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.
Watch video “You leave Notre Dame with many great achievements and memorable moments,” Notre Dame president Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., told the graduates in his charge to the Class of 2015. “One is that you will always be the class that helped us send Father Theodore Hesburgh to his final rest with God.” Inviting Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of...
Notre Dame International launches four new short-term study abroad programs
Notre Dame International at the University of Notre Dame will launch four new short-term study abroad programs for summer 2015: South Africa for Student-Athletes, Summer Greece, China Summer Language Program and Global Gateway seminars for rising freshmen. This expansion of program offerings marks progress toward NDI’s — and the University’s — goal to provide every eligible undergraduate with an opportunity...
Panel discussion on role of Catholic Church in marriage debate to be held at Notre Dame
A panel discussion on the role of the Catholic Church in the cultural and political debate about marriage will take place at 7 p.m. Monday (April 27) in Room 141 of DeBartolo Hall at the University of Notre Dame.
A round of racial provocations
Notre Dame has a nettlesome past helping African Americans feel at home, and recent campus flare-ups played against a national backdrop of rekindled racial polarization.
Abayasinghe: ‘I want to win your business’
Chris Abayasinghe, director of Food Services, has a story to tell about the launch of University Catering, and the theme is that “It’s a fresh start. A whole new day.”
It’s a re-set for the entire department, he adds, offering the opportunity to cater meals to a changing customer demographic.
Notre Dame produces Liam Neeson-narrated documentary to remember Ireland's 1916 Easter Rising
The University of Notre Dame will play a major role in the international celebration of the centenary of Ireland’s 1916 Easter Rising, which was announced Tuesday (March 31) in Dublin by Taoiseach Enda Kenny. A documentary television series, “1916: The Irish Rebellion,” produced by Notre Dame’s Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies, will be broadcast worldwide during the centenary, which memorializes...
New paper examines household production and asset prices
A new paper by Zhi Da, Viola D. Hank Associate Professor of Finance at the University of Notre Dame, finds that residential electricity usage can track household production in real time and helps to price assets. “The importance of household production in economics has been recognized by Nobel Laureate Gary Becker back in 1960s, but measuring what household produces at...
Women engineers gather at Notre Dame, bring the ‘brains and beauty to engineering’
This Friday and Saturday (March 6 and 7), approximately 850 female collegiate students and professionals will gather at the University of Notre Dame for the 2015 Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Region H Conference, highlighting women engineers’ unique place and voice within the engineering industry and bringing a significant economic impact to the area.
Notre Dame launches online theology program for Hispanic Catholics
The University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Church Life (ICL) has launched a new online adult faith formation program for Hispanic Catholics.
The program, Camino, is a collaborative initiative of ICL’s Satellite Theological Education Program (STEP) and the Southeast Pastoral Institute (SEPI).
Notre Dame receives USAID grant to undertake global development research on 3 continents
Twelve University of Notre Dame researchers, students from the Graduate School and the College of Arts and Letters, have been selected by the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID’s) brand-new Research and Innovation Fellowship Program. They will travel to Brazil, Colombia, India and South Africa to research global development challenges and create innovative solutions to address these issues.
Aaron Neville: 2015 Laetare Address
Watch video I am honored and humbled to be receiving such a prestigious medal. I hope I’m worthy of standing next to the people who have received it before me. If it’s for me trying to get my life on the right track the way God wanted me too, then I am worthy, because I know, and God knows, that...
Students presented with Undergraduate Library Research Award at Undergraduate Scholars Conference
Four University of Notre Dame students received an Undergraduate Library Research Award (ULRA) for their exemplary research skills during a special event at the eighth annual Undergraduate Scholars Conference on Friday (May 1). More than 80 undergraduate research and scholarship projects were showcased at the conference.
Researchers identify molecular mechanism responsible for making malaria parasites drug-resistant
University of Notre Dame researchers led an international team to identify a molecular mechanism responsible for making malaria parasites resistant to artemisinins, the leading class of antimalarial drugs. According to the World Health Organization’s 2014 World Malaria Report, there are an estimated 198 million cases of malaria worldwide with 3.3 billion people at risk for contracting the infection. Although the...
Notre Dame to award 7 honorary degrees at Commencement
Six distinguished figures in community leadership, the Catholic Church, education, engineering and science will join principal speaker Oxford Chancellor Christopher Patten as honorary degree recipients at the University of Notre Dame’s 170th University Commencement Ceremony on May 17 (Sunday).
Come, Holy Spirit
I met Father Ted on my first night on campus as a Notre Dame freshman. I snuck away from the orientation T-shirt/marker mixer outside LaFortune and went up to the 13th floor of the library to check out the philosophy collection. Whether it was my first act of collegiate rebellion or a nod to the reality that I wasn’t having...
Chinese civil rights activist to give Notre Dame’s 2015 Human Dignity Lecture
Chinese civil rights activist and former political prisoner Chen Guangcheng will give the University of Notre Dame’s 2015 Human Dignity Lecture at 7:30 p.m. April 7 (Tuesday) in the McKenna Hall Auditorium. Chen’s lecture, “Interpreting Reform: Human Dignity and Human Rights in Contemporary China,” is sponsored by Notre Dame’s Institute for Church Life (ICL) as one of its Human Dignity...
