White House Author

William P. Leahy, S.J. is the 25th President of Boston College, a post he has held since 1996. He entered the Wisconsin Province of the Society of Jesus in 1967. Father Leahy earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and a master’s degree in United States history at Saint Louis University in 1972 and 1975, respectively. He began studies at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley where he earned degrees in theology (1978) and historical theology (1980), and he has a doctoral degree in United States history from Stanford University. Father Leahy taught at Campion Jesuit High School in Prairie du Chien, WI, from 1973 to 1975, and he joined the Marquette University faculty as an instructor of history in 1985. He became an associate professor with tenure in 1991, and in that same year became Marquette’s executive vice president. He is the author of the book "Adapting to America: Catholics, Jesuits and Higher Education in the Twentieth Century" as well as various articles on religious and educational history in the United States. Father Leahy has served as a trustee of St. Louis, Marquette, Loyola Chicago and St. Joseph’s universities, and he currently is a board member of Boston College, Santa Clara University, Creighton University, the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities, the Ecclesiastical Faculty at Boston College, and St.Columbkille Partnership School in Brighton, Massachusetts.