American University president Jon Alger was a grade schooler when his family piled into the car and drove from Western New York to Washington, DC, for the first time. He was awestruck by the grandeur of the monuments—marble marvels honoring the contributions of the same US presidents whose ceramic figures stood on his dresser, carefully arranged atop a Styrofoam amphitheater. 

Democratic institutions that once existed only in the worn pages of Alger’s beloved encyclopedias came to life before the young history buff’s eyes: Congress, the White House, the Supreme Court. “I thought, ‘This is where important people are making important decisions,’” he recalls. “It felt like you needed to straighten up a little bit and behave.”

Alger vowed to one day live and work in Washington, and after graduating with honors from Harvard Law School in 1989, he did, accepting a position with an international law firm downtown that specialized in labor and employment matters. Three years later, he took a pay cut to join the US Department of Education because he believed in the mission—a decision he calls “transformative.”

At the department’s Office for Civil Rights, Alger spearheaded the development and implementation of national policies on race-conscious financial aid, racial harassment, and free expression that have touched generations of college students. In this role, he says, he discovered a higher calling in higher education.

“I remember I didn’t even know that lawyers worked in higher ed, but Jon was very passionate about it, very focused on what he wanted to do,” says longtime friend David Breen, whom Alger met through the Choral Arts Society of Washington in the 1990s.

As he continued to advance his career—joining the DC-based nonprofit American Association of University Professors as in-house counsel in 1996—Washington still held reverence for Alger. But as he studied the nation’s capital through more mature eyes, his perspective became more pragmatic. 

He realized that the sacredness of the seat of democracy doesn’t come just from the institutions, the machinery of government, or the stone and marble tributes he revered as a boy. It comes from the people who make up our democracy—the people who, despite their differences, are bound by the belief that the American experiment is precious and precarious, the people who know that democracy is not only worth fighting for but working together on behalf of.

“I’ve always been guided by the words at the beginning of the Constitution: ‘We the people, in order to form a more perfect union.’  This was always meant to be a work in progress—work that requires the best of all of us. I see that concept applying not just to our country but to our university,” Alger says. 

As American University’s 16th president, Alger believes that one of his most significant responsibilities is preparing students to engage with the most pressing issues of our time—and with each other—with civility, dignity, kindness, humility, and open-mindedness. With Americans farther apart ideologically today than at any other time over the last 50 years, according to the Pew Research Center, Alger’s charge is urgent and consequential.

“The goal is not for everybody to agree or to have the same point of view,” says Alger, who previously served as senior vice president and general counsel at Rutgers University and assistant general counsel at the University of Michigan. “This is, after all, a university. The goal is for everybody to feel like they have a seat at the table, that they belong, and that their voice is heard and respected. The goal is to learn from each other and to maybe even change your mind as you interact with other people and develop more life experience.” 

One month after joining the AU community on July 1 from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, where he was president for 12 years, Alger took a bold first step in advancing that work, announcing the Civic Life initiative—a university-wide effort focused on civic education and engagement and civil discourse. 

Alger’s signature initiative aims to help AU community members build and exercise the muscles of leadership and teamwork, critical thinking, ethical reasoning, and information and data literacy. The Civic Life includes regular workshops, guest speakers, and panel discussions—which in the fall semester often centered on the election—and a presidential speaker series that kicked off on September 18 with Eboo Patel, founder and president of Interfaith America.

The inaugural cohort of 34 Civic Life Student Fellows, announced in October, includes first-year students to online master’s students to doctoral candidates from all of AU’s schools and colleges. They receive leadership training and work alongside faculty and university leaders as campus ambassadors for dialogue, deliberation, and productive disagreement.

“I always tell students to dream big,” Alger said during the October 21 launch of the Civic Life, which drew more than 100 members of the AU community. “I want all of us to dream big about how we can take this institution to an even higher level by being a model of how change really happens—not just with slogans, posters, or rhetoric, but with the hard work of honoring and building on the foundation of our common humanity.”

Celebrating that which unites us—as Eagles, Washingtonians, and human beings—is quickly emerging as a hallmark of Alger’s presidency.

In addition to the Civic Life, he convened a series of Unity Meals, beginning with a dinner on the quad on the anniversary of the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which drew about 300 AU community members, prompting a scramble for overflow seating. The goal of the dinners is not to dwell on or debate politics, Alger says, but to break bread, build bridges, and toast to our shared humanity. 

“Food is—and has always been—a great unifier,” he said during the vegetarian feast. “In different cultures across the centuries, some of our most important moments of celebration, reflection, and understanding have happened around food.

“As Anthony Bourdain said, ‘Food may not be the answer to world peace, but it’s a start.’”

Alger admits that the Unity Meals, which continue in January with an event around Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the inauguration, were a risk, but it paid off when he saw people who didn’t know each other or subscribe to the same beliefs laughing and chatting together. The message, he says, is, “We’re all in this together.”

