Notre Dame is governed by the Board of Fellows and the Board of Trustees. The senior leadership of the University is comprised of the President’s Leadership Council and the Deans’ Council.
University Executive Officers
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Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C.
President
Elected in 2005 as the University of Notre Dame’s 17th president, Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., was re-elected by the Board of Trustees to a fourth five-year term, effective July 1, 2020.
As president, he has devoted himself to fostering the University’s unique place in academia, the Church, the United States, and the world.
Father Jenkins has been committed to combining teaching and research excellence with a cultivation of the deeper purposes of Catholic higher education. While pursuing academic distinction, he has brought renewed emphasis to Notre Dame’s distinctive mission, rooted in the tradition of the Congregation of Holy Cross, the University’s founding community, to educate the whole person—mind, body, and spirit—to do good in the world.
If we are clear in our purpose, we will excel in our ideals. This will be my priority and my passion as president of Notre Dame.
Inaugural Speech, 2005
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John T. McGreevy
Charles and Jill Fischer Provost
John T. McGreevy began his tenure as the Charles and Jill Fischer Provost of the University of Notre Dame on July 1, 2022, the sixth provost at Notre Dame since the position was established in 1970. The University’s second-ranking officer, the provost is elected by the Board of Trustees and, at the direction of the president, exercises overall responsibility for the academic enterprise.
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Shannon B. Cullinan
Executive Vice President
Shannon Cullinan was elected executive vice president effective July 2019 after serving as vice president for finance since 2017. He returned to his alma mater in 2000 serving as assistant vice president for Public Affairs and Communications, assistant vice president for Development, associate vice president for Continuous Improvement and Campus Services, and associate vice president for University Relations. Cullinan previously served as the associate executive director of the Center for the Homeless in South Bend, and he also owned and operated an advertising company. He graduated from Notre Dame in 1993 with a bachelor’s degree in accountancy and earned his MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.
Governance
The University of Notre Dame is governed by a two-tiered structure (Fellows of the University and the Board of Trustees), in which lay men and women have joined with religious of the Indiana Province of Holy Cross in the governance of the University. The Fellows of the University are a “self-perpetuating body,” consisting of six members who at all times must be “members of the Priests Society of the Congregation of Holy Cross, Indiana Province, and six of whom shall be lay persons.” The Fellows are the associates in office of the original founders of the University and, among other responsibilities, determine powers to be delegated to the Board of Trustees.
Read more about the responsibilities of both the Fellows and Board of Trustees.