NEWBURGH – Dr. Robert Gervasi, Mount Saint Mary College’s eighth president, began his tenure on Monday, June 17 – and he hit the ground running.
Among many other initiatives, Dr. Gervasi began his first week as president by meeting with members of the college’s faculty and staff and set in motion plans for the college’s future.
“It is very exciting to be here at Mount Saint Mary College, and that excitement has only grown,” said Dr. Gervasi. “It’s a challenging time for all higher ed institutions, and a challenging time in our world. Dominican Education has never had a more important role to play and I’m happy to be part of that at a very storied institution.”
He added, “We are all committed together to serve our students and help them to prepare to make a better world in the spirit of St. Dominic and the Dominican Sisters of Hope.”
The week before he began as president of the Mount, Dr. Gervasi attended the biannual Colloquium of Dominican Colleges and Universities at Edgewood College in Madison, Wis. to further immerse himself in the Mount’s Dominican heritage.
After a national search, Dr. Gervasi was named president of the college in a unanimous vote of the Mount Saint Mary College Board of Trustees.
Dr. Gervasi has more than three decades of experience in higher education administration, with 14 years as a college president. This includes four years as president of Ohio Dominican University in Columbus, Ohio, and nearly a decade as president of Quincy University in Quincy, Ill. He also has extensive teaching experience, having taught courses in Greek and Roman civilization, religion, historiography, business, philosophy, ethics, and more. Prior to his career in higher education, he worked in marketing and communications serving major firms including Bristol-Myers and Procter & Gamble.
He earned an Honors AB in Classics from Xavier University, an MA and PhD in Classics from The Ohio State University, and an MBA in Marketing from the Wharton School. A former Fulbright Scholar, he now serves as Board Chair of the Fulbright Association.
Dr. Gervasi reads or speaks Spanish, Italian, Greek (ancient and modern), Latin, French, and German, and is an avid swimmer and runner, having completed more than a dozen marathons. He and his wife Jen, a former executive in the arts and home fashion industries, have four adult children, and they recently welcomed their fifth grandchild.
