society's most pressing issues,” he said. “I look forward to working with the students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends of Georgetown to deepen the university’s impact on our country and on our world.”
Prior to leading Seattle University, Peñalver served as the dean of Cornell Law School. He studied philosophy and theology at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar and earned his bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and law degree from Yale Law School. He also clerked for former U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens.
As a leading scholar on property law, Peñalver has taught law at Fordham Law School, the University of Chicago Law School and Cornell Law School. He has also been a visiting professor at Harvard and Yale law schools.
Peñalver was raised in a Catholic family in Puyallup, Washington, a small town near Tacoma. His father, a retired pediatrician, immigrated to the U.S. in 1962 from Cuba, and his mother, a retired school nurse, is the daughter of Swiss immigrants who became dairy farmers in Washington.
