St. Joe's names first lay president

A Philadelphia native and mathematician was named president of St. Joseph's University on Wednesday, the first lay leader in the Jesuit school's 164-year history.

And at 40, Mark C. Reed also is the youngest president, at least since St. Joe's moved to its City Line Avenue location in 1927, according to the college.

Reed, senior vice president for administration and chief of staff at Fairfield University, a Jesuit school in Connecticut, will take over this summer at the 8,860-student St. Joe's, which straddles Philadelphia and Lower Merion Township.

Reed has worked in various administrative posts at Fairfield for 15 years, beginning as dean of students when he was 26. He started his career as a Catholic high school teacher.

Reed was approved unanimously by the board of trustees Wednesday morning and was scheduled to be introduced to the campus at 11:30 a.m.

His selection culminates a nearly year-long search that began after the Rev. C. Kevin Gillespie announced he would depart after three years. In the last year, St. Joe's has faced faculty unrest over financial and management concerns, including votes of no confidence on several senior staff members, including Gillespie, all of whom are scheduled to be gone as of June.

Reed will have plenty of room to build his own leadership team. The university is looking for a provost, a new enrollment head, and a new chief financial officer, among other key posts.

With the number of eligible candidates in the priesthood waning, St. Joe's for the first time conducted an "open" search rather than "Jesuit preferred."

Its lay choice follows a trend at the 28 Jesuit colleges around the country, where there was only one lay president a decade ago, John J. DeGioia at Georgetown. Nine Jesuit universities now have non-clergy leaders, and it will become 10 this summer.

St. Joe's becomes the second major Catholic institution in Philadelphia to welcome a lay leader for the first time this year. La Salle University announced the hiring of Colleen M. Hanycz, a Canadian, earlier this spring.

While Reed is not a priest, he is a practicing Catholic, and Edward W. Moneypenny, chair of the board of trustees, cited his "unshakable commitment to advancing Catholic and Ignatian values."

In his role at Fairfield, Reed serves as senior advisor to the president and is involved in planning, operations, athletics, auxiliary and campus Services, conference and event management, facilities management, human resources, legal affairs, public safety and trustee affairs.

Reed's father, Charlie, also is a St. Joe's grad, class of 1962, and his parents still live in Hungtingdon Valley. Reed attended St. Albert the Great elementary school and St. Joseph's Prep before going on to Fairfield for his bachelor's in mathematics. He received his master's in secondary educational administration from Boston College, his MBA from Fairfield and his doctoral degree in higher education management from the University of Pennsylvania.

At Fairfield, Reed also is an adjunct math professor and currently teaches a calculus class. He's interested in teaching at St. Joe's as well. Last month, he received Fairfield's distinguished faculty/administrator award.

"He's my right hand man," the Rev. Jeffrey P. von Arx, Fairfield president, said in a school video made about Reed when he received the award. "I couldn't do this job without him."

He's married and he has two daughters, Maggie, 6, and Laney, 4.

More to come.