Brian Shanley

Shanley assumed the office of President of St. John’s University in New York in February, 2021.

Shanley was elected the 18th President of St. John's University in New York on November 24, 2020 and started his tenure on February 1, 2021.

On March 29, 2019, Shanley announced that, while the Providence College Board of Trustees had recommended that he serve another 5-year term, the Prior Provincial would not be making him available to do so. As a Dominican Friar, he accepted his superior's decision and concluded his service as President of Providence College at the end of his third term on June 30, 2020.

Ordained to the priesthood as a member of the Dominican Order of Preachers in 1987, Shanley taught philosophy at Providence College and was a visiting professor at Emory University's Candler School of Theology. He also served as an associate professor of philosophy at CUA.

After completing undergraduate studies in history at Providence College in 1980, he earned a licentiate degree in philosophy from The Catholic University of America (CUA) where he later taught. He also holds a master of divinity and a licentiate degree in sacred theology from the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C.

Rev. Brian J. Shanley, O.P., S.T.L., Ph.D. (born July 7, 1958), is an American priest of the Order of Preachers and a former president of Providence College.

Born in Warwick, Rhode Island, on July 7, 1958, Shanley holds a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Toronto and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Notre Dame's Center for Philosophy of Religion.