Pete Menjares, Ph.D., took the baton July 28 as the 11th president of Fresno Pacific University—and he’s already running at full speed.

Menjares got a literal hand-off from retiring President D. Merrill Ewert at the national convention of FPU’s sponsoring denomination, the U.S. Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches, in Omaha, receiving a baton inscribed with Hebrews 12:1: “….let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.”