Kenneth Gormley
President and Professor of Law, Duquesne University
2021, 2022, 2024, Current
Ken Gormley is the 13th president of Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, where he previously served as professor of law before being named dean of the Duquesne University School of Law. He joined the faculty in 1994 following a career teaching at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law; working in private practice at the firm of Cindrich & Titus; and clerking for U.S. District Judge Donald E. Ziegler and Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Ralph J. Cappy.
Gormley earned his B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh, summa cum laude, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He received his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1980, serving as a teaching assistant in constitutional law to Professor Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor during the Watergate scandal.
Gormley’s work has earned him a reputation as a highly-respected constitutional scholar. His books, which include Archibald Cox: Conscience of a Nation, The Death of American Virtue: Clinton vs. Starr, American Presidents and the Constitution: A Living History, and The Heiress of Pittsburgh, have won multiple awards.
A past president of the Allegheny County Bar Association, he was the first academic to hold that position in the organization’s history.
He and his wife, Laura, have four children and live in Forest Hills, Pa., where he served as mayor from 1998-2001.
At the Summit
The effort to eradicate hate requires the active participation of every component of our society, to include governments, the private sector, communities of faith and indeed every aspect of civil society. There is no more urgent task in front of us. The organizers of the Eradicate Hate Global Summit are doing the United States and the world an enormous service by tackling hatred and extremism with a focus on honest dialogue and conversation, genuine learning and practical solutions. This will not happen overnight, but the Pittsburgh community’s leadership in this effort is genuinely inspiring and motivating.
