Title:‘Meeting alumni where they are’

GUAA Executive Director Julia Farr (C’88, Parent’19, ’21, ’24) talks with new GUAA President Fitz O. Lufkin IV (C’11, G’12)

On July 1, 2024, Fitz O. Lufkin IV began his term as president of the Georgetown University Alumni Association. Fitz served on the Board of Governors for six years and is a past chair of the board’s Career Services Committee. He has served as a founding member of the Department of Government M.A. Advisory Board, communications co-chair for the Class of 2011, a Georgetown Scholars Program alumni mentor, and AAP interviewer. Outside of GUAA, Fitz is a management consultant at Deloitte Consulting, where he helps lead the firm’s relationship with Georgetown, connecting with campus leaders to form collaborative, mutually beneficial partnerships.

I recently sat down with him to ask about what led him to this role and what he sees for his term at the helm of the alumni association.

Tell me about one of your favorite Georgetown moments.

In February 2010, Washington experienced “Snowmageddon,” a massive blizzard that brought the city to a halt for more than a week. That Saturday, the men’s basketball team played Villanova downtown. As ardent fans, my friends and I were not going to miss it! To get there, we had to walk to the Rosslyn Metro station across the Key Bridge—in the road. Along the way, we encountered a nurse from Georgetown Hospital who was stuck in the snow and we pushed her car up a hill so she could get home. Despite the conditions, the student section was full and the environment was electric for the Hoyas’ win. After the game, the sun came out and we walked back to campus through a magical-looking city. The mood that day could only be described as joyous!

How did your Georgetown experience influence your life and career?

Choosing to attend Georgetown was the most consequential thing I’ve done; it changed the trajectory of my life. I have my parents, Fitz III and Ellen, to thank for that. They encouraged me to consider Georgetown and made it possible for me to attend. I will always be grateful that they gave me the gift of Georgetown.

When asked to describe a Georgetown education, I tell people that Georgetown is a place where you discover and become who you really are. While on campus, I met people from places I had never been with experiences completely different from my own. I was exposed to viewpoints I had never considered. My assumptions about the world and about myself were challenged—and, in some cases, broken.

I met many of my closest friends at Georgetown. Indeed, fellow GUAA Governor Ana-Alicia Siqueiros (C’11, G’12) and I met before enrolling, as members of the same discussion group at GAAP Weekend when we were in high school. We remain dear friends, and I recently became her son Santiago’s godfather at his baptism in June.

Georgetown taught me to have a mature, adult version of the Catholic faith I learned growing up. Jesuits like Christopher Steck, S.J., Kevin O’Brien, S.J. (C’88), Ryan Maher, S.J. (SLL’85), and the late Rick Curry, S.J. (HON’06) were pivotal to my personal development.

Professionally, a Georgetown network helped get me to Deloitte, where I use my liberal arts education every day with more than 900 other Hoyas in the United States.

Which Jesuit value most resonates with you?

I love the university motto, Utraque unum, which translates from Latin to English as “both into one.” While explicitly referencing the harmony of science and religion at the core of Georgetown’s identity, I think it also represents the inherent duality of the challenges in the world and in life that Georgetown prepares her students to address: individual rights and collective goods, free expression and public order, economic progress and environmental protection. As alumni, we are prepared to meet these and other questions with curiosity, empathy, and morality in pursuit of justice.

How has the GUAA evolved since you became a Hoya?

While the Alumni Association’s mission has remained constant through its history, our alumni continue to become more diverse, live in more places, and pursue a wider range of professions and personal interests. Working on the Board of Governors, I learned that we must meet our alumni where they are by providing a variety of programming and resources. Our challenge is to continue to innovate and to adapt to reflect our alumni population in the work of the association.

What will be some of your priorities as GUAA President?

I want to prioritize meeting the needs of our alumni. We will expand and enhance our engagement pathways, developing our portfolio of affinity groups, professional alliances, regional clubs, and class programs, while guiding their leaders.

At a recent Washington event for Hoyas with Pride, an affinity group in incubation for LGBTQIA+ and allied alumni, several alumni told me how grateful they were that the university and the alumni association were reaching out to them on that basis, something we had not done before. We know we can engage alumni authentically through their identities, professions, and geographic locations. It is our task to do that, bringing them closer to Georgetown and to each other.

You will be the youngest and first openly gay president of our association in its history. What do those two things mean to you?

It is an immense privilege to have this position and I am grateful the Board entrusted me with the duty to serve our alumni and alma mater in this way. I am especially grateful to one of my mentors and friends, who encouraged me to apply for president. Before doing so, I had not seen anyone “like me” in this role. This person assured me that I was capable and that my perspective and experience was valuable. It was a remarkable act of mentorship, pushing me to do something I did not think I was ready to do. As a leader, I hope I can pay that mentorship forward. It is far less important that I am the first and more important that I will not be the last.