A Global Conversation with Father Peter M. Donohue

Guided by faith, inspired by the arts, and devoted to knowledge, the Reverend Peter M. Donohue, O.S.A., P.h.D. is a prominent voice in the higher education and Catholic communities of Philadelphia. This year, Global Philadelphia is awarding the Lifetime Achievement Globy Award to Father Peter Donohue for his incomparable success as the President of Villanova University. Merging his background in theater and ministry, he has brought about positive change focused on student needs and established a legacy that will continue to grow.

Father Donohue has led Villanova for almost two decades and he looks forward to each new academic year and the ways in which the University can develop educational opportunities for its students and reflect the Augustinian values it was founded upon. In anticipation of the 2025 Globy Awards that will honor Father Donohue, Father Donohue gave Global Philadelphia a look into his everyday activities, hard-fought achievements, and pride in his institution through a Global Conversation.

Madi Costigan: Global Philadelphia is excited to recognize you with the Lifetime Achievement Globy Award as you approach your 20th year as President of Villanova University. How does it feel to approach this milestone and how has your leadership style developed?

Father Peter Donohue: First, I'm honored to be selected to receive the Globy Award. It's a wonderful honor. I was surprised when I got it, and I was quite touched. I've known of the organization through John Smith for some time, and I feel very fortunate.

It doesn't feel like it has been 20 years, so it has gone by very quickly. It has been an amazing journey because I never sought the job; I was asked to do the job. So, I stepped into it and I had a great deal of help. I have been surrounded by some really talented people who have helped make the vision that I had for Villanova into a reality. The day-to-day operation is left up to so many other people, but as the president of a higher education institution, I think that you need to set the vision, the goals, and the direction that you want to go in. I had some ideas and other people put some flesh onto them. You never do anything by yourself; you depend on a lot of other people to create what you imagined.

It's been a very collaborative form of leadership. I do credit that with my personal background in theater, because that's how I have always operated. In that environment, you depend on a lot of other people, and that is something I have done my whole life. There are a lot of other people who have the talent and ability to help to create what I envision. It's overwhelming in some ways when I look back on when I started this job in 2006 and to see where the university is now. I sometimes have to pinch myself and say, “Did this really happen?"

MC: How have you utilized your predecessors as a resource, whether past presidents of the University or educators that have left an impact?

Father Peter Donohue: When I first came into the job, I sought advice from other people. Particularly, the President of Notre Dame became a good friend and he was very helpful to me, and the President of Georgetown was another. I felt that I could call on either one of them and ask questions. At the time, there were local presidents as well that helped me: Brother Mike McGinniss at La Salle University, Father Tim Lannon, formerly at Saint Joseph’s University, Amy Guttman at Penn, and John Fry, formerly at Drexel University, now at Temple University. I didn't know the first thing about doing this job, so it was very helpful being able to pick up a phone and call them.

Now, that is reversed, because after being in this job for 20 years, I have younger people calling me. I just had the President-Elect of Boston College spend three days shadowing me. Now that I have people coming to me, it’s a different experience altogether, but you need to know your strengths and weaknesses, and I needed some guidance and help when I started. At times, you also just need somebody to vent with that understands the situation.

There's a very strong group of Catholic school presidents in the Philadelphia area, so we see each other and talk to each other often. You don't walk alone in this and you really need to have people to lean on and ask if you’re doing the right thing.

I was a faculty member here before I became the President. I was Chair of the Theatre Department and when I moved from faculty to administration, it was interesting because I was in a different role. I now had to make decisions sometimes that people didn’t agree with. It was necessary to have those people that understood the job, and I found all of them very helpful and I'm very grateful for it.

MC: You have been a part of the Greater-Philadelphia community since you began attending Villanova to obtain your Bachelor’s of Arts. How has Philadelphia inspired you and how has it been a valuable location for education?

Father Peter Donohue: This is a strong educational city, which is something that Philadelphia should take great pride in because there are some amazing institutions of higher education here and amazing people working in them, from very small schools to very large schools. Philadelphia is a great hub for education, and having those resources and the ability to collaborate with each other really strengthens all of us.

It also brings in people from other places. Villanova and many other schools here started as a place to educate immigrants that were coming into Philadelphia at the time, and it was those kinds of educational endeavors that really helped the city to grow and to become what it is. We have students that have come here from other parts of the country and other parts of the world, and they have stayed in Philadelphia after they have finished. They have made their homes in Philadelphia, and created their lives and families here.

MC: As a Global Philadelphia member, Villanova University has many shared commitments to preserving history and heritage, promoting sustainable development, and prioritizing diversified education. How does Villanova’s active involvement with local organizations support the school and opportunities for students?

