The five-year was awarded to Nebraska Children and Families Foundation (NCFF) by the U.S. Department of Education. Funding supports , which builds on a prior statewide program and combines two resources developed by the ELF Lab: TeacherRead, for preschool classrooms, and FamilyRead, for families at home.

The award arrived outside the Education Innovation and Research program’s usual December announcement cycle. It is the second EIR-funded partnership in less than a year for Notre Dame’s Institute for Educational Initiatives, home to the ELF Lab. The University announced its role in a similar grant to expand the��Tutor-ND literacy program across Indiana in January.

In the years before kindergarten, children learn how written language works, how words break into sounds, and how language carries meaning —foundational skills that support later reading development, academic success, and opportunities for learning and participation into adulthood. Yet nearly one in three Nebraska children enter kindergarten below early literacy benchmarks, according to the Nebraska Department of Education. Gaps run deepest in rural and low-income communities, some of which are book deserts where books are scarce. NCFF created Nebraska Growing Readers with the Nebraska Department of Education and United for Literacy, which provides picture books to families to help close these gaps by putting books directly in the hands of young children and the adults who support their learning. Since its launch in 2023, Nebraska Growing Readers has distributed nearly 885,000 Nebraska-themed books, reaching more than 34,000 children and 990 early childhood providers.

NGR+ focuses on what happens once those books are opened. Research suggests access alone may not produce substantial gains in early literacy; how adults engage children during reading is also critical to what children learn. NGR+ equips families and teachers with evidence-based practices for making shared reading more interactive and instructionally meaningful. The practices used in FamilyRead and TeacherRead are supported by evidence under the U.S. Department of Education’s What Works Clearinghouse standards and align with Preparing Young Children for 91��Ƶ, a Department of Education practice guide that, associate research professor in the Institute for Educational Initiatives and director of the ELF Lab, helped develop.

TeacherRead and FamilyRead build explicit instruction into shared reading, targeting three foundational skills we know are most predictive of later reading achievement: written language conventions, phonological awareness, and oral language. TeacherRead was developed with funding from the U.S. Department of Education, equipping preschool teachers with lesson prompts, online training, and coaching. FamilyRead delivers the same practices to homes through simple, visual guides that lead caregivers through a four-step routine for each book. Classroom and home lessons use the same books and materials, so school and home reinforce the same skills.

“Building strong early literacy skills gives children a foundation for success in school and beyond,” said Pentimonti. “Nebraska Growing Readers has already built a strong foundation and is doing incredible work to get high-quality books into the hands of children and families across the state. This project gives us the opportunity to build on that success with research-based literacy practices and generate new evidence about how to effectively scale these supports to reach even more children.”

Notre Dame co-leads the project’s implementation team with NCFF. As the developer of both TeacherRead and FamilyRead, the ELF Lab advances the work of adapting the two programs for NGR+, develops instructional materials and resources for educators and families, and guides implementation and ongoing refinement. The lab will also lead development of the NGR+ app, designed to deliver training, lesson guides, and video demonstrations to teachers and families, and will co-lead efforts to share the project’s findings.

NCFF and its Nebraska partners are responsible for statewide implementation, working directly with participating sites and communities, coordinating recruitment and engagement, and drawing on their knowledge of Nebraska’s early childhood systems. The��Nebraska Department of Education has already invested funding in Nebraska Growing Readers and will help recruit classrooms to participate in the study. The American Institutes for Research, a nonprofit research organization, serves as the project’s independent evaluator.

“Every child deserves the opportunity to enter kindergarten with the skills and confidence needed to thrive,” said Nebraska Commissioner of Education Brian Maher. “The Nebraska Growing Readers initiative has already shown promising results, and this federal investment will allow us to expand and strengthen that work while learning even more about the practices that have the greatest impact on early literacy. The knowledge gained through this project will benefit children, families, and educators across Nebraska for years to come.”

The partnership grew from the ELF Lab’s earlier work training preschool teachers in shared reading, which researchers studied in New York City. That work pointed to a missing piece: support for parents that matched what children were learning in the classroom. Nebraska had already built a strong system for putting books in families’ hands, which made it the right place to add that support. The study now tests whether training the adults in a child's life makes every book more powerful.

TeacherRead has already been tested in an efficacy trial, where it improved children’s skills in all three target areas. Parents using FamilyRead followed the lessons correctly 92 percent of the time and read with their children more often. A Nebraska Growing Readers pilot in four communities produced statistically significant gains in early literacy.

