Last November, when the Emory Board of Trustees began its search for the university’s 21st president, no one could have anticipated what lay ahead. Within a few months, a global pandemic would claim countless lives, paralyze communities, tax health care systems, and threaten economies. At the same time, protests challenging America’s legacy of racist violence would erupt across the US and eventually, the world.

Arguably, there has never been a more challenging time to be a leader in higher education.

But Fenves, who stepped into his new role as Emory’s president on August 1, arrived understanding full well the unusual scope of what awaited him. And he knows key questions will need to be answered.

Read "Right time. Right place. Right leader" about Emory's new president