About John Nunes

The Board of Regents has appointed Dr. John A. Nunes to serve as interim president for a term of two years, beginning on June 1, 2024. Dr. Nunes has served since 2020 on the Academic Leaders Task Force on Campus Free Expression at the Bipartisan Policy Center. Many public and private universities have adopted the task force’s recommendations about how to foster a campus culture of robust intellectual exchange during the current period of national polarization.

Dr. Nunes’ appointment comes with the support of the Region 1 and Region 2 bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Nunes is a senior fellow at the Center for Religion, Culture and Democracy and was ordained as a Lutheran minister in 1991. He was also president and CEO of Lutheran World Relief and held an endowed professorship at Valparaiso University.

He is the author of five books, including Wittenberg Meets the World: Reimagining the Reformation from the Margins (2017), with Alberto Garcia; and Meant for More: In, With, and Under the Ordinary (2020).Born in Montego Bay Jamaica and raised in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, Nunes holds degrees from Concordia College, Ann Arbor (BA), Concordia Seminary in St. Catharines, Ontario (MDiv), and the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (ThM and PhD). 

He and his wife, Monique, are the parents of six children and 13 grandchildren.