The University of San Francisco appointed a new president, Paul J. Fitzgerald ’80, a Jesuit priest and 20-year college administrator with deep Bay Area roots.
Fitzgerald, 56, grew up in Los Gatos, graduated from Santa Clara University and was ordained to the priesthood at USF’s St. Ignatius Church, according to USF’s announcement.
He leaves a post as senior vice president for academic affairs at Fairfield University in Connecticut.
He grew up in Los Gatos and spent 12 years at Santa Clara University, where he was associate dean and senior associate dean at the College of Arts and Sciences. He was also ordained at St. Ignatius Church on the USF campus in 1992.
Fitzgerald speaks German, French and Spanish. He has taught in China and Kenya, and he earned a doctorate in the sociology of religion at the Sorbonne in Paris. While in Paris, he earned a pontifical doctorate in ecclesiology from the Institut Catholique de Paris.