Students greet Dr. Kimo Ah Yun after he is named Marquette University’s 25th president last November. (Photo courtesy of Marquette University)
The words of Dr. Kimo Ah Yun’s favorite scripture quote say a lot about what he has discerned to be his vocation as Marquette University president, and his calling in life.
“I give you a new commandment: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.” (John 13:34)
“If we start from the premise of loving others like Jesus loved us, then our hearts would be fully open and we wouldn’t be judgmental, and we would be open to what we are being called to do and asked to do,” he says.
“We would be better people.”
The path God set for Dr. Ah Yun to shepherd Wisconsin’s largest private university began where he was molded, in a home in Sacramento, California. His domestic church came within a family from Hawaii that infused Chinese, Portuguese and native Hawaiian cultures.
“It was an eclectic kind of growing up, but there was no doubt at the center of that was our Catholic faith,” said Dr. Ah Yun, who was named MU’s president in November. “Christ was always real for me.”
Yet as he entered his profession in higher education and leadership, married and became a parent, he was deeply challenged to grow in his faith in Christ.
His encounters at a weekly men’s group at church, with many his age who were trying to understand themselves in the context of parenthood, helped him meet that challenge.
“There wasn’t a time more in my life where I saw really God working through just a bunch of incredible men,” he said. “We would read the Bible. We would try to make one another better, to be part of a faith community where all of us had kids, all of us were trying to figure it out, and all of us knew faith had to be a part of it.”
Coming to Marquette University from Sacramento in 2016 as associate dean of the Diederich College of Communication allowed Dr. Ah Yun to encounter, and help lead, such a faith community.
“One of the blessings of coming to Marquette was being able to be engaged full time with the Catholic Church,” he said. “It was easy to become engaged immediately, going to Mass at Gesu, going to Mass at the Holy Family Chapel, every day being able at noon to say, ‘I’m going to go to the St. Joan of Arc Chapel and go to Mass,’” he said.
“That just led to us being present in St. Monica’s as well,” Dr. Ah Yun added.
His nine years at Marquette in various roles has led him to faith-filled experiences such as experiencing Mass in the room in Rome where the founder of the Jesuits, St. Ignatius of Loyola, died.
That was also the last Mass for Marquette President Michael Lovell before he passed away from cancer in June 2024.
“You could not be around him without having your faith strengthened,” said Dr. Ah Yun, who was provost at that time. “I was with him on his cancer journey for three-plus years. He understood the power of prayer and he understood the power of faith and being present, active and engaged.”
In fact, when Dr. Ah Yun asks for advice from the Jesuits that operate Marquette about what to do within his role, their answer for him is one simple but profound word that he hopes to infuse within the lives of students he serves.
Prayer.
“I do not start a leadership meeting here where we do not open with prayer, and it’s about being thankful, having gratitude, understanding, or understanding we’re asked to be humble, that we’re called to ‘be the difference,’” he shares, echoing Marquette’s signature phrase.
“What are we doing — to slow down enough, be reflective enough and willing enough to listen, to see God at work and God trying to tell us something? I think that relationship is strongest when I can slow down. I hope with our students, that’s one of the things that they’re able to get.”
Dr. Ah Yun often helps students personally foster a relationship with God in praying one-on-one with them.
“It’s great to see their faith journeys and to be able to see how they’re growing,” Dr. Ah Yun says. “When we’re successful, they go off and do incredible things with their lives.”
Dr. Kimo Ah Yun
Position: President, Marquette University
Parish: St. Monica, Whitefish Bay
Hometown: Sacramento, California
Education:
– Bachelor’s degree, California State University, Sacramento (Communications Studies)
– Master’s Degree, Kansas State University (Speech)
– Doctorate, Michigan State University (Communications)
Family: Wife, Catherine Puckering, and their three children ages 18 to 23.
Favorite spot on MU campus: St. Joan of Arc Chapel
