Astrid Tuminez, Utah Valley University’s first female leader, had to pivot from personal tragedy to address ‘a wounding that happened to all of us’

Astrid Tuminez was on her way to Rome, the trip a kind of pilgrimage after months of grief. Her husband, Jeffrey Tolk, had died suddenly earlier in the year, and the loss had left her carrying a weight she couldn’t set down. “I felt darkness and a rage I’d never known before. It was like a tectonic shift in my reality,” she said.

Tuminez imagined quiet days walking through old churches, sitting in dim chapels in Rome. As part of her spiritual healing, she hoped her schedule held a meeting with Pope Leo. But as her flight landed in Atlanta for a short connection, her phone lit up. One sentence, again and again: “Charlie has been shot.”