The project runs through July 2031. Findings will guide the expansion of coordinated literacy support across Nebraska, particularly in rural areas with fewer early education resources. Book-giving programs now reach families in all 50 states, and evidence from Nebraska could show each of them how to turn the books they hand out into lessons children keep.

Originally published at on October 16, 2026.

On Friday, October 16, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) announced that Notre Dame faculty member will serve as a consultant to the newly formed Task Force on Preserving Human Dignity in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. Sullivan, the Wilsey Family College Professor of Philosophy and director of the and the , is one of only three lay consultants providing support to the task force.

The task force was formed in response to Pope Leo XIV’s call in his encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, to cultivate a culture of shared responsibility and ensure that human dignity is protected amid rapid AI development.

In a of the task force’s formation, the USCCB described the focus of the group as “promoting policies and practices that protect human dignity, religious liberty, democratic institutions, workers, families, and vulnerable populations.”

Bishop Oscar Cantù of San Jose will serve as chair of the task force, joined by seven bishops from around the country.

“We are grateful to the bishops for this recognition of Meghan’s superb leadership and expertise,” said John T. McGreevy, the Charles and Jill Fischer Provost at Notre Dame. “It is an honor not only for her, but for the Notre Dame Ethics Initiative and the entire University. As a leading global Catholic research university, Notre Dame has a particular responsibility to bring the strength of its scholarship to bear on the most consequential questions facing the Church and society.”

In September 2025, Sullivan launched at Notre Dame, a faith-informed approach to conversations about AI rooted in five enduring principles for human formation: dignity, embodiment, love, transcendence, and agency. DELTA’s goal was to provide leaders across the Church, industry, and education with tools to support human flourishing in the midst of widespread technological change.

“It is a tremendous honor to be called on to serve the Church at this crucial moment for our global community,” Sullivan said. “When we developed the DELTA framework, we hoped that it would be of use to Church leaders, and I look forward to supporting the bishops as they undertake this important work.”

Since DELTA’s launch, Sullivan and the DELTA team have offered more than 80 in-person training sessions and events on human formation and moral leadership in the age of AI.

Additional members of the task force are:

• His Eminence Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago

• Most Reverend Paul D. Etienne, Archbishop of Seattle

• Most Reverend Shelton J. Fabre, Archbishop of Louisville

• Most Reverend Barry C. Knestout, Bishop of Richmond

• Most Reverend James Massa, Auxiliary Bishop of Brooklyn

• Most Reverend Michael F. Olson, Bishop of Fort Worth

• Most Reverend Slawomir Szkredka, Auxiliary Bishop of Los Angeles

• Consultant: Charles Camosy, associate professor of moral theology and ethics, The Catholic University of America

• Consultant: Kim Daniels, director, Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life, Georgetown University

DELTA is housed at the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Ethics and the Common Good and is made possible through generous support from Lilly Endowment Inc.

Media contact: Erin Blasko, director of media engagement,��574-631-4127, eblasko@nd.edu

The University of Notre Dame Alumni Association recognized the 2026 recipients of four of its most prestigious awards during its fall gathering of the NDAA Board of Directors October 8–9, honoring alumni who have made lasting contributions to military and public service, athletics, and the arts.

The association honored Brig. Gen. Edward G. Burley, US Army (Ret.) ’83 with the Rev. William Corby, C.S.C., Award; Deacon Ned Berghausen ’08 M.Ed. with the Rev. John J. Cavanaugh, C.S.C., Award; Lori Miller ’97 with the Harvey G. Foster Award; and Patrick Creadon ’89 with the Rev. Arthur S. Harvey, C.S.C., Award.

The Rev. William Corby, C.S.C., Award

Established in 1985, the honors a graduate distinguished by outstanding military service. A true citizen-soldier, Burley was recognized for his accomplishments as both an Army officer and federal prosecutor with the US Department of Justice.

As an officer, Burley deployed to Panama, Korea, Bosnia, Iraq, and Afghanistan, commanding infantry, psychological operations, and civil affairs units. Highlights of his service include peace enforcement operations in Srebrenica, Bosnia; human rights missions recovering mass graves in Iraq; rebuilding the 25,000-person Iraqi border police; and supporting democratic elections in Iraq and Afghanistan. Wounded several times in combat, he remained overseas with his troops each time to complete their mission.

As an assistant US attorney for the District of Columbia for 35 years—including more than 18 years as a homicide prosecutor—Burley spearheaded community prosecution initiatives in Washington, DC. He also deployed with the Department of Justice to Iraq to help prepare the tribunal prosecution of Saddam Hussein and key regime members.

