Santa Clara Announces First Female President

Julie H. Sullivan will also be the first layperson to serve as president in the university’s 171-year history

Santa Clara announced this morning that Julie H. Sullivan had been selected as the university’s next president, following a unanimous decision by the Board of Trustees and an extensive nationwide search.

The historic announcement was made at a ceremony outside of the Mission Church, where several hundred people gathered to witness the naming of Santa Clara’s first ever female and non-Jesuit president. The announcement comes eight months after the Board of Trustees voted to amend the bylaws, removing the requirement that the university president must be a Jesuit priest.

“I come to this moment after many months, frankly, of discernment and prayer,” Sullivan said in her speech this morning. “I am so honored to work with this community to create the next chapter in Santa Clara’s rich Jesuit Catholic tradition of Ignatian spirituality and educational excellence.”

During her tenure as president of the University of St. Thomas, Sullivan spearheaded several lasting initiatives, including the establishment of the Morrison Family College of Health and the new School of Nursing, and the transition from Division-III to D-I athletics.

Sullivan’s strong business background also includes bachelor’s degree in accounting, a master’s degree in taxation and a Ph.D. in business, according to Santa Clara’s website. She was also the first in her family to attend college.

Sullivan rose to the top amidst a search that included 149 nominations and 58 applications from a diverse collection of individuals representing fields inside and outside academia.

Chair of the Presidential Search Committee Matthew Carnes, S.J, remarked that this was the broadest search in Santa Clara’s history, in which the committee was able to seek out the very best candidates across the nation.

“It has been such a privilege to walk through that process and end up finding exactly that person,” he said in his speech this morning.

Carnes also spoke about Sullivan’s qualities that stood out during the search process, citing her leadership style, experience as an educator and knowledge of the Jesuit mindset.

“As you have already heard from her remarks, Sullivan is a person with a discerning spirit, someone that grounds her decisions in prayer and her relationship to god, someone of careful reflection, someone of listening to the community around her with a deep commitment to the common good, and she promises to keep us true to our mission and help us to discover ever new ways of living it,” he said.

Sullivan will assume the role on July 1, 2022.