Alger also spearheaded AU’s Week of Kindness, November 10–16, which featured opportunities to brighten a classmate’s or colleague’s day with small acts of gratitude and generosity. The week, which coincided with World Kindness Day, was so well received that Alger—who passed out cookies and gift cards to Eagles on the quad—anticipates it becoming an AU tradition.

Kindness might not be a word often associated with Washington—but it’s synonymous with Alger, says his wife of 27 years, Mary Ann Alger, a business executive. The Algers met, got engaged, and married at National Presbyterian Church, just blocks from AU on Nebraska Avenue, where they are once again members.

“Jon is authentic; he cares deeply about students” and brings empathy and humility to everything he does, Mary Ann says. 

Serving as a university president “is not for the faint of heart, given how divided we are in this country,” adds Kathleen Santora, former president of the National Association of College and University Attorneys, who worked closely with Alger when he was board chair. “Jonathan provides leadership with a gentle and generous spirit. He can always be counted on to say ‘yes’ when anyone needs help.”

The AU community got its first glimpse of Alger’s empathetic leadership just two months into his tenure, after his father, Gary, passed away. 

Alger crafted a heartfelt email message to 22,000 students, faculty, and staff, reflecting on the enormity of his loss. He wrote of his father’s mischievous sense of humor, athletic ability (“genes I wish I had inherited”), belief in the power of higher education, and the pride he felt when he donned his AU gear.

Alger remarked on the “many simple and profound” acts of kindness shown to his father by health care workers in his final days and to his family by friends and neighbors in the wake of Gary’s death. He wrote that he returned to AU determined to share this approach to life whenever and however he could.

“We need one another, and every day we have opportunities to make simple choices to improve the lives of those with whom we interact,” he continued. “I always say that education is all about relationships, and that we learn and grow with both the head and the heart. Let us come together in that spirit, knowing that we each have within us the power to use our education, gifts, and passions to make a positive impact on the world and on the lives of those around us.” 

Growing up in the small town of Chili, New York, just outside of Rochester, it was evident that among Alger’s gifts was his academic prowess. “I was never the one that my parents had to encourage to do their homework,” he says with a smile.  

The middle of three children—sandwiched between sisters Teri and Susan—Alger was studious and intellectually curious. “I just loved school, loved learning,” he says. “I never thought about a career in education as a child, but in hindsight, it makes sense that’s where I ended up.” 

Alger struggled with allergies and asthma, so he spent a lot of time indoors—always with a book. At Churchville-Chili Senior High School, he led the math league team to a more impressive record than any of the athletic squads. “I still resent that we didn’t get letterman jackets for math,” he says.

The Alger home was always filled with music. All three children sang in the church choir; Teri played piano; Susan was a dancer; and Alger played trombone and did theater. Their parents—Gary, who worked his entire career at Eastman Kodak, and Alice, a homemaker—“never missed a concert or recital.” 

Alger was in ninth grade when his father made a bet with him: If Alger graduated at the top of his class, Gary would buy a rare 1909-S VDB coin to complete his son’s Lincoln penny collection. Several years later, when Alger delivered the valedictorian speech before 337 classmates, Gary made good on his promise. Alger then headed off to Swarthmore College just outside of Philadelphia, where he studied political science on a National Merit Scholarship funded by Eastman Kodak and a patchwork of student loans. 

Nearly four decades later, Alger is relishing the opportunity to immerse himself in the life of American University as president.

He enjoys getting out of the office and chatting with students on the quad or joining classes as a guest lecturer. He and Mary Ann—both avid sports fans and theater buffs—are a regular presence on the sidelines at Bender Arena and the Jacobs Complex and in the audience at the Abramson Family Recital Hall. In early November, choral conductor Daniel Abraham even invited Alger to join the Chamber Singers on stage during their fall concert.

Mary Ann, who has an extensive background in finance, small business consulting, and entrepreneurship, also plans to volunteer at the Veloric Center for Entrepreneurship in the Kogod School of Business. 

“My mom and dad have both told me that they feel very lucky to be at American,” says the couple’s only child, Eleanor Alger, an actor and screenwriter in Los Angeles (see page 63). “But I also think American is very lucky to have the two of them.”

Alger found his purpose in higher education, but like the university itself, he’s not standing still. With the intellectual curiosity he developed as a child—and the intellectual humility he continues to hone as an adult—Alger is always evolving to meet the needs of students and the demands of a changing world.

“One of the things I love about being in a university is that I’m surrounded by smart, interesting people who have skills and talents that I don’t,” he says. “I’m constantly growing and learning from the brilliant people around me. That’s the spirit in which I hope our students will approach their education and their lives beyond AU.”

With “open minds and open hearts,” Alger says, we the people of American University can accomplish anything.