Staff Stories
Notre Dame seeks to enhance our community by attracting employees from all walks of life. The work of maintaining and advancing our University requires individuals who approach challenges from unique perspectives borne of varied and nuanced personal experiences. Moreover, it requires learning from one another in an environment that welcomes open discussion and invites personal as well as professional growth in this area.
The stories below showcase the diversity of thought and experience of the people who work at Notre Dame.
Nora Besansky, O’Hara Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Notre Dame and a member of the University’s Eck Institute for Global Health, has led an international team of scientists in sequencing the genomes of 16 Anopheles mosquito species from around the world. Anopheles mosquitoes are responsible for transmitting human malaria parasites that cause an estimated 200 million cases...
Former prime minister of Poland to deliver 2014 Nanovic Forum Lecture
Hanna Suchocka, former prime minister of Poland and former ambassador to the Holy See, will deliver the 2014 Nanovic Forum Lecture at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday (Oct. 28) in the Jordan Auditorium in the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame.
Washington Post writer Wil Haygood, author of 'The Butler,' to speak at Notre Dame
Washington Post national writer Wil Haygood, whose feature story provided the basis for the movie “The Butler,” will discuss his career as a journalist and author Oct. 28 (Tuesday) at the University of Notre Dame. The conversation, which is open to the public and free of charge, will begin at 7 p.m. and take place in the auditorium of the...
ND Expert: Hong Kong movement unlike any other
Hong Kong marked China’s National Day (Oct. 1) in unprecedented fashion, as pro-democracy protesters crowded the streets of the Asian financial hub for what is being called a critical day in the territory’s “Umbrella Revolution.” University of Notre Dame political scientist and Hong Kong native Victoria Hui has worked in the democracy movement there. She says it is unlike any...
Grant propels largest growth of Notre Dame Haiti Program’s salt operations
The Notre Dame Haiti Program at the University of Notre Dame has received a large, anonymous grant that will support the growth of its salt program, which produces clean, co-fortified salt, intended to eliminate lymphatic filariasis and combat iodine deficiency disorder. The $375,000 grant will be matched by other donations and, in conjunction with several other resources, will fund the...
OIT staff members receive ESGR Patriot Award
On Thursday, May 29, two members of the OIT received a Patriot Award from the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR). This Department of Defense office was established in 1972 to promote the cooperation and understanding between Reserve Component Service members and their civilian employers.…
Campus profile: John Affleck-Graves, executive vice president
John Affleck-Graves, executive vice president, arrived in Chicago from South Africa with his wife and two young daughters in August 1986, when rules related to apartheid limited travelers to carrying everything they owned in two suitcases apiece. Rather than make the exhausted family wait for…
Campus profile: Marianne Corr, Office of General Counsel
Marianne Corr, vice president and general counsel in the Office of General Counsel, was born outside Philadelphia, “the oldest of 11 kids in a big Irish Catholic family,” she says.
Her parents wanted her to attend a Catholic college. She came to visit Notre Dame and loved it — matriculating in the third class of freshmen to admit women.
Notre Dame to host conference on civil marriage
A conference on the political and social significance of civil marriage will be held Thursday (April 3) in the University of Notre Dame’s McKenna Hall.
The conference, “For Richer, For Poorer, For Children: The Definition and Importance of Civil Marriage,” is being sponsored by Students for Child-Oriented Policy.
Italian architect Pier Carlo Bontempi to receive 2014 Driehaus Prize in Chicago
Italian architect Pier Carlo Bontempi will receive the 2014 Richard H. Driehaus Prize from the University of Notre Dame at a ceremony to be held on March 29 (Saturday) at the John B. Murphy Memorial Auditorium in Chicago. Bontempi’s award-winning international work includes a block recovery plan in Parma’s historical center, as well as the Place de Toscane and the...
Michelle Whaley is 2014 Indiana Professor of the Year
Michelle A. Whaley, a teaching professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Notre Dame, has been named the 2014 Indiana Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). She will be announced as the award winner at a luncheon Thursday...
Two Spanish architects win the Rafael Manzano Architecture Prize
Spanish architects Javier Cenicacelaya and Iñigo Saloña have been awarded the Rafael Manzano Martos Prize for Classical Architecture and Monument Restoration, presented in partnership by the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture and philanthropist Richard H. Driehaus.
Studying historic Roman architecture – virtually
Most new iPad apps take weeks to be approved. The new app, SPQR-ND: Interpreting the Roman Forum Through Early Architectural Publications, was a two-day turnaround. The app was developed by Jennifer Parker, architecture librarian, Chaaban, and Adam Heet, digital projects specialist. The Center for Digital Scholarship’s Matt Sisk helped with mapping and geolocation. The project was a collaboration between the Hesburgh...
Telling Notre Dame’s story
Paul J. Browne, vice president for public affairs and communications, was born to Irish immigrant parents and grew up in the Bronx, the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. He’s a dedicated Yankees fan (“I grew up about a mile from Yankee Stadium, and at one time I thought they…
African leaders learn business, entrepreneurship at Notre Dame
June 15 marked the arrival of 25 young African leaders from 17 countries to the University of Notre Dame, where they are training for six weeks in business and entrepreneurship as part of the Obama administration’s Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI).
Rev. Russell McDougall, C.S.C., appointed rector of Tantur Ecumenical Institute
Rev. Russell McDougall, C.S.C., has been appointed rector of the Tantur Ecumenical Institute, a Jerusalem-based center of theological scholarship and learning administered by the University of Notre Dame. The appointment becomes effective July 1.
