President Search

Letter from the Committee for the Presidential Search

October 13, 2025
 

Dear Cub Community,

As Detroit’s oldest continually operating high school, U of D Jesuit will soon celebrate 150 years of forming Men for Others, young men grounded in faith, character, and service who go on to make an impact around the world. As Brother Jim Boynton, S.J., answers the call to his next Jesuit mission next summer, we’d like to update you on the process for selecting our next president and ensuring a strong transition for our community.

The Board of Directors has assembled a Search Committee representing a range of the school’s constituents, and the three of us have been selected to co-chair the group. We are working closely at every step with the Midwest Province, as ultimately the next president will officially be assigned the role of “Director of Work” by the Provincial. We are fortunate that the Very Reverand Father Karl Kiser, S.J., is intimately familiar with our school and the role, having successfully served in that capacity for 14 years.

A critical component of our work is to gather input from as many of you as possible on two dimensions: 1) attributes you deem essential in our next president and 2) the strategic priorities you believe our next president should address. In this short survey, we ask that you identify the attributes and priorities that you believe are most important. If you take nothing else away from this message, please carve out a few minutes to submit your responses by 10/31/2025 to give our committee a holistic sense of our community’s preferences.

We will also hold focus groups at the school and virtually to provide another venue for input and conversation. Invitations will be forthcoming.

The position has been posted in multiple locations, and we encourage you to share the posting widely or directly invite well qualified candidates to apply.

If we have the strong candidates we anticipate attracting in the coming weeks, our interview phase will be thorough and deliberate, with the ambitious goal of identifying and making an offer to the strongest finalist before year-end, which would enable the next president to overlap with Brother Boynton gradually during the spring semester and ensure a seamless transition. But we are committed to finding the right candidate, and if that requires us to continue the search into 2026, we will surely do so.

This is an exciting and crucial time in U of D Jesuit’s rich history, and we thank you in advance for playing an active role in continuing to add momentum to the sacred mission at 8400 South Cambridge. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to the committee with any questions or input at presidentialsearch@uofdjesuit.org.

Gratefully,

Jonathan Jorissen ‘98, Adam Kronk ‘98, and Rich Wong
Co-Chairs, Search Committee