Maura Mast to be Seattle U's first mathematician - and woman - president

Maura Mast will be the first woman to lead Seattle University and, she is quick to add, the first mathematician.

The longtime Fordham University dean and former mathematics professor was announced Thursday as the Jesuit Catholic university's 23rd president, succeeding Eduardo M. Peñalver, who left the post in March to lead Georgetown University.

Mast will take office Sept. 1, arriving at a pivotal moment for the university as it integrates Cornish College of the Arts, prepares to transition from quarters to semesters and advances plans for a new teaching museum tied to a landmark art donation. Her selection is part of a broader shift in the leadership of Catholic higher education, as Jesuit universities increasingly look to leaders who aren't priests.

"I think it's a good shift," Mast said with a smile during an interview on campus Wednesday.

Mast, 61, comes to Seattle after a decade as dean of Fordham College at Rose Hill, in New York City's Bronx borough, where she was also the first woman to hold the position. During her tenure, she expanded academic advising programs and grew fundraising efforts that launched paid internship opportunities for students. Before Fordham, she was a tenured mathematics professor and academic administrator at the University of Massachusetts Boston. She received her doctorate in mathematics from the University of North Carolina, and she specializes in differential geometry.

As a leader and teacher, she said she is a problem solver, preoccupied with getting students over the finish line. That began in the classroom with students who were wary of math. She's the author of an award-winning textbook, Common Sense Mathematics," as well as a co-editor on a volume about women's contributions to mathematics.

At Fordham, Mast overhauled the university's advising structure after discovering the need for student advising was greater than faculty alone could provide. The redesigned system created full-time advisers to help students with questions about anything from academic performance to deciding a major.

"We're not serving our students if they have to crack the code," she said.

That focus on moving students successfully through college and into their futures aligns well with pressing issues in higher education. Washington and other states have sounded the alarm at the shortage of workers with a postsecondary credential. About a third of Seattle University's undergraduates are first-generation college students, and a similar share qualify for Pell Grants.

As Mast tells it, she decided to step away from teaching and research to ensure her problem-solving skills could have further reach.

"I really found mathematics very fulfilling, and impacted my life in various ways. But as an administrator, I get to solve problems that impact people," said Mast.

Academia was her pathway to leadership, but she has fundraising credentials too.

At Fordham, she helped raise funds for paid internships for humanities students and secured philanthropic support for faculty research, including projects examining the ethical use of artificial intelligence.

Her own connection to Catholic education runs deep. Raised Catholic, she earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame and later became active in the Clavius Mathematics Group, an international network of Jesuit and lay mathematicians.

She has faith in numbers - literally. Mathematicians pursue truth through constructing proofs, which to her, feels like God's work. Math also posits that there's different kinds of infinity, including the infinite yet tiny numbers that exist between 0 and 1. These kinds of ideas, she said, provide a way of grappling with the divine.

"God is infinite," Mast said. "God is in the molecules in this table, and in the trees outside, and in the birds flying around. I can't comprehend that."

She recalls the story of how she came to the Seattle University position through something like "divine timing." She got a call from a search consultant while she was on sabbatical after 10 years at Fordham, on a worldwide tour of various Jesuit and Catholic universities. Had the opportunity come months earlier, she said, she likely would have been too immersed in figuring out what came next to say yes.

Seattle University stood out because it seemed to address the core tenets of what Jesuit universities should provide, particularly in a place where wealth is deeply stratified, Mast said. Jesuit universities have a responsibility to bring people together across differences, and help students grapple with difficult social problems, especially poverty. Rather than retreating from those tensions, she said, universities should prepare students to engage them thoughtfully and respectfully.

As an example, she pointed to Sundborg Center for Community Engagement, which connects students and faculty with surrounding neighborhoods through community-based learning, research and service. In 2025, the center launched a $500,000 annual program for youth development and education programs at Yesler Terrace, a public housing community close to the university's campus.

The university's board highlighted those priorities in announcing her selection, pointing to her track record of strengthening support for students, focus on social justice and deep scholarship.

"The board is confident she will lead the university forward with clarity, purpose, and care for our educational mission," said Patrick Callans, chair of the university board.

Mast plans to spend her first months meeting students, faculty and staff, walking around campus and learning more about both the university and the city.

"I want every student to know what I look like," she said. "And that I'm there for them.

And, of course, she wants to find out where she can find Seattle's best cup of coffee.

Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.

This story was originally published June 25, 2026 at 4:50 PM.