ST. LOUIS—The next President of Saint Louis University is coming to the Gateway to the West from the Pacific Northwest. The school announced Monday that Edward J. Feser, Ph.D. will assume the role on July 1, 2025.

SLU’s Board of Trustees authorized a national search to replace Dr. Fred Pestello, who announced in March that he would step down next June. It approved Feser’s hiring on Dec. 6. 

Feser has been the provost and executive vice president of Oregon State University for roughly 8 years and prior to that was the interim vice chancellor for academic affairs and provost at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Feser attended a Catholic high school in California and has a bachelor’s degree from the University of San Francisco, which, like SLU, is a Jesuit institution. 

“Saint Louis University is a remarkable institution with an impressive history of impact, and it will be both exciting and a privilege to lead it,” Feser said. “I am thrilled at the prospect of joining the SLU community and contributing to the University’s outstanding legacy,” Feser said in a statement released by Saint Louis University Monday.

“The rigorous and holistic Jesuit education I received at the University of San Francisco — grounded in experiential learning in the city itself and the principle that one should lead an active life of service to others, especially the least among us — shaped my values in ways too many to count,” Feser said.

Thomas P. Greene, S.J., the provincial superior of the Jesuits USA Central and Southern Province said, “I am deeply grateful to Dr. Feser for his willingness to serve in such an important role. His experience as a scholar and administrator makes him uniquely qualified to lead a place as complex as SLU.”

“But even more, I was heartened to hear of his desire to use education to engender hope in the young, his commitment to the University being leaven for the city, and his dedication to the University’s Jesuit, Catholic identity.”