Jonathan Holloway

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“From my father, I got discipline and rigor and ambition. From my mother, who I loved in very uncomplicated ways, I learned the idea of grace and being able to listen,” Holloway said in a 2020 Rutgers Magazine profile. “If ever there is a time when people need to be authentically listened to, it’s now.”

Holloway has brought that wisdom since taking the high-profile helm at Rutgers in 2020, guiding the state university’s efforts navigating the COVID-19 pandemic. More prosaic challenges remain, including budgetary issues. Among the main financial stressors – at least in some quarters – is the athletics department. Despite a lucrative membership in the Big 10 Conference, sports apparently continues to be a financial problem, even as several teams gain national attention.

A U.S. historian, Holloway is an accomplished author who’s published numerous books, specializing in post-emancipation U.S. history with a focus on social and intellectual history.

He serves on boards of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, Andrew W. Melton Foundation, the Universities Research Association, the Institute of International Education, and the Academic Leadership Institute. In 2021, he was appointed by Gov. Phil Murphy as one of four co-chairs of the state’s Wealth Disparity Task Force.

Holloway is also an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Society of American Historians as well as a Fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations.