2024 People of Influence: Gonzaga University president Thayne M. McCulloh
Education: Bachelor's degree in psychology, Gonzaga University; doctorate in experimental sociology, Oxford University.
Who has been a significant influence in your life and career? My wife, Julie, and many, many educators.
What drives/inspires you? I'm inspired by the transformational impact education has on individuals lives, health, and well-being. I am amazed at what educated people can, and do, accomplish.
What advice would you have for others looking to follow a career path similar to yours? I try to emulate effective leaders who exhibit specific traits: finding opportunities even in the face of complexity or difficulty, humility, tenacity, a real openness to learning from others, valuing the importance of relationships. These characteristics, it seems to me, would serve anyone well.
If you had to choose an alternative career path and money wasn't relevant, what would you do? I'm not sure. I have an amazing job. But I always thought being a courtroom judge would be both challenging and fulfilling.
Thayne M. McCulloh is Gonzaga University's 26th president and the first non-Jesuit to lead the private university.
An advocate for Gonzaga and Spokane community partnerships, McCulloh effectuates community improvement through the 2011 Gonzaga Will campaign that raises more than $355 million from more than 40,000 donors. In 2023, under McCulloh's leadership, Gonzaga sought to address tech industry needs within the region with Institute for Informatics and Applied Science, a degree and certificate program geared toward technology and information science.
Having worked in his current position since 2010, McCulloh also serves on the boards of Greater Spokane Incorporated, the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities, and the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. He is chair of the West Coast Conference President's Council and immediate past chair of Independent Colleges of Washington and the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities.