Rev. Ray Hammond to replace Patten as Notre Dame’s commencement speaker
Rev. Dr. Ray Hammond, founder of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Boston, will deliver the principal address at the University of Notre Dame’s 169th University Commencement Ceremony on May 18 (Sunday), replacing the previously announced speaker, Christopher Patten, chancellor of Oxford and chair of the BBC Trust. Patten informed the University this week that he is withdrawing from several...
‘A ministry of presence’
Rev. Jim Bracke, C.S.C., is the newly appointed chaplain for the University’s staff and retirees. “I’m there as a presence to people in their work, as well as in their lives,” Father Jim says. “I am here to serve the staff, as well as to represent Notre Dame to families at the time of loss of a loved one.” Staff...
Peter Woo named recipient of Indiana Campus Compact student community commitment award
Senior Peter Woo, Class of 2014, a Hesburgh-Yusko Scholar and a finance and philosophy major with a minor in Chinese at the University of Notre Dame, has been named the recipient of the Indiana Campus Compact (ICC) 2014 Richard J. Wood Student Community Commitment Award. The annual award recognizes the efforts of students from an Indiana college or university for...
South Africa’s ambassador to the U.S. to deliver 20th annual Hesburgh Lecture in Ethics and Public Policy
Ebrahim Rasool, South Africa’s ambassador to the United States, will deliver the 20th annual Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., Lecture in Ethics and Public Policy at 4 p.m. April 8 (Tuesday) in the Hesburgh Center for International Studies Auditorium at the University of Notre Dame. Rasool’s lecture, “Relic of the Past or Template for the Future: Nelson Mandela’s Impact on...
Notre Dame unites to fight Ebola
When news broke of the outbreak of Ebola in Liberia, “We knew we had to do something,” says Katherine Taylor, director of operations for the Eck Institute for Global Health and interim director of global health training. “Ebola in West Africa is a crisis in our own family,” she says. “We felt we couldn’t stand around and do nothing. This...
'Gay in Christ' conference to be held at Notre Dame
A two-day conference, “Gay in Christ: Dimensions of Fidelity,” co-sponsored by the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Church Life (ICL) and the Gender Relations Center, will convene Oct. 31 (Friday) to explore appropriate pastoral strategies for Catholic parishioners who regard themselves as non-heterosexual, but who accept Catholic Church teaching on marriage and sexuality.
Venezuelan maestro receives final Notre Dame Prize for Distinguished Public Service in Latin America
Visionary music educator José Antonio Abreu was awarded the final Notre Dame Prize for Distinguished Public Service in Latin America at a private campus ceremony on Sept. 22 in recognition of his extraordinary work fighting poverty and violence and developing whole, successful young people through classical music.
Fulbright foreign language teachers introduced to American culture at Notre Dame
The University of Notre Dame is hosting its ninth Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant (FLTA) orientation for the upcoming academic year. Sixty teachers from 28 countries, representing 15 languages, are staying on campus Aug. 9-13 (Saturday-Wednesday) and will attend a series of workshops designed to enhance their teaching in the United States.
The ministry of storytelling
The Catholic Church is the largest of the Christian churches in the nation, and more than half of the Catholics in the United States who are under the age of 25 are Latinos. Barring massive changes in birthrates and immigration, a majority of American Catholics will be Latinos by the year 2050. If the rise of Latino Catholics confronts the...
Kerry Ann Rockquemore to speak at Notre Dame Graduate School Commencement
Kerry Ann Rockquemore, who received her doctorate in sociology from the University of Notre Dame in 1999, will deliver the address at the University’s Graduate School Commencement Ceremony at 10 a.m. May 17 (Saturday) in the Compton Family Ice Arena. While a graduate student, Rockquemore won both the John J. Kane Memorial Award for the most outstanding graduate student in...
Notre Dame theologians explore life, death and resurrection in Rwanda
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The genocide in Rwanda, whose 20th anniversary is being observed worldwide this month, began only a few days after Easter. That the hatred that cost the lives of a million people in this overwhelmingly Christian country could be unleashed so near to Holy Week seems paradoxical, ironic or even blasphemous.
Notre Dame to award 7 honorary degrees at Commencement
Six distinguished figures in business, the Church, community leadership, education, engineering and the performing arts will join principal speaker Christopher Patten as honorary degree recipients at the University of Notre Dame’s 169th University Commencement Ceremony on May 18 (Sunday). The ceremony will be held in the morning at Notre Dame Stadium in order to accommodate as many guests as possible....
Ruan Yisan to receive 2014 Henry Hope Reed Award in Chicago
Ruan Yisan, historic preservationist and professor of architecture at Tongji University, will receive the 2014 Henry Hope Reed Award on March 29 (Saturday) at the John B. Murphy Memorial Auditorium in Chicago. Ruan will receive the award in conjunction with the Richard H. Driehaus Prize ceremony, at which the Driehaus Prize will be presented to Italian architect Pier Carlo Bontempi.
Two prominent South African anti-apartheid participants to speak at Notre Dame
Two prominent South African participants in the anti-apartheid struggle will speak at the University of Notre Dame on Wednesday (March 19) and April 3 (Thursday) as part of the Africa Working Group’s “Celebrating Nelson Mandela” series. One a liberation theologian and political activist, the other the “Jackie Robinson of South Africa,” they each played a crucial role in moving their...