The Presidential Course, Whole: From Directress to the Fourteenth President

1855–2026

Before there were presidents: The numbered presidency begins only in 1908; the half-century before it belongs to a different title. The base tells Mother Angela Gillespie's directress years whole, and this article points there rather than retelling it. Between Gillespie and the college presidency stands Mother M. Pauline O'Neill, who took charge as directress in 1895 and whose thirty-six years are the bridge: under her the academy became a degree-granting institution in Indiana's recognition, conferred its first degrees in 1898, took the name Saint Mary's College, and in 1908 received the amended charter under which Pauline, then director, became its first president. Any list that starts the count at Pauline-as-president in 1908 and any list that dates her presidency from 1895 are counting the same tenure from two legal starting points; the college's own fact book prints 1895–1931, and that convention governs the numbering below.

The sister-presidents, completed: First, Mother M. Pauline O'Neill, 1895–1931 — Le Mans Hall is her monument (buildings article). Third, Sister M. Madeleva Wolff, 1934–1961, told whole in her own article above. Fourth, Sister Maria Renata Daily, 1961–1965. Fifth, Sister Mary Grace Kos, 1965–1967. Sixth, Monsignor John J. McGrath, a priest and lawyer remembered as the first priest confirmed to practise before the United States Supreme Court in the college's 175th-anniversary portrait, is the pivot of the whole list: the first man, and the first non-sister, to hold the office. The portrait drawn from alumnae testimony credits him with starting the Upward Bound programme, opening his residence to students, and deliberately ranking students' social advocacy above dress codes and curfews. He died in office in June 1970. Sister M. Alma Peter then served as acting president, 1970–1972 — the name that signed the 1971 merger agreement for Saint Mary's, as the base records — and seventh, Dr. Edward L. Henry, 1972–1974, whose tenure contains the merger's unmaking and Notre Dame's separate turn to coeducation in 1972. Dr. William A. Hickey served as acting president in 1974–75 and again in 1985–86, per the college fact book — an acting service the numbered lists omit, restored here because the fact book prints it.

The lay era, numbered: Eighth, Dr. John M. Duggan, 1975–1985, inaugurated 7 September 1975 in O'Laughlin Auditorium (base) — the numbering checks: Pauline, Burns, Madeleva, Daily, Kos, McGrath and Henry precede him, with Peter's acting years unnumbered.Ninth, Dr. William A. His documented work is structural: he led the governance change placing all decision-making within a single board of trustees, and instituted the Division of Mission and the Center for Spirituality. He died on 28 November in Sanibel, Florida, at eighty-one. Tenth, Dr. Marilou Eldred, 1997–2004, the first lay woman president — a distinction the record keeps precise, since Mooney's later first is different: first lay alumna. Eldred came from long administrative service at the College of St. Catherine in Minnesota, per her papers' biographical note at Loyola's Women and Leadership Archives, and her Saint Mary's years carry the 2000 Lilly Endowment grant of twelve million dollars for the Center for Women's Intercultural Leadership in the fact book's chronology. Eleventh, Dr. Carol Ann Mooney, 1 June 2004 to 31 May 2016, first lay alumna president (Saint Mary's 1972; first in her Notre Dame Law class of 1977, both in the base) — her era's load-bearing act for this wave is academic: the 2015 launch of coeducational graduate study (Doctor of Nursing Practice; master's degrees in data science and in speech-language pathology), the college's first graduate programmes since the theology school's era ended, told in the modern-course article. Twelfth, Dr. Janice Cervelli, June 2016 to her resignation announced 5 October 2018, and the litigation that followed in March 2019, printed in the base as her allegation and left at exactly that strength here. Dr.

The fourteenth president, verified to November 2026: Thirteenth in sequence by count of the standard list — but the college styles her, consistently, as its fourteenth president, and the styling governs: Dr. Katie Conboy, in office from 1 June 2020. Her verification to the present is unusually clean: the college catalogue as of 1 August 2026 lists Katie Conboy as president; the athletics quick-facts sheet for 2025–26 lists Dr. Katie Conboy as president; and on 12 August 2026 the board of trustees announced a unanimous two-year extension of her contract, ensuring her leadership through 2030, citing enrolment, fundraising and academic innovation under the Revere and Revise strategic plan. As of November 2026 she is, without ambiguity in any carrier reached, the sitting president. Her presidency's substance — the strategic plan, the Avenue Experience and PACE Center, the nursing and integrated healthcare facility, the Ring Out Ring True campaign, the 2023 admissions-policy reversal, and the record incoming classes of 2025 and 2026 — is told in the modern-course article below, where it belongs chronologically.

Sources:

1. Saint Mary's College Fact Book 2015–16 — the previous-presidents list, Hickey's acting terms (1974–75, 1985–86), the 1997 first-lay-woman line, the 2000 Lilly grant.
2. College published presidents lists (reference record) — Daily 1961–65, Kos 1965–67, McGrath 1968–70, Peter (interim) 1970–72, Henry 1972–74, Duggan 1975–85, Hickey 1986–97, Eldred 1997–2004, Mooney 2004–16, Cervelli 2016–18, Nekvasil (interim) 2018–20, Conboy 2020–present.
3. Saint Mary's College, 175th-anniversary portrait of Monsignor John McGrath, and college trivia sheet (1967–70 residence dating) — the Upward Bound founding, the Supreme Court bar detail as the college carries it, the death in June 1970.
4. Saint Mary's College, obituary notice for William A. Hickey — the biology career, the single-board governance change, Mission division and Center for Spirituality, death 28 November at Sanibel.
5. Women and Leadership Archives, Loyola University Chicago — Marilou Denbo Eldred papers, biographical history (St. Catherine service; first lay woman president, 1997–2004).
6. Saint Mary's College catalogue officers pages (2025–26 and as of 1 August 2026) and news release of 12 August 2026 — Conboy as president, the fourteenth-president styling, the extension through 2030.
7. Saint Mary's College tobacco-free policy (November 2019) — Nekvasil's interim signature, effective 1 June 2020.