President, Fordham University

Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J. was appointed Fordham University’s 32nd president on July 1, 2003. A native New Yorker, Fr. McShane’s family association with Fordham began 74 years ago when his father enrolled as a student at Fordham College. Three of his brothers followed and Fr. McShane eventually joined the Fordham family in 1987 when he was appointed to the Board of Trustees. He served until 1992, when he was named dean of Fordham College at Rose Hill and professor of theology. In 1998, he became president of the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania and was reappointed to the Fordham board in 2001. In addition, Fr. McShane has served as a trustee of St. Joseph’s Preparatory School in Philadelphia, Loyola University New Orleans, and the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Pennsylvania.

Fr. McShane was recommended to the Fordham Board at the conclusion of a national search directed by Robert E. Campbell, chairman of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and former chair of the Fordham University Board of Trustees.

Fr. McShane entered the Society of Jesus in 1967 after attending Regis High School in Manhattan. He received a bachelor’s degree in English and philosophy, and a master’s degree in English from Boston College in 1972. He received M.Div. and S.T.M. degrees from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley and was ordained a priest in 1977. In 1981, he received a Ph.D. in the history of Christianity from the University of Chicago and went on to serve as a member of the religious studies faculty at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, N.Y., from 1982 until 1992, becoming chair of the department in 1991.

Fr. McShane is well known in Jesuit higher education for his collegiality and accessibility to students, faculty and staff alike. The driving force behind the establishment of prestigious fellowship programs at both Fordham and Scranton, Fr. McShane’s legacy is a culture of scholarship in which students are nurtured, challenged and inspired.

A distinguished author, Fr. McShane received the Catholic Press Association first prize in 1992 for his article in Church, “Virtue Must Advertise: The Bishops and Public Relations.” He is the author of numerous articles, including “Roman Catholicism” in the Encyclopedia Britannica Micropaedia (15th edition); “James Cardinal Gibbons” and “Pope Leo XIII” in the Encyclopedia of Religion; and a book, Sufficiently Radical: Catholicism, Progressivism and the Bishops’ Program of 1919 (Catholic University of America Press, 1986).

Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J.

President, Fordham University

Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J. has served as president of Fordham University since 2003.