Kathleen Getz named 13 th president of Mercyhurst University By Deborah W. Morton
Dr. Kathleen A. Getz assumed the ofce of Mercyhurst University’s 13 th president on July 12, 2021, with a level of self-confdence that belied her calm, almost serene demeanor. “I may not have been the best president for Mercyhurst at diferent times in its history, but I believe I am now,” she said in an interview last summer. “I think the partnering of Kathy Getz and Mercyhurst University will make us both better.” Getz is well known as a strategic thinker, but where she shines is in communicating her thoughts in a way that is straightforward and easily digestible. Her frst order of business is to “deeply engage” with the college community as an active listener. From there, she thinks, “we’ll need to talk about stabilizing and growing the enrollment. We’ll want to decide which new programs we should be investing in and address opportunistic challenges like planning for our Centennial. And that’s just for starters.” As for the proverbial “frst 100 days,” she said, “I will deem mine successful if we have a shared sense of how we are going to move forward to address our challenges and to inspire all of our stakeholders with optimism that the best is yet to come.” Getz comes to Mercyhurst with 18 years of senior leadership experience in major business schools, including 10 years at Catholic universities. Prior to Mercyhurst, she was dean of the Sellinger School of Business and Management at Loyola University Maryland, a Jesuit Catholic institution whose business school is home to nearly 2,000 students, 55 full-time faculty, and 13 full-time staf. From 2011 to 2014, she was dean of the Quinlan School of Business at Loyola University Chicago, one of the largest Catholic universities in the United States. Previously, she was senior associate dean for academic afairs at the Kogod School of Business
at American University from 2006 to 2011 and chair of the Department of Management from 1999 to 2002. She also served as a professor of management at all three institutions. “As a mission-driven, servant leader, Kathy Getz holds a strong record of service to students and communities, of supporting and advancing the work of the faculty, and engaging donors and alumni in the mission of her institution,” said Board of Trustees Chair Joseph G. NeCastro. “She is a passionate and accessible leader who we believe is ideally suited to lead Mercyhurst into the future.”
While her senior leadership experience
and many accomplishments —
among them being named one of Maryland’s Top 100 Women for 2018 — position her well for Mercyhurst’s top job, it was her connection to the university’s values that most appealed to her. “I was struck by the consonance of my own values with those of Mercyhurst,” she said. “Leading people with whom I share certain core values to transform the lives of students and help our community seems to me to be the opportunity of a lifetime.”
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