Everything ‘begins with God’ for first Black woman to be president of Denver’s Regis University
Shawna Cooper Whitehead was inaugurated Sept. 18 as the 29th president of Jesuit-run Regis University in Denver. She is the university’s first African American and first woman president, and the first Black woman to lead a U.S. Jesuit university. In her address, Cooper Whitehead spoke of gratitude for God’s presence in her life and said the significance of her presidency would be determined by what the university community does together. The inauguration events began with a Mass of the Holy Spirit and included a missioning ceremony and community gathering.
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Shawna Cooper Whitehead was inaugurated as Regis University’s 29th president, becoming its first Black and first female leader and the first Black woman to head a U.S. Jesuit university. She described her appointment in terms of faith, gratitude and shared responsibility, as the Denver institution approaches its 150th anniversary in 2027. 1
The Sept. 18 inauguration followed a Mass of the Holy Spirit and missioning rite the previous day, and concluded with a community picnic. Cooper Whitehead said she was humbled by the role and its historic significance, while emphasizing that the presidency’s impact would depend on what the university community accomplished together. 1
Before joining Regis, she was vice president of student affairs at Boston College. Her higher-education career also included student-services leadership at Seton Hall University and roles at Loyola University Chicago; she grew up in Champaign–Urbana, Illinois, and credited her mother and Catholic elementary school with shaping her faith and path into Catholic higher education. 1
Cooper Whitehead said that “Everything, for me, begins with God,” and reflected that, looking back, she could see God’s influence in events that had not made sense to her at the time. She described the presidency as something entrusted to her, rather than an institution she was starting from scratch. 1
Denver Archbishop James R. Golka said Jesuit education should develop both capable minds and generous hearts, putting knowledge in service of truth, justice and the common good. He highlighted the Jesuit ideal of forming “men and women for others,” calling students toward service as well as career preparation. 1
Jesuit Father Andrew Kirchman, provincial of the Jesuits’ Central and Southern Province, urged the university community to listen to the Holy Spirit and one another, and to discern how its structures and ministries could better respond to the Gospel. Former Regis president Jesuit Father Michael Sheeran also pledged support for Cooper Whitehead and the university’s work with the Church in Colorado. 1
Cooper Whitehead called for thoughtful leadership marked by compassion, intellectual courage and commitment to the common good. She said Regis should help students engage with complexity, listen humbly, discern wisely and serve others. 1
She also said honoring Regis’ history does not mean keeping the university unchanged, invoking St. Ignatius of Loyola’s journey as an example of discernment that involves movement. She urged the university community to look toward the future with its mission at the center. 1
God’s presence and shared leadership in Catholic higher education
In Catholic higher education, God’s presence is not confined to chapel or theology classes: it is encountered through the search for truth, the formation of persons, and a community whose life reflects the Gospel. Shared leadership helps make that presence visible when administrators, faculty, staff, students, and the Church’s pastors serve a common educational mission.
A Catholic university’s identity is living, not merely inherited from its founding. It should be evident in its curriculum, faculty, student life, and quality of community life, as well as in its relationship with the local Church and bishop. This identity does not oppose serious academic inquiry; it calls the university to pursue truth freely while recognizing that faith can illuminate the truth about creation and human life.
The Catholic presence in academic work need not mean inserting religious material into every discipline. Catholic educators can open their fields to fundamental questions of meaning, purpose, and human destiny, while bringing professional competence and credible witness to their work. The Church’s guidance also cautions against enforced uniformity: unity can grow amid legitimate diversity, personal freedom, and varied forms of apostolic initiative.
Shared leadership, then, is more than distributing tasks or consulting different constituencies. It is a leadership of service that helps the university community grow; the dedication and witness of non-academic staff are part of the institution’s identity, too. The Congregation for Catholic Education likewise stresses that teaching and administrative staff act most effectively when they share values and understand the institution as a learning community, not simply a place that delivers instruction.
This vision does not erase differences in responsibility. University leaders have particular duties of governance, while faculty and staff contribute their own expertise and witness; the Church’s pastors have a distinct relationship to the institution’s Catholic identity. The available texts support collaboration and ecclesial communion, but do not set out one universal governance model for every Catholic university. They instead point toward leadership that respects academic work and legitimate institutional differences while keeping the shared mission clear.
When a university’s members pursue knowledge rigorously, serve one another, and help students ask life’s deepest questions, its Catholic character becomes more than a label. It becomes a community witness—one in which faith and reason, competence and service, and freedom and responsibility can meet in the search for truth.