Father Peter Donohue: One thing that we have utilized is the business world here in Philadelphia, particularly in getting students internships and the opportunity to work in various companies. The pharmaceutical industry in Philadelphia has been a great partner for Villanova in many ways, not only for our engineering and science faculty, but for our students in those areas by giving them opportunities, internships, and projects. We have great relationships with Merck and Johnson & Johnson, and they come to our faculty and students to ask them to be involved in projects or areas of work.

The other educational endeavors here have also been great for us. Our students tutor people in Philadelphia; we have a program where our students help high school students write their admissions essays and other, similar projects. We have a day of service that started 20 years ago when I was inaugurated as President. It was something I wanted to do so that we, as an institution, could give back to the city and region in some way. It was only supposed to be one time as part of the inauguration, but we've done it now for 20 years. We call it the Saint Thomas of Villanova Day of Service. We go to 135 different sites in the Philadelphia region, and we have more than 5,000 people from Villanova that participate in that every year, as well as alumni groups around the country that are doing it at the same time.

I say to them all the time, "We're not going there to fix something. We're going there to help them achieve something that they want to achieve." We have the labor, and they have the idea that they want to accomplish.

These opportunities have also helped our students see what is going on in Philadelphia, in terms of nonprofits, neighborhoods, and work that is being done, and it has created great relationships with local organizations. We have partnerships that students from the Community Outreach group and other groups on campus work with on a regular basis. This really helps us to understand where we live and what we can do to help and what others can do to help us, because we learn as much from them as they learn from us.

MC: You have an extensive background in theater and continue to support advancement of Villanova’s theater programming. How are the arts and humanities prioritized at the University? Do you see the school’s initiatives as a part of a larger mission to protect and promote the arts in the educational sector?

Father Peter Donohue: I was Chair of the Theatre Department for 14 years; I came here to do that job. We had a very small theater that had 180 people, and it was an old lecture hall that we transformed into a black box over the years. For so many years before I was here, the theater department was functioning in that little tiny space and there was no backstage. But the theater department here has always been very good, and it has done some wonderful things.

When I became President, I was determined to build a performing arts center. It was initially my one big project to get one, and I did it. We have a great performing arts center on campus now that is specifically designed for student use. We have brought in other groups, but as soon as you start doing that, it lessens the opportunity for students to use it.

The arts, in my mind, whether it's the fine arts or the performing arts or other genres, help you as an individual to express yourself. We have many students here that participate in the arts and singing groups, dancing groups, musicals, who are not going to do it professionally, but they do it for pleasure, to enhance their abilities, and to express themselves in one way or another. It can also help them find another avenue for dealing with some of the things in their lives.

The arts are a really important educational tool, but in my mind, they are also an important life tool. As long as I am in this role, the arts will always be a part of Villanova, and I anticipate that they always will be.

MC: As another initiative and part of your legacy, you established the Office of Sustainability in 2023 to guide the University’s initiatives in accordance with the Climate Action Plan. Why has sustainability become one of your focal points as Villanova’s President, and how does the University educate students on this topic?

Father Peter Donohue: That idea actually came more from the students than it did from me. Fortunately, young people today see the value of protecting the world in which we live. They have grown up in an environment that has talked about protecting and saving the planet. Students came to me with suggestions, so it made me realize that we should start looking at this topic more closely. We started asking, “What is our carbon imprint? What are we doing about it? How do we incorporate sustainable practices into our daily lives?” It's not just the university's responsibility, it's each one of our responsibilities and something that we have to work collectively at.

It was really the desire of the student body because of what they have learned to encourage the institution to look at this important issue. Saint Augustine has a whole philosophy in terms of what teaching he is about, and he says that a teacher must learn from their students, as much as the student must learn from the teacher. In this case, I think I really learned from the students.

MC: What opportunities do you have to interact with and learn from the students?

Father Peter Donohue: I have office hours for students, which I instituted way back when. I have one day out of the month that I set aside in the afternoon to have student appointments. Any student can sign up. They come in and they have all kinds of ideas.

I love teaching, and I miss it a lot. You just don't get the opportunity to do it as much in this job because there are so many other things going on. This is my one day a month that I get to be with students one-on-one. We also have student government, so there are leaders that I spend a lot of time talking to about their ideas as well. It is really important to hear our students out, since they are who we are here for.

For more information on Father Peter Donohue’s role and legacy at Villanova University, please visit: https://www1.villanova.edu/university/president/about.html

For ticket and sponsorship information about the 2025 Globy Awards, please visit: https://globalphiladelphia.org/globy-awards-0