St. Joe's University Names New President
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - St. Joseph's University will have a new president at the end of this academic year.
Father Joseph O'Keefe (standing in photo) will succeed Father Timothy Lannon (seated at right) on the City Avenue campus.
O'Keefe is currently dean of the Lynch School of Education at Boston College. The St. Joe's search committee called him a nationally and internationally renowned educator with particular expertise in urban Catholic schools.
And O'Keefe says he's already had contact with this area.
"Several months ago I accepted Cardinal Rigali's invitation to be on a blue-ribbon panel to rejuvenate the Archdiocese's educational mission," O'Keefe says.
Father Lannon, who is returning to his alma mater to become president of Creighton University in Omaha, said Joe O'Keefe is the most qualified Jesuit in the country to become a college president, adding that O'Keefe was heavily recruited but turned down other offers including Marquette and Loyola Marymount.
"And, thank God, Creighton," Lannon added with a smile. "I'm so glad you passed up Creighton," he said to O'Keefe during Monday's press conference.
Reported by Steve Tawa, KYW Newsradio 1060.
