The Nanovic Institute for European Studies at the University of Notre Dame, in partnership with Nonprofit Certificate Education at Mendoza College of Business, hosted 17 European Catholic university officials July 8-15, 2017, for the Catholic Leadership Institute, an intensive management training program for higher education professionals that has been internationalized to serve those working in former Soviet bloc countries.
“For more than a decade, Nanovic has been building a network of flourishing bilateral and multilateral relationships with leading Catholic universities in Europe,” said A. James McAdams, director of the Nanovic Institute and William M. Scholl Professor of International Affairs. “For the first time, we are bringing the current and future leaders of these institutions to Notre Dame with the aim of exposing them to some practical aspects of university administration.”
The 17 attendees from six universities won Nanovic-funded spots in the training program through a competitive application process and hail from Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Ukraine, Croatia and Georgia. They came from a wide variety of disciplines and leadership roles; six are priests in addition to their administrative positions in their respective universities.
The Catholic Leadership Institute featured workshops on change management, institutional Catholic identity, fundraising, nonprofit leadership and strategic planning, among other topics. The program also included sessions with Notre Dame senior leadership, such as Rev. William Lies, C.S.C., vice president for mission engagement and Church affairs, and Christine Maziar, vice president and senior associate provost, as well as high-profile, independent nonprofit executives.
“This new partnership will bring together 17 Catholic leaders from eastern Europe with 38 other leaders from the U.S., Africa, Australia, Cambodia and Lebanon. It will be a great opportunity for these leaders to learn new skills, learn from each other and become an international support system network,” said Marc Hardy, director of nonprofit executive programs at Mendoza.
“The institute is an important demonstration of what it means for Notre Dame to be ‘internationalized’ and provides an opportunity to jointly reflect on the challenges we all face in maintaining distinctive Catholic identities in a secular age,” McAdams said.
Originally published by at mendoza.nd.edu on June 28, 2017.