Colleen M. Hanycz, PhD, President of Xavier University

Since July 2021, Dr. Colleen Hanycz has served as Xavier University’s 35th President - the first layperson and woman to serve in this role in Xavier’s almost 200-year history.

Since her historic appointment, President Hanycz has championed Jesuit Catholic education as a means of advancing the common good, celebrating the dignity of every individual, and building strong and resilient communities.

Notable Achievements

Under Dr. Hanycz’s leadership, Xavier has achieved a series of notable accomplishments:

• Focusing on Xavier’s spires of excellence, launched a bold, seven-year strategic plan in September 2022. This Plan will carry Xavier into its third century in 2031, with its emphasis on striving for innovative distinction in academics; building a profound culture of belonging and inclusive excellence; providing an unsurpassed transformative campus experience; and leveraging operational strength and stewardship;
• Announced plans in May 2023 to establish a College of Osteopathic Medicine at Xavier, the first new medical school in a half-century in Ohio and the first Jesuit Catholic college of its kind. This historic undertaking will support the region’s need for expanded access to quality healthcare, further establishing Xavier as a national leader in health sciences education.
• Since Dr. Hanycz’s arrival in 2021, Xavier has broken every advancement record for fundraising in the college’s history. This period marks Xavier’s three most successful fundraising years since its founding, and the four largest single gifts in history. Of note, each of 2022, 2023 and 2024 were marked with single gifts of $50M or greater.
• In 2023, Xavier launched what has become a very successful new brand campaign, "More Xavier", with its focus on Xavier’s commitment to radical care for the whole person, the studies, the self and the institution.
• In 2024, Xavier moved through planning and into the implementation phase of its comprehensive transformation exercise, Sustaining Excellence. This comprehensive campus effort, seeded in the strategic plan, is on track to ensure a thriving university in the midst of a period of significant volatility across higher education.
• Additionally, President Hanycz has continued to serve on various governing boards and committees since her arrival in Cincinnati, including the Executive Committee and Board of St. Xavier High School, the NCAA Infractions Appeal Committee, the Higher Education Working Group of the USCCB, and the Consortium for College Presidents for Civic Preparedness. In the fall of 2024, Dr. Hanycz was appointed to chair the strategic planning effort for the BigEast Conference.

Throughout her remarkable career as an attorney, professor and administrator, President Hanycz has been an active proponent of Catholic education as a means of advancing the common good, celebrating the dignity of each person and forming young people for lives of purpose, success and impact.

From 2015 to 2021, President Hanycz served as the 29th President of La Salle University, also the first layperson and woman to hold that role in La Salle’s 158-year history. In her six years at La Salle, President Hanycz led a number of significant strategic initiatives to position the university for growth and continued success, and to improve the educational experience for its students.

Under President Hanycz’s leadership, La Salle enrolled its largest group of incoming students in 25 years — the most talented academically, and the most diverse by every measure — a remarkable achievement given persistent national trends of declining enrollment. She also led a number of significant capital projects on La Salle’s campus, including the completion of its $35 million School of Business, as well as significant developments in the Connelly Learning Commons and Library and the Hansen Quad.

President Hanycz previously served in a presidential role at Brescia University College in London, Ontario, Canada. During her seven-year tenure at Brescia, a Catholic women’s college, she implemented a bold strategic plan that raised the college’s national profile, increased enrollment significantly, improved retention rates for talented students, faculty, and staff, doubled on-campus residence space, and developed innovative academic programs.

A native of Toronto, President Hanycz earned her bachelor’s degree in history from St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto, followed by the completion of her J.D. at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She practiced securities and employment litigation for several years at Heenan Blaikie LLP in Toronto and then returned to graduate studies, completing her Master’s and Ph.D. in law at York University. In 2003, Dr. Hanycz was appointed as a full-time professor in the area of civil procedure and dispute resolution at Osgoode Hall Law School, where she served for several years before her first presidential appointment at Brescia University College.

President Hanycz and her husband Peter have been married for almost three decades and have raised a family of three children, and multiple miniature schnauzers.