The Rev. John J. Cavanaugh, C.S.C., Award

Established in honor of Rev. John J. Cavanaugh, C.S.C., the recognizes Notre Dame graduates who demonstrate faith, service, and dedication to human rights. It was presented to Berghausen in recognition of his devotion to Catholic education, ministry, and service to neglected and forgotten communities.

After a stint in the Peace Corps that coincided with the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, where he assisted in rescuing fellow survivors, Berghausen returned to the United States and joined Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education program. He then spent the ensuing two decades forming young people as a theology teacher and serving in campus ministry across four Catholic high schools.

Ordained a permanent deacon for the Archdiocese of Louisville in 2020, Berghausen serves at St. Agnes Parish. A central element of his ministry is directing the Unmarked Graves Project at St. Louis Cemetery—an initiative dedicated to identifying the resting places and sharing the forgotten stories of 1,588 Black Catholics buried between 1867 and 1937 without markers.

Additionally, Berghausen advances the dialogue between faith and science as a writer and speaker. He frequently collaborates with his wife, Kate Bulinski, a paleontologist, and contributes lesson plans and presentations to the Science and Religion Initiative at Notre Dame’s McGrath Institute for Church Life.

The Harvey G. Foster Award

Established in 1982, the honors a Notre Dame alum who has been an athlete or involved in athletics and has achieved distinction through civic or University activities. Miller was tapped for the honor in recognition of her athletic achievements and advocacy for improving access to athletics for the blind and visually impaired.

Totally blind since age 2 because of retinoblastoma, Miller has spent her life challenging expectations through athletics and advocacy. Overcoming multiple subsequent cancer diagnoses, she built a remarkable athletic career. She became a Junior Olympic regional champion in roller skating, an alternate for the 1992 United States Paralympic goalball team, and a US Disabled Skiing slalom champion. Transitioning to tandem cycling, she represented the US at the 2000 Paralympic Games in Sydney, Australia. She has also ridden and shown horses in English equitation and competed in entry-level dressage.

At Notre Dame and throughout her career, Miller has used sports and technology as bridges for inclusion. She became deeply involved in promoting disability awareness on campus and found that participating in recreational activities was a powerful way to break down attitudinal barriers and build friendships. Later, she was a member of the design team for AdapTap—an innovative device assisting blind swimmers featured in Notre Dame’s “What Would You Fight For?” campaign—and inspired the creation of BicyclingBlind.org. She has also served on the board of the Michigan Blind Athletic Association and spearheaded regional events promoting accessible voting and STEM education.

The Rev. Arthur S. Harvey, C.S.C., Award

Established in 2000, the celebrates alumni for their outstanding accomplishments in the performing arts. Creadon earned the distinction for his prolific contributions as an award-winning documentary filmmaker.

Creadon is one of only a handful of directors to have multiple films ranked simultaneously among the top 100 highest-grossing documentaries of all time. His debut feature, Wordplay (2006), premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and became the second-highest-grossing documentary of the year. His follow-up, I.O.U.S.A. (2008), also premiered at Sundance and was named one of the top five documentaries of the year by Roger Ebert.

Creadon’s additional director credits include the Independent Spirit Award-winning feature If You Build It (2014), the Emmy-nominated ESPN 30 for 30 documentary Catholics vs. Convicts (2016), Hesburgh (2019; a New York Times Critics’ Pick), and The Loyola Project (2022; praised as “mesmerizing” by the Chicago Sun-Times). He is currently directing his 10th feature film, Rockne, an in-depth examination of legendary Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne’s life and legacy. He is a founding member of the Directors Guild of America’s Documentary Committee and was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2023.

Psychologists have long espoused that how parents raise their children during their early years of life has a huge impact on their mental health and happiness as they grow up. Something as simple as praising or scolding a child can be deeply internalized and could determine whether or not that child struggles with depression, anxiety, or substance use as a teenager or young adult.

But how and where the connection is made between parenting behaviors and future susceptibility to a mental health disorder is harder to discern. Notre Dame psychologist has devoted the past 15 years of her career to better understanding emotions and depression—and how to break the cycle of intergenerational mental health issues.

Hill, an assistant professor in Notre Dame’s , has found that parents’ child-rearing methods during the preschool years coincide with how that child experiences joy and satisfaction across adolescence—a period during which the risk for mental health issues is at its highest. in Communications Psychology, part of the Nature journal suite of publications.

