St. Bonaventure announces 22nd president | News

Gingerich will take office June 20 from Dr. Joseph Zimmer, who has served as acting president since the death of Dr. Dennis DePerro, 21st president of the university, on March 1, 2021. 

“I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the opportunity I’ve been given to join the Bonaventure community,” Gingerich said in statement released Tuesday by St. Bonaventure. “I have always had such deep respect and admiration for the Franciscans. Their humility, reflection and sense of community are fundamental in the way I strive to live my life.”

Gingerich helped guide Scranton through the COVID pandemic and served as acting president for four months after the death of the Rev. Scott R. Pilarz, who passed away March 10, 2021 — just nine days after St. Bonaventure lost DePerro.

DePerro died at age 62 due to complications caused by COVID-19; Pilarz died at 61 due to complications actions of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

SBU trustee Michael Hill, co-chair of the search committee along with fellow trustee Deb Henretta, said the experience stepping in for Pilarz was a key factor in selecting Gingerich.

“Having to cope with a pandemic and a president’s tragic death, much like we did during this strange and dynamic time, was important and spoke to his leadership ability, but I think what made Jeff shine is the way he fits into the charism of this institution,” Hill said.

Gingerich checked every box the university was seeking in a leader, Henretta said.

“When I step back from everything I felt and all that I heard through the deliberations and the feedback from the stakeholder interactions, I think about it in three pillars,” she said. “Jeff is mission-driven, he’s student-centered and he’s a caring, empowering leader.”

Gingerich will be introduced to the campus community at a 12:30 p.m. press conference Wednesday in Rigas Theater of the university’s Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts.

For his part, Gingerich said he was attracted to St. Bonaventure by its increasing overall enrollment, added academic and extracurricular programs, the launch of the School of Health Professions and upgraded facilities.

“The initiatives that the university has been driving to put St. Bonaventure in a place to allow it to thrive in the future are very important to me,” he said. “There is a culture of innovation here that’s so critical in higher education today.” 

Gingerich said he walked away from two days of campus interviews last week convinced that Bonaventure was a place he wanted to be, professionally and personally.

“Every person I encountered had a spirit about them that made it clear how much they loved and were committed to this place,” he said.

Prior to his role as provost at Scranton, Gingerich spent more than 18 years at Cabrini University in suburban Philadelphia, teaching in the Department of Sociology and Criminology (2005-18) and serving as provost and VP for academic affairs (2014-18). He has served as acting president at Scranton and Cabrini, which is also a Catholic institution.  

Gingerich advanced new initiatives and programs at Scranton related to diversity in faculty hiring and development, staff and administrator training, curricular improvements and student support and engagement.

He also led two successful Middle States self-study accreditation processes, strategic enrollment planning, campus master planning, the development of a one-stop student services center and campuswide strategic planning efforts for both leadership development and global studies.

Gingerich worked with faculty at Scranton and Cabrini to develop new undergraduate and graduate programs, as well as the establishment of the Nerney Leadership Institute, the Slattery Center for Humanities, and four mission-focused academic centers at Cabrini. He also led initiatives at both Scranton and Cabrini benefiting incarcerated students.

In just his last two years at Scranton, under his guidance the university received more than $2 million in grants, including funding from NASA, the National Science Foundation and National Institute for the Humanities.

Gingerich earned master’s and doctoral degrees in sociology from the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor’s degree in social work from Eastern Mennonite College. He began his teaching career at Bluffton (Ohio) University, also a private Mennonite school, from 2000-05.’

Much of Gingerich’s work prior to entering higher education was shaped by six years as a voluntary service worker in New Orleans, coordinating conflict resolution programming at the Twomey Center for Peace through Justice at Loyola University. 

These experiences inspired his research and teaching interests in race and ethnic relations, cultural analysis, prisoner reentry, and incarceration reform.

He is co-executive editor of “Praxis: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Faith and Justice,” a scholarly journal founded to advance the intersection of theory and practice in the pursuit of social justice through faith traditions. 

Those years of volunteer service made an impact on St. Bonaventure’s trustees and campus community members involved in the search and interview process.

“Seldom in life do you see so many points of interest intersect on one conclusion, but in this case, all facets of the university community converged on a singular belief — that Jeff should be our next president,” said John Sheehan, chair of St. Bonaventure’s Board of Trustees.

Father Kevin Mullen, O.F.M., a university trustee and provincial minister of Holy Name Province, said Gingerich clearly understood the essence of Saint Francis.

“When Jeff said that Francis went out to live the gospel of Jesus Christ, that resonated with me,” Mullen said. “That’s the exact phrase that friars use to profess their way of life.”

A native of Parnell, Iowa, Gingerich and his wife, Betsy, are the parents of five children. Betsy Gingerich has 30 years of experience herself in higher education, including many years at Alvernia University, a Franciscan institution in Reading, Pa., and Cabrini.