p. Louis M. Nanni, currently vice president for public affairs and communication at the University of Notre Dame, today was elected vice president for University relations by the Board of Trustees. The appointment is effective July 1.p. Nanni, 40, succeeds William P. Sexton, 64, who is retiring as an officer and returning full-time to his position as professor of management in the University’s Mendoza College of Business. Nanni’s successor will be named at a later date.p. In his new position, Nanni will direct the University’s development operation, the Notre Dame Alumni Association, and the offices of special events and international advancement. He assumes those responsibilities after having served for the past year as vice president of the newly created division of public affairs and communication. In that role, he crafted a new structure for four departments that formerly had been part of University relations?public relations and information, community relations, University communications design (formerly publications), and Notre Dame Magazine?plus a new department of governmental relations.p. “In building a new division over the past year, Lou Nanni has demonstrated his great energy, vision and charismatic leadership skills. Now he will turn those talents to the critical areas of alumni relations, international outreach, and securing the additional resources Notre Dame needs as we live out our mission as a great Catholic university,” Rev. Edward A. Malloy, C.S.C., Notre Dame’s president, said in announcing the Board action.p. “Along with his legacy of historic success as vice president of University relations, Bill Sexton has left a unique and lasting personal stamp on those efforts,” Father Malloy said. “His accomplishments and style will make him an enduring figure in the story of Notre Dame.”p. A member of the Notre Dame faculty for 36 years, Sexton has headed University relations since 1983. He directed the University’s last two major capital campaigns, each of which concluded as the most successful in the history of Catholic higher education to that time.p. The most recent of these efforts, “Generations”, made Notre Dame the first Catholic university to achieve a $1-billion-plus fund-raising campaign.p. Also under Sexton’s leadership, the Notre Dame Alumni Association has grown to more than 200 clubs around the world and its pioneering programs in areas including community service have become models for other colleges and universities; Notre Dame Magazine consistently has been ranked at or near the top of all university magazines; and the University’s reputation has soared, helping it to become a fixture in top-20 rankings as well as one of the best known of all institutions of higher education.p. Holder of bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from Ohio State University, Sexton this year was the first recipient of a new Notre Dame award established in his name to recognize outstanding service to the University by a non-alumnus. He will receive an honorary Notre Dame degree during Commencement exercises May 19 (Sun.).p. Sexton and his wife, Ann, have six children, four of whom are Notre Dame graduates, and 13 grandchildren, the eldest of whom is completing her first year at the University.p. Nanni returned to Notre Dame in 1999 as executive assistant to Father Malloy after serving eight years as executive director of South Bend’s Center for the Homeless, which he established as a national model in addressing the complex issues of homelessness.p. A native of Akron, N.Y., Nanni was graduated from Notre Dame in 1984 with a bachelor’s degree in government and the Program of Liberal Studies. He served for two years following graduation as a Holy Cross Associate living in Santiago, Chile, and addressing issues of poverty and injustice there. He then entered Notre Dame’s pioneering international peace studies program, earning a master’s degree in 1988.p. Nanni became director of the world mission office of the Catholic Diocese of Orlando, Fla., in 1988 and was elected to Notre Dame’s Board of Trustees as a three-year, young alumni member in 1990. As a Trustee he became aware of Notre Dame’s involvement with the fledgling Center for the Homeless and was invited to apply for the position of executive director, which he accepted in 1991.p. Nanni and his wife, Carmen, a 1993 Notre Dame graduate, were presented one of three national exemplar awards by the University as part of a special observance in May 1997. A former member of the advisory council for Notre Dame’s Institute for Church Life, Nanni received the Notre Dame Alumni Association’s Dr. Thomas Dooley Award for Humanitarian Service in 1994.p. The Nannis have two daughters and a son.
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