Name: Steve Stoute

Current title: President, Canisius College

Age: 41

It’s same place, new face, at the venerable Canisius College, where Steve Stoute has just been installed as the 152-year-old Jesuit institution’s twenty-fifth president. At forty-one, Stoute is the youngest to assume the mantle and only the second layperson. 

Stoute was born in Trinidad and Tobago but came to the United States to attend New Jersey’s Seton Hall University, where he continued his family’s legacy of service and social justice with Catholic ideals. He graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s in business administration, earned a master’s degree in exercise and sports science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and capped off his education with a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania. 

Before coming to Buffalo, Stoute was vice president for strategic initiatives and chief of staff at Chicago’s DePaul University. He’s joined in Buffalo by wife Alison, whom he met when both were consultants to scholar-athletes, and their daughters Isabelle and Genevieve, six and four. They were still setting up their new home when Spree caught up with him this past spring.

College president is a big job. What prepared you for this move?

My parents believed in Catholic education. I went to a Catholic high school and there was no question about where I’d go to college; it had to be a Catholic institution! I’d say my parents were proven right about the value of such an education. Of course, growing up, I thought I’d be a soccer player, and I did play for Seton Hall, where I focused on business and sports management.  

While serving on Seton’s Board of Regents as an alumnus, I began to think more broadly and to realize there is so much more to an effective college experience. Higher education administration became my calling, my passion. And a presidency, specific to Catholic colleges, with how Catholic institutions live their missions, the core of Catholic social teaching, that drew me. What specifically resonated with me about this opportunity is the significance of Canisius and its position in the community. How can we uniquely serve our community? How can we show what we offer is different?

How do you hit the ground running in seeking to answer those questions? 

The biggest challenge in higher education is to be innovative. Higher education has always changed on the margins, in response to cultural shifts, like a wave of access following passage of the GI Bill. More recently, we [in higher education] never embraced technological advances, as we were forced to do since the pandemic. We must be ahead of the curve, which means trying to predict the future. We cannot be the same as we were even five years ago. Look, outcomes for students have not been equitable, and they have not been good enough. Our job is determining how to better serve them in creative and innovative ways and to throw the gates of the college wide open. To help prepare our students for new roles, we must ask the right questions and listen intently. Collaboration is key. 

How has this move affected your family? Are you getting to know and enjoy WNY?

For the girls, it’s an adventure—new city, new house. The hardest thing will be changing mascots; we look forward to meeting Petey, the Golden Griffins team mascot. And we will enjoy the outdoors here, the parks and many recreational activities. We’re gardeners, and I play golf. Although I don’t have as much time as I’d like to indulge these days, I’m a great reader. And I love to cook, though my wife says not enough. But I learned from my dad, who’s a chef. He taught me to clean up as you go along in the kitchen, so there’s that.