Father Robert Dowd, who has been vice president of Notre Dame, has been named to succeed Father John Jenkins as president of the university.
Father Dowd, a longtime faculty member, will take the helm at the end of the current academic year. He will be the university’s 18th president, and will continue the unbroken Notre Dame tradition of having a priest of the Congregation of the Holy Cross—the religious order that founded the university—in that role.
Father Dowd is a Notre Dame alumnus who, after his ordination to the priesthood, earned his doctorate in political science from UCLA, specializing in African politics and inter-religious relations.
Father Jenkins will be stepping down after 19 years as president.