DR. LINDA LEMURA
Dr. Linda LeMura is a scientist and academic who is the current and 14th President of Le Moyne College. She is the first female layperson to be named as president of a Jesuit institution of higher education in the United States. Since 2014, when she was appointed president unanimously by the College’s Board of Trustees, Le Moyne has achieved seven years of its largest class enrollments. Dr. LeMura has also overseen the completion of the $100 million Always Forward campaign, the largest campaign in the College’s history. A hallmark of her time in office is developing collaborative partnerships with other institutions of higher education. She is actively engaged in the greater Syracuse community to improve the lives and education of those in the Central New York region. A much-quoted expert in the financing of higher education, Dr. LeMura is a strong advocate for increasing Pell Grants to address racial and economic inequities in higher education access and completion rates. Previously, she served Le Moyne as the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs from 2007 to 2014 and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences from 2003 to 2007.
REV. PATRICK ROGERS, S.J.
A native of Annapolis, Maryland, Father Rogers is the youngest of eleven children and has a twin brother named Peter. He has been the Vice-President for Mission Integration at Le Moyne College since July 2022 and prior to his moving to Syracuse spent five years at The University of Scranton as the Executive Director of the Jesuit Center. Other mission assignments as a priest included work at Georgetown University and St. Raphael the Archangel Catholic Church in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Father Rogers entered the Society of Jesus in 1992 and was ordained a priest in 2002. Prior to entering the Society of Jesus, he was a professional musician and holds a bachelor’s degree in music performance (clarinet) from Towson University in Maryland. While at Towson he also played saxophone and flute for Jazz Great Hank Levy, one of the most innovative jazz composers and educators of the late 20th century. Levy’s work entitled “Whiplash” was a featured piece, and title track, of the academy award winning film of the same title. For five seasons Father Rogers sang tenor with the Baltimore Opera Chorus and was an instrumental music teacher for a number of different schools in the greater Baltimore Metropolitan area. He was also the Associate Music Director of the orchestra at Towson University from 1989 to 1991.
As a Jesuit, Father Rogers earned a master’s degree in philosophy from Fordham University and a master’s degree in divinity from the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University. He earned his Doctor of Liberal Studies degree from Georgetown University, writing his thesis on the confluence of Germanic and Christian symbols in the Grimms’ Fairy Tales. Father Rogers has spent a great deal of time in Central and South America and really enjoys encountering new peoples and cultures.
When not working, Father Rogers enjoys participating in sports related activities and is an avid basketball and tennis player. He is still keen on making music but now tends to express his musical passion on a guitar.