Grammy Award-winning singer Aaron Neville to receive Notre Dame’s 2015 Laetare Medal
Aaron Neville, a four-time Grammy Award-winning singer and musician, will receive the University of Notre Dame’s 2015 Laetare Medal, the oldest and most prestigious honor given to American Catholics, at Notre Dame’s 170th University Commencement ceremony May 17 (Sunday). “Aaron Neville proudly embraces and honors his faith through his God-given musical talents,” said Notre Dame’s president, Rev. John I. Jenkins,...
Making the most of a Notre Dame education
The fundamental function of CUSE, the Center for Undergraduate Scholarly Engagement, is “helping students maximize their undergraduate experience, with an eye to contributing to their post-baccalaureate success,” says Deb Rotman, Paul and Maureen Stefanick Faculty Director of the program. CUSE, founded in 2009, provides undergraduates opportunities for research, scholarship and creative projects, as well as assisting with applications for prestigious...
Robinson Community Learning Center celebrates 14th anniversary
The University of Notre Dame’s Robinson Community Learning Center celebrates its 14th anniversary from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Feb. 20 (Friday) at the RCLC. The celebration is open to the public.
Notre Dame among top producers of Fulbright students
Ten University of Notre Dame students have been awarded Fulbright grants in the 2014-15 program, placing the University among the top-producing universities in the nation. The U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program, Fulbright recently announced the complete list of colleges and universities that produced the most 2014-15 U.S. Fulbright students. The success of the top-producing institutions is highlighted in...
Agreement between Engineering, Universidad de Chile encourages academic exchange
The Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (CBE) at the University of Notre Dame has entered into a five-year agreement with the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology (DIQBT) of the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences at the Universidad de Chile in Santiago, Chile, that encourages academic exchange and collaborative initiatives at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Iris Outlaw receives AABHE Exemplary Award for Public Service
The American Association of Blacks in Higher Education (AABHE) presented the AABHE Exemplary Award for Public Service to Iris Outlaw, director of Multicultural Student Programs and Services at the University of Notre Dame, at the 2015 AABHE National Conference in Charleston, South Carolina, on April 10. The AABHE Exemplary Public Service Award goes to those individuals whose public lives and...
Division of Student Affairs honors exceptional student leaders
The University of Notre Dame’s Division of Student Affairs recognized seven students at the annual Student Leadership Awards Banquet on Tuesday (March 31), and will honor one award winner at the Graduate School Awards Ceremony on May 15 (Friday). These annual awards honor current students who have made exceptional contributions to the Notre Dame community.
Chef Laura Johnson named ACF Central Region Pastry Chef of the Year
Chef Laura Johnson, Notre Dame Food Services, was named 2015 American Culinary Federation (ACF) Central Region Pastry Chef of the Year, and will go on to compete against regional counterparts in the ACF National Convention in Orlando, Florida, July 30 to Aug. 3 for the national title and a $5,000 award.…
Career Services Office helps ND staff find best job fit
LaTonia Ferguson is the Learning and Organizational Development Consultant for the Office of Human Resources. We recently spoke to Ferguson about the career development services her office provides.
Notre Dame and Latin American bishops sign memorandum of understanding
The University of Notre Dame and the Latin American Episcopal Conference (CELAM) have signed a “memorandum of understanding,” pledging to cooperate in a range of initiatives in academics, social development, peace-building and institutional administration. Notre Dame’s president, Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., and Archbishop Carlos Aguiar Retes of Tlalnepantla, Mexico, president of CELAM, signed the memorandum in a ceremony Tuesday...
Early survey results indicate that LF will be eliminated in Haiti
Preliminary testing of more than 850 schoolchildren in the Haitian town of Saut-d’Eau has shown only one child to be infected with the parasite that causes lymphatic filariasis (LF), a milestone in efforts to eradicate the debilitating disease from the island. The results, involving children from 38 schools in the community of 35,000 people 50 miles north of Port-au-Prince, mean...
Women in Leadership: Ann M. Firth
As chief of staff for Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., Ann Firth acts as Father Jenkins’ adviser and manages his schedule as well as the staff and operations of the Office of the President; serves as liaison to the University’s Board of Trustees; is a member of the President’s Leadership Council and coordinates the work of that group on behalf...
New antibiotic holds promise against antibiotic-resistant infections
Estimates of deaths from methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in the United States range upwards of 19,000 annually. Around 1960, when Staphylococcus aureus developed resistance to first-generation penicillin, methicillin and other second-generation beta-lactam antibiotics were adopted to fight the illness. The modern variants of the bacterium have developed resistance to the four drugs now used to treat it. A team of...
ND Expert: Media must resist Islamophobia in wake of Chapel Hill murders
Sensational reporting and commentary must be avoided in the wake of the recent murders of three Muslim college students in North Carolina, according to Ebrahim Moosa, professor of Islamic studies at the University of Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies.