The Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider, C.M., became DePaul University's 11th president on July 1, 2004. Since his inauguration, he has led the successful completion of the university's prior strategic plan and creation of its current six-year plan, VISION twenty12.
His leadership and expertise stem from a broad range of higher education experiences. He was an administrator with St. John's University in Queens, N.Y., from 1996 to 1999, first as assistant dean of Notre Dame College and later as associate dean of the university's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Concurrently he served as an assistant professor of higher education in St. John's Graduate School of Education.
He gained a university-wide perspective as executive vice president and chief operating officer at Niagara University in Niagara Falls, N.Y., from 2000 to 2004, where he directed the university's strategic planning efforts and daily operations of the campus.
Adding research to experience, Father Holtschneider led two national studies of examining trends in governance and leadership in American Catholic colleges and universities. He is the author and co-author of one book and numerous articles on U.S. higher education and Catholic higher education, as well as a frequent consultant and speaker on these topics.
His expertise has led to service on numerous external committees and boards. He is a member of the advisory board of the American Council on Education and a member of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management, which promotes excellence and best practices in management, finances and human resource development of the Catholic Church in the U.S. In addition, he is a member of Mayor Richard Daley's Chicago 2016 Evaluation Committee, which is preparing a bid to bring the Olympics to Chicago.
A Detroit native, he earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Niagara in 1985. He studied for the priesthood at Mary Immaculate Seminary in Northampton, Pa., and was ordained in 1989. Father Holtschneider studied at Harvard University and received his doctorate in administration, planning and social policy in 1997 after writing a dissertation on the early history of financial aid in the United States. He has been a case researcher and writer for Harvard's schools of Education, Medicine and Public Health.
After ordination, Father Holtschneider served as director and then rector of the Vincentian Community's college seminary program at Ozone Park in New York City. While in New York, he served as a clinical associate professor of higher education at the State University of New York at Buffalo, teaching one doctoral seminar each fall.
Currently, he is a faculty member and board member of the Boston College Institute for Administrators in Catholic Higher Education. He continues to teach at Boston College's summer Institute for Administrators in Catholic Higher Education.
The basic criteria for this nomination is Rev. Holschneider’s commitment to the mission and values of DePaul University as well as his leadership, hard work, courage and energy to strengthening DePaul's academic excellence and its outreach to disadvantaged communities through community service initiatives.
Therefore, in grateful appreciation for his commitment to peace, dialog and diversity at DePaul, Tonight’s “Commitment Award” is presented to The Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider
