This is our second of two episodes with a university president as we celebrate the beginning of the academic year. Be sure to check out our last conversation with President Tania Tetlow from Loyola University New Orleans.

Today, we welcome Dr. Mike Lovell, the president of Marquette University in Milwaukee. Like President Tetlow at Loyola, Dr. Lovell is the first-ever layperson to serve as president of Marquette. A man of deep faith, he shares the story of prayerfully discerning the call to accept the pressure-packed position.

Dr. Lovell is an engineer and an inventor by trade, but one of his biggest passions in higher ed is working to address childhood trauma and the intergenerational cycle of poverty. Host Mike Jordan Laskey talks with Dr. Lovell about that important work and how a university can be both responsive to trauma and committed to academic freedom. Dr. Lovell also describes what it’s like to be in a cage underwater surrounded by hungry sharks, so listen for that.

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