Alicia Córdoba is the ninth present of Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She took office on July 1.
Aquinas College enrolls just under 1,400 undergraduate students and about 145 graduate students, according to the most recent information available from the U.S. Department of Education. Women make up 58 percent of the undergraduate student body.
“I am genuinely humbled and honored to have been selected by the trustees as the ninth president of Aquinas,” President Córdoba said. “From the moment I stepped foot on campus, I felt right at home – and I feel equally confident we are going to accomplish many great things together. Working with the entire campus community, we will strengthen our commitments to inclusion and equity, sustainability and service, following the example of our Dominican Sisters’ traditions and that of Catholic social teaching and the Catholic intellectual tradition.”
Dr. Córdoba brings more than two decades of experience in Catholic higher education, both as a faculty member and administrator, to her new role leading Aquinas College. She has been serving as associate vice president and director of the Center for Catholic Studies at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio. Earlier, she spent 19 years in faculty and administrative positions of increasing authority at Benedictine University in Lisle, Illinois.
A native of the Chicago suburbs, Dr. Córdoba holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Illinois. She was the first woman to receive a doctor of musical arts degree in English horn performance from The Juilliard School in New York City.