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ACE founder to step down from role to become director emeritus
Observer Staff Report | Tuesday, October 1, 2019
In a press release Friday, the University announced Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) founder Fr. Timothy Scully will step down from his role as director of the Institute for Educational Initiatives, and transition to become director emeritus of the institute starting in January.
Scully founded ACE in 1993 and was the chair of its advisory board until 2013. In 1997, he became the director of the Institute for Educational Initiatives, which deals with more than two dozen initiatives focusing on the quality of faith-based schools, the release said.
According to the release, ACE has been a major voice for American Catholic schools since its founding, training thousands of teachers and school leaders serving across the country and the world.
“During the more than 25 wonderful years leading the Alliance for Catholic Education and 22 years of serving the institute, I have been extraordinarily blessed to contribute to building a mission in service to children in under-resourced Catholic schools with the most talented, faith-filled and committed team of educational scholars and professional practitioners imaginable,” Scully said in the release. “I can think of no more fulfilling expression of my vocation as a Holy Cross priest. I look forward to continuing to support the mission of ACE and the institute in any way I can as director emeritus as I continue teaching and research in my home department of political science.”
On campus, Scully has been a political science professor and a faculty fellow of the Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies, the Institute for Educational Initiatives and the Notre Dame Initiative for Global Development, the release said.
Scully is also an author, and has written six books and a number of scholarly articles. Most recently, the release said, he wrote “Democratic Governance in Latin America.” Additionally, Scully has been the recipient of numerous teaching awards at the University.
Scully was ordained in 1981. He taught internationally at Saint George’s College in Santiago, Chile, the release said, and earned his master’s and doctoral degrees in political science from the University of California, Berkeley, after graduating summa cum laude from Notre Dame in 1976 and receiving his master of divinity degree from the University in 1979.
Besides teaching at the University, Scully spent his 30 years on campus as a University trustee and fellow, executive vice president and vice president and senior associate provost, the release said.
“As a highly regarded scholar, challenging and popular teacher and creator of the Alliance for Catholic Education, and through his many administrative roles, Father Scully has devoted his life to Notre Dame, its students and its mission,” University Provost Thomas Burish said in the release. “In doing so, he has improved the lives of countless students and families. We are grateful for his many contributions.”