���� this project, we demonstrate that early parenting is associated with one of the largest neural indicators of risk for mental health concerns we know of to date,” said Hill, a clinical psychologist and faculty affiliate with Notre Dame’s and .

Hill focuses her work on how to reduce the burden and strain of depression on individuals and families; and through her directorship of Notre Dame’s , she seeks to understand what makes those individuals vulnerable in the first place and how best to intervene.

Finding the common thread between behaviors and future susceptibility

Hill and her research team began their work by observing the one-on-one interactions and parenting behavior between 3-year-old children and their parents. They then compared that data to the development of neural reward responsiveness—how the brain responds to rewards or positive stimuli—of those same children at ages 9, 12, 15, and 18. This longitudinal study spanned 15 years and included 465 young people and their parents at Stony Brook University in New York, and was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health.

Previous research has shown that adequate reward processing in the brain is necessary for adolescents and adults to experience joy, excitement, and pleasure—a phenomenon that can even be seen in early childhood.

“This study is really the first of its kind that measures what early life experiences are associated with reward processing from childhood through late adolescence or early adulthood,” Hill said. “And reward processing seems to be one of those pieces to the puzzle of what may put us at risk for developing mental disorders. Being able to observe reward processing, and how it develops from ages 9 to 18, is really helpful to understanding depression risk.”

When watching the 3-year-old children and their parents interact in the laboratory at the start of the study, Hill and her team coded how often they saw positive parenting behaviors (displaying warmth, support, and encouragement) versus negative parenting behaviors (being harsh, heavy-handed, or overly intrusive).

Those coded interactions were compared to the data recorded from the brain’s responses to rewarding stimuli. With an electroencephalogram (EEG), which uses small electrodes attached to the scalp through a cap to record the brain’s electrical activity, the scientists were able to track reward processing at the brain level.

In this study, the researchers used money as the reward for winning a guessing game, which allowed them to look at the brain’s electrical signals in response to a win versus a loss. Because the EEG system is adaptable to a range of individuals across abilities and cognitive stages, the scientists were able to assess reward processing at the brain level beginning at age 9 and followed up at ages 12, 15, and 18.

Their findings indicated that the children who experienced higher levels of positive parenting got more excited about winning the money, while the children raised with a more negative parenting style were less enthusiastic.

“What we saw is that the more positive, and less negative, parenting behaviors we observed at age 3, the larger the brain’s reward response seemed to be for individuals across adolescence,” Hill said.

In other words, the more praise and affirmation children receive from their parents at a young age, the better they are at recognizing the joyful things in life. The work of Hill and her team demonstrated that positive parenting experienced in the early years may teach children’s brains how to respond to good things—fun activities, friendships, success, and well-being.

On the flip side, if a parent is particularly harsh or intrusive, that child’s brain may develop a low reward response—a difficulty experiencing pleasure and happiness that subsequently opens the door to sadness and despondency.

“Experiencing positive parenting seems to help facilitate reward processing, which is important for promoting physical and mental health,” added Hill, who is also a faculty affiliate with Notre Dame’s program and its .

Discoveries point toward possibility of early intervention

The study’s findings point to an opportunity for intervention, which Hill believes may need to include parents and children. She says it is critical to support parents—perhaps even before their child is born—as well as children and adolescents, in order to address the series of events from parent behaviors observed at age 3 to child development from ages 3 to 18. She notes that while this study was observational, it gives important clues for how experiences and development may unfold over time.

Current research indicates that the most reliable and prominent predictor of depression is family history, paired with the experience of a stressful life event. According to Hill, this study opens up a world of possibilities in terms of what intervention could look like. “There’s something very important about early parent-child interactions and parenting behaviors,” she said. “And I love that because behaviors are so much more open to intervention than a genetic explanation to what is driving risk within families.”

Hill and her team hope their work can inform a broader conversation about how to prevent depression, one of the most prevalent and debilitating mental disorders. “We are trying to pull together a single strand—one explanation of likely many that exists—of what puts someone at risk and how we can intervene,” she said.

Contact: Erin Blasko, director of media engagement, 574-631-4127, eblasko@nd.edu

The announced its 2026 Domer Dozen cohort, honoring 12 graduates ages 32 and younger for excellence in their contributions in learning, service, faith, and work—the core pillars of the association’s mission.

The Domer Dozen program is the signature initiative of, the Alumni Association’s young alumni group. The 2026 honorees have excelled in medicine, public and military service, scholarship, the arts, advocacy, and religious life, among other areas.

