Collection on DePaul University Office of the President, Administration of Reverend Dennis H. Holtschneider, C.M.

Father Holtschneider became DePaul's 11th president on July 1, 2004. He serves as a trustee of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, Chicago Catholic Schools Board, and Chicago History Museum. He also is vice chairman of the board of the Ascension Health Alliance, the nation's largest Catholic and largest nonprofit health system, and represents the university on the steering committee of the Illinois Business Immigration Coalition.

A Detroit native, he 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. He earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Niagara University in 1985, studied for the priesthood at Mary Immaculate Seminary in Northampton, Pa., and was ordained in 1989.

Father Holtschneider's 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. Adding research to experience, Father Holtschneider led two national studies examining trends in governance and leadership in American Catholic colleges and universities. He is the 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.

Fr. Holtschneider was chosen as DePaul's eleventh president in 2004, following the presidency of Fr. John Minogue. During his presidency, Fr. Holtschneider served as professor of education at DePaul and a faculty member in the Harvard Graduate School of Education's Management Development Program, as well as part of Boston College's Institute for Administrators in Catholic Higher Education. Several of his key initiatives included the Many Dreams, One Mission capital campaign, support for undocumented and underrepresented students, and overhauling the strategic planning process at DePaul.

*Adapted from Father Holtschneider's biography page on the DePaul University website at offices.depaul.edu/president/about/Pages/biography.aspx; June 2013 - May 2016.