List of presidents of the George Washington University

The president of the George Washington University is the chief executive officer of the George Washington University, appointed by the GW Board of Trustees and charged "to establish the university's vision, oversee its teaching and research mission and guide its future."^[1]

The first President of what was then known as Columbian College was clergyman and Chaplain of the United States Senate, William Staughton. Although Columbian College was founded by prominent Baptists, its Congressional Charter forbade any religious restrictions for the University. As such, the Presidents of the University succeeding Staughton were not required to be Baptists. The Presidents of the George Washington University have been selected by its Board of Trustees.^[2]

The current president of the George Washington University is Ellen Granberg. University officials announced Granberg would succeed incumbent Mark S. Wrighton. Granberg took office on 1 July 2023.^[3] In January 2023, the university announced that Ellen Granberg had been selected to succeed Wrighton. Granberg, who will become the first woman to serve as president of George Washington University, took office on July 1, 2023.^[4]

List

Sources^[5][6][7]

No.	Image	President[8]	Term	Notes
1		William Staughton	1821–1827
2		Stephen Chapin	1828–1841
3		Joel Smith Bacon	1843–1854
4		Joseph Getchell Binney	1855–1858
5		George W. Samson	1859–1871
6		James Clarke Welling	1871–1894
7		Beniah Longley Whitman	1895–1900
8		Charles W. Needham	1902–1910
9		Charles H. Stockton	1910–1918
10		William Miller Collier	1918–1921
11		William Mather Lewis	1923–1927
12		Cloyd H. Marvin	1927–1959
13		Thomas H. Carroll	1961–1964
14		Lloyd Hartman Elliott	1965–1988
15		Stephen Joel Trachtenberg	August 1, 1988–July 31, 2007	[9]
16		Steven Knapp	August 1, 2007–July 31, 2017	[10][11]
17		Thomas LeBlanc	August 1, 2017–December 31, 2022	[12][13]
18		Mark S. Wrighton (interim)	January 1, 2022–June 30, 2023	[14][15][16]
19		Ellen Granberg	July 1, 2023–present	[4]