NEW ORLEANS (AP) - The new president of Loyola University New Orleans is the first female and first non-Jesuit to run the school since its founding in 1912.
Tania Tetlow has been serving as senior vice president and chief of staff at Tulane University.
She’ll take over in September as Loyola’s 17th president, replacing the Rev. Kevin Wildes, who is retiring in June.
“With her deep roots in New Orleans and Jesuit values, she was born for this job,” said Dennis Cuneo, Loyola trustee and chair of the search committee.
After graduating from Tulane in 1992, then from Harvard a few years later, Tetlow became a federal prosecutor, focusing on family law and domestic violence cases. She joined Tulane’s faculty in 2005 and led Tulane’s Domestic Violence Abuse Clinic for about a decade. She also chaired a mayoral task force aimed at improving how the New Orleans Police Department responds to domestic abuse cases.
After Hurricane Katrina, Tetlow chaired the New Orleans Public Library Board, raising $7 million to help rebuild the city’s flooded libraries. She’s also served as the United States chair for the British American Project, a leadership organization.
“The Jesuits are thrilled that our first lay president has such a strong Catholic faith and Jesuit background,” said Loyola trustee Billy Huete, S.J. “Though we were definitely looking for these attributes in all the possible candidates, it would be hard to find a qualified layperson who has a greater understanding and appreciation of what the Society of Jesus tries to be and do in our contemporary world.”
Robert LeBlanc, a former Loyola trustee, called Tetlow’s appointment “a sensational choice for Loyola” and “the perfect 21st-century leader for our university.”
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