Jonathan R. Alger is American University’s 16th president.

President Alger is an experienced and visionary higher education leader who spent 12 years as president of James Madison University. He is a nationally recognized scholar and speaker on higher education policy and law, civic education and engagement, who has published numerous articles for scholarly journals and publications such as The Journal of College and University Law and The Law of Higher Education, and received the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge Standout Campus President Award in 2019. 

President Alger currently serves as chair of the national board of directors for the American Association of Colleges and Universities and on the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics. He also is a member of the Council on Competitiveness, Council on Foreign Relations, Institute of Citizens and Scholars’ College Presidents for Civic Preparedness, and was recently inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is past board chair of Campus Compact and the National Association of College and University Attorneys and has served in many other higher education board and national leadership roles.

President Alger previously served as senior vice president and general counsel at Rutgers University, and as assistant general counsel at the University of Michigan, where he played a key leadership role in the university’s efforts in two important Supreme Court cases on diversity and admissions and coordinated one of the largest amicus brief coalitions in Supreme Court history. Earlier in his career he worked for the American Association of University Professors and the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. President Alger co-taught a leadership seminar in JMU’s Honors College and previously taught graduate and undergraduate courses at Rutgers University and the University of Michigan in law, higher education, public policy, and diversity.

President Alger earned his bachelor of arts with high honors and Phi Beta Kappa from Swarthmore College, majoring in political science with a public policy concentration and a minor in history and his juris doctor with honors from Harvard Law School.

President Alger was born and raised outside Rochester, New York. He and his wife, Mary Ann, have a daughter named Eleanor, who holds degrees from Miami University (Ohio) and the Savannah College of Art and Design. He has sung with acclaimed choral groups that have toured internationally, made professional recordings, and performed on national television. His other interests include travel, history, tennis, hiking, and coin collecting.