Eduardo Peñalver will become the next president of Georgetown University on July 1.
Georgetown’s board of directors unanimously voted to name Peñalver as the 49th president of the university, according to a Wednesday news release.
He will take over for the interim president, Robert Groves, who stepped into the role when former President John DeGioia left the position to recover from a stroke in 2024. DeGioia lead the university for 23 years, making him the longest-serving president in Georgetown’s history.
Peñalver has overseen university operations in past roles. Since 2021, he has served as president of Seattle University, which is a Catholic, Jesuit institution like Georgetown.
He was the first layperson to lead Seattle University.
“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,” Peñalver said in a news release. “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.”
Peñalver has also served as the dean of Cornell Law School and clerked for former U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. He attended Cornell to earn his bachelor’s degree and Yale Law School for his law degree.
He’s taught classes in the law schools of multiple universities.
Peñalver was interested in working at Georgetown because of its location in D.C., its position as an R1 research institution and its philosophy of bringing up students in the Jesuit tradition, according to the news release.
He also has roots in D.C. Both Peñalver and his wife, Sital Kalantry, began their careers in the District. Outside of his background in law, Peñalver has his pilot license and hopes to fly in the D.C. region.
The Washington Post first reported about the decision to elect a new university president.
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