Title:Called to be…a values-driven leader

Kelly Mulvoy Mangan (SFS’91, Parent’25, ’28)

she/her/hers

Kelly Mulvoy Mangan, who served as president of the Georgetown University Alumni Association from July 2022 to June 2024, lives in Harrison, New York, where she has served as a trustee on the Board of Education for 11 years, including six as president. She has been a member of four of Georgetown’s regional clubs (Boston, Metropolitan New York, Hong Kong, and Fairfield County, Connecticut). Today, she continues to serve Georgetown as an officer of the Alumni Association and as a member of the Board of Regents. Find out how she was called to serve the global Hoya community. 

How did Georgetown shape your life?

I got my admissions letter 37 years ago and there’s a through line from that letter—and my decision to go to Georgetown—to everything that’s happened after.

Although I didn’t meet my husband, Jim (C’92, L’95, Parent’25, 28), at Georgetown, we were introduced by a mutual friend because we both went to Georgetown. 

I got my first job out of law school at a Georgetown alum’s law firm and became a partner there. 

I came to realize Hoyas are everywhere. While chatting with my dentist in Hong Kong, I found out he was a Hoya and a member of the Georgetown club there!

To this day, my closest friends are still the people that I met over the course of my four years at Georgetown. 

During my term as GUAA president, we continued the important work of ensuring that the board of the alumni association reflects the diversity of our Georgetown community. So many of those people have become close friends even though we weren’t on campus at the same time. In fact, someone on the board was born the year I graduated. 

Did you find your calling at Georgetown?

Yes, but I don’t think I knew it when I was a student. Over time, I have realized that the idea of being a woman for others—and finding God in all things and people—are the ideas around which I have shaped my life.

When I had three boys under the age of four, my husband was offered an opportunity to work in Hong Kong. Moving there would’ve been much harder if I hadn’t gone to a place like Georgetown, a place that teaches you to be open to whatever experience comes next, and also to be open to every person that you see in front of you.

I don’t know that I would have run for Harrison Central School Board either. Georgetown taught me to take risks, but then to back up the risks with learning. I don’t have a degree in education, but I have become an advocate for public education and deeply knowledgeable about K-12 education.

Who or what inspires you at Georgetown?

I would have to say there are two. I wasn’t involved with Campus Ministry until my senior year, but Jesuit spirituality and values have been at the core of everything I am and do since I left Georgetown. 

Also, President DeGioia was Dean of Students when I was there. I was the alumni representative on the search committee that recommended him to be the first non-Jesuit to lead a Jesuit university. Watching his commitment to the university has been really powerful for me.

What is your hope for Georgetown?

My Catholic faith deepened and matured at Georgetown. I think there’s something incredibly important in an education that is rooted in values, ethics, and a mission. I hope Georgetown continues to live out her Catholic, Jesuit mission and values every day.

I also hope that Georgetown continues to be a place where we talk about faith, belief, and religion and their place in the world, a place that sees the value in encountering and respecting people who are different from you.

I adopted this phrase when I started my time as GUAA president: I wanted the alumni association to be “A home for every Hoya.” I wanted everyone to feel that there was a space for them in the alumni association. I think we do a great job with that and I hope we keep doing it.