John Joseph DeGioia (born 1957) is an American academic administrator and philosopher who served as the president of Georgetown University from 2001 to 2024. He was the first lay president of the school and its longest-serving president. Upon his appointment, he also became the first lay president of any Jesuit university in the United States. Having spent his entire career at Georgetown, where he received his undergraduate and graduate degrees, DeGioia was the dean of student affairs and held various vice presidential positions before becoming president.
Early life and education
John Joseph DeGioia was born in Connecticut in 1957, and was raised in Orange, Connecticut, and Hanford, California. He attended Amity Regional High School in Woodbridge, Connecticut, graduating in 1975. He then attended Georgetown College at Georgetown University, where he majored in English. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1979.
Georgetown University administrator
Dean and vice president
Upon graduation, DeGioia became a hall director at one of Georgetown's freshman dormitories, New South Hall. As dean of student affairs, he also was involved in the conflicts over Georgetown's Catholic identity during the tenure of Healy's successor, Leo J. O'Donovan. DeGioia was criticized by some Catholics for allowing the formation of a student abortion rights group in 1991. The funding for the group was later revoked due to three events that DeGioia claimed advocated for abortion, violating the terms he had set out for the club.
O'Donovan named DeGioia the associate vice president and chief administrative officer of Georgetown's main campus in 1992. It was the board of directors' initial intention to hire a Jesuit for the job, but they determined that there was not a suitable candidate for the office. DeGioia began another major fundraising campaign in 2011, which reached its goal of $1.5 billion in 2015 (equivalent to $ in ), one year ahead of schedule.
A number of construction projects were undertaken during DeGioia's presidency. He assumed office midway through the construction of the Southwest Quadrangle, and oversaw its completion. Additionally, a new, science building, Regents Hall, opened in 2012, and the John R. Thompson, Jr. Intercollegiate Athletic Center opened in 2016.
Several new academic components were created during his tenure. The largest of these were the Georgetown campus in Qatar, which opened in 2005, and the McCourt School of Public Policy, which was founded in 2013. Permanent programs also were established in Shanghai and London.
DeGioia was involved in several controversies as president. In 2012, he publicly came to the defense of a student at the Georgetown University Law Center, Sandra Fluke, following her testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives in support of the Affordable Care Act's contraceptive mandate, when political pundit Rush Limbaugh made disparaging comments about her. That same year, DeGioia was criticized by prominent Catholics, including the Archbishop of Washington, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, for Georgetown's invitation of Kathleen Sebelius, the Secretary of Health and Human Services and author of the contraceptive mandate, to be honored as a graduation speaker. This prompted William Peter Blatty, a Georgetown alumnus, to file a canon lawsuit with the Vatican, requesting that it order the university to comply with Ex corde Ecclesiae.
In 2016, DeGioia convened a systemic study of and apology for the university's 19th-century connection to slavery. On November 21, 2024, DeGioia announced that he would resign as president to focus on his recovery. He will hold the title of president emeritus and will remain a member of the faculty.
Honors and affiliations
In addition to his role as university president, DeGioia is involved in a number of national education organizations. He has been the chair of the board of directors of the American Council on Education and the Forum for the Future of Higher Education, and the chair of the board of governors of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). He has been a member of the boards of directors of the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the National Association of Independent Schools, as well as a commissioner of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics. He is a member of the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on Values and WEF's Global University Leaders Forum. and the "Catholic in the Public Square Award" by Commonweal magazine in 2012. He was named "Washingtonian of the Year" by Washingtonian magazine in 2008, and a "Brave Thinker" by The Atlantic in 2012.
DeGioia was inducted into the Amity Regional High School hall of honor in 2006.
Personal life
DeGioia's father, John G. DeGioia, worked as a customer service specialist for a Connecticut manufacturing company. His mother taught gifted students in the Hanford, California, public schools.
On November 5, 1994, DeGioia married Theresa Anne Miller, a 1989 graduate of Georgetown University. they were married at Holy Trinity Church in the Georgetown neighborhood, in a ceremony presided over by DeGioia's uncle and Jesuit priest, John J. Begley.