LINCOLN PARK — For the first time in the DePaul University's history, its leader is a woman, albeit for a limited time.
Patricia O'Donoghue took over as interim president of the school in August, becoming the first woman president of a Roman Catholic college that began as a men's institution.
DePaul University is also notably the largest Roman Catholic university in the nation, and the decision could set an example for other religious institutions around the country.
Paul Biasco explains why experts say the hiring is a big deal:
O'Donoghue, who was previously the interim provost at the school, said she was humbled by her role as the first female president and has been asked about her thoughts on becoming the first woman at the helm countless times.
"To be very very honest, I've thought about that question a lot because I get asked it every day," she said. "I don’t see it as a big deal. I see it first of all as a humbling experience. I’m really honored to have been asked to do this.”
O'Donoghue will serve as president until Dec. 31 when the Rev. Dennis Holtschneider returns from sabbatical at Harvard University.
"The significance of anybody's contribution, any president, can't be measured in the now, it has to be measured after the contribution has been made," she said.
Judith White, executive director of the High Education Resource Service, an organization to promotes female leadership in high education, disagrees. White said the decision has already set the precedent of what is possible for Catholic institutions, despite the fact that it's an interim position.
"They are still making a really important statement and I think that's the message that I carry away," she said. "The institution is looking at the leadership characteristics instead of the demographic characteristics."
O'Donoghue's appointment will likely have its first impact on some of the country's smaller schools that might have had male lay presidents before, according to White. Those schools will likely look at DePaul and this decision in particular.
"That's a pretty big shift," White said.
Holtschneider is residing in a position of "president-in-residence" at Harvard University's Graduate School of Education and is teaching a graduate-level course on leadership and governance in higher education.
He is expected to return to his former position in January 2015.
"Father Dennis has just been through a very, very successful campaign and he decided to take a sabbatical which I think is very, very wise," O'Donoghue said. "Raising money for a period of years is labor intensive and its hard work. This one was extraordinarily successful."
O'Donoghue's background includes a 10-year stint as president of Mount Mary College in Milwaukee from 1997 to 2006. She also was the vice president of strategic initiatives and alumni outreach at DePaul.
About 26 percent of college president across the country are women, and more than 35 percent of presidents in catholic higher education are women, but the vast majority are at women's colleges.
“Clearly we are leading the charge nationally which is pretty exciting because when you think of Roman Catholic and you think of women they don’t always go together," said Michael Galligan-Stierle, president of the American Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities.
Galligan-Stierle said the movement across catholic schools is toward lay people as the job has become much more business-oriented.
"It's very significant that, nationally speaking, the Catholic community is recognizing that," he said. "We want the best person for the job not just someone who fits the profile.”
O'Donoghue's background stretches back to her youth in Pittsburgh, where she grew up with a mother pushing her.
"My mother particularly believed that her daughters could be or do anything they wanted to do," O'Donoghue said.
She was the first generation in her family to go to college and originally found work as a nurse at a pediatric hospital in Pittsburgh.
Later, she spent a year learning to become a nurse practitioner and worked in the basement of a housing project for seven years.
O'Donoghue, who holds a doctorate in nursing from the University of Pittsburgh, said she hopes to do more than keep Holtschneider's chair warm during her time as president and will draw on her experiences as president of Mount Mary in Milwaukee and various executive roles at DePaul.
"This university has enjoyed incredible success, incredible," she said. "If you think about it, it used to be thought of as the little school under the 'L' that was founded for children of immigrants and now it’s the largest catholic university in the United States."
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