Tania Tetlow, J.D., is the 17th university president of Loyola University New Orleans. She is  the first woman and the first layperson to lead  Loyola since the Society of Jesus founded the university in 1912. President Tetlow is also the  fourth woman president, as well as the youngest woman president, to lead one of the 28 Jesuit  colleges and universities in the U.S. that comprise the Association of Jesuit Colleges and  Universities (AJCU.) As university president of Loyola University New Orleans, she is expected  to usher in a new and exciting era at the 104-year-old Jesuit, Catholic university. She joined Loyola  in August, 2018. 

Previously, President Tetlow served as senior vice president and chief of staff as well as  the Felder-Fayard Professor of Law at Tulane University, where she was key strategic adviser to  President Michael Fitts. In this role, she held oversight of government, community, and board  relations; she led special policy efforts on issues including campus safety, race and diversity, and  campus sexual misconduct reforms. During her time as strategic adviser, enrollment, retention,  and fundraising soared, and the university experienced great cultural, community, and financial  transformation. 

A renowned lawyer and member of the Tulane Law School faculty since 2005, President  Tetlow served as Tulane’s inaugural associate provost for international affairs, coordinating the  university’s international programs, research, and students. Her research helped to usher in new  anti-discrimination policies at the U.S. Department of Justice. She directed Tulane’s Domestic  Violence Law Clinic and raised a total of $2.3 million in federal grant funds. She advised  governments and law clinics in Egypt, Rwanda, and Iran on domestic violence policy and was  chosen to participate in the U.S. delegation to the Secretary of State’s People-to-People  

Exchange in Beijing. In 2009, she was the newest faculty member ever to receive Tulane’s  University Graduate Teaching Award. 

Before joining academia, President Tetlow was an associate at Phelps Dunbar, litigating  complex commercial transactions. She also served as an assistant United States attorney,  prosecuting everything from violent crime to fraud cases. President Tetlow brings to Loyola a wealth of experience, as well as strong community,  donor, and industry relationships. She has served on a variety of nonprofit boards and city  commissions. At the mayor’s request, she led a turnaround of the NOPD Sex Crimes Unit. In the  aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, she chaired the New Orleans Public Library board and raised $7  million to rebuild flooded branches. She was selected for the British American Project, a bilateral  leadership organization, and later served as its U.S. chair. 

President Tetlow graduated cum laude from Tulane University with a bachelor of arts  degree in American studies and is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School as well as  a Harry Truman Fellow. A Catholic and a New Orleanian, President Tetlow has deep family ties  to the Jesuits and has been a member of the Ignatius Chapel community at Loyola since she was 6  years old.