“Each of the 2026 Domer Dozen honorees has taken a different path since graduating from Notre Dame, but all have found ways to weave the mission of Our Lady’s University into their everyday lives,” said Dolly Duffy ’84, executive director of the Alumni Association. “Through their work, the communities they serve, and the way they show up for the people around them, these incredible young people are living examples of what it looks like to build lives of purpose and meaning.”

The 2026 Domer Dozen honorees are:

Dr. Erik Carlson ’16 — Accompanying seriously ill patients through the most difficult moments of their lives

Richard Clark, Ph.D., ’16 — Driving scholarship on globalization, international finance, and climate change in global institutions

Jennifer Flanagan ’18 — Creating encounters between people who would otherwise never meet

Shannon Gaylord ’17 — Bringing lived experience to a disorder few providers are trained to treat

Andrew Halt ’17 — Bringing technical rigor and creative strategies to civic problem-solving

Adam Henderson ’16 — Litigating for veterans in an area of the law he has long been passionate about

Liz Hynes ’17 — Writing comedy in New York and standing with the writers who make it

Madelyn G. Kennedy ’17 — Offering a soft landing for families in need

Dr. Beverly Kyalwazi ’17 — Expanding equitable access to liver transplantation and care

Brandon Ruggles ’17 — A people-first leader building strong teams and developing future leaders

Rev. Brian Vetter, C.S.C., ’17, ’23 M.Div., ’25 M.Ed. — Building relationships with young people in the classroom and helping them know the love of Christ

Lt. Thomas Yaeger Jr. ’18 — Committing to service that extends well beyond a career in uniform

To learn more about the 2026 Domer Dozen, visit .

Contact: Erin Blasko, director of media engagement, 574-631-4127, eblasko@nd.edu

The announced on Sunday that the 16th annual , the nation’s most important award for heroes of the pro-life movement, will be awarded to the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne. The medal will be presented to the mother superior, Mother Marie Edward, O.P., on behalf of the sisters at a special Mass and dinner at the University of Notre Dame on Saturday, April 24, 2027.

For more than 125 years, the sisters have provided free, expert nursing care to impoverished men and women dying from cancer, accompanying their patients with prayer and love born of their devotion to “Christ’s sick poor.” In a time which makes no place “for anyone who, like the unborn or the dying, is a weak element in the social structure, or for anyone who appears completely at the mercy of others and radically dependent on them” (Pope St. John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, n. 19), the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne serve as a countercultural sign and help to build an authentic civilization of truth and love.

, president of the University of Notre Dame, reflected on the work of the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne. ���� their mission to care for men and women suffering from incurable cancer, the sisters radiate the very mercy of God,” he said. “Since their founding, they have proclaimed the Gospel of Life through direct service to God’s beloved poor, fulfilling Christ's command to comfort the sick and give shelter to the homeless. The sisters’ loving ministry of care for their patients highlights the inherent, God-given dignity of every human person, regardless of worldly success or social status. We are proud to present the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne with the Notre Dame Evangelium Vitae Medal.”

���� their profound service of loving care for the sick and dying, the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne are a shining example of Christian charity in action,” said , director of the de��Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture. “Through their joyful, attentive, and prayerful accompaniment of men and women who face the ultimate challenge of suffering and death, the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne proclaim, in the words of Pope St. John Paul II, that ‘Man is called to a fullness of life which far exceeds the dimensions of his earthly existence, because it consists in sharing the very life of God’ (EV, n. 2).”

The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, Congregation of St. Rose of Lima, was founded by Rose Hawthorne Lathrop (1851–1926), daughter of American novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne. Following her entry into the Catholic Church in 1891, Lathrop volunteered with the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, becoming inspired by their motto, “I am for God and for the poor.” In her memoirs, she wrote, “A fire was then lighted in my heart, where it still burns… I set my whole being to endeavor to bring consolation to the cancerous poor.” Lathrop was received as a lay Dominican tertiary and went on to establish a religious congregation that offered free care to men and women dying of cancer in the impoverished Lower East Side of Manhattan, relying entirely upon charitable donations to support her work.

Today, the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne continue the work of Ven. Mother Alphonsa at two care facilities: Rosary Hill Home in Hawthorne, New York, and Our Lady of Perpetual Help Home in Atlanta, Georgia. Flowing from their common life of prayer and devotion to the Eucharist, the sisters provide fully licensed medical care without cost. The community relies entirely on the generosity of benefactors to support their work, does not take remuneration from patients or their families, and accepts no governmental aid��or private insurance.

The Notre Dame Evangelium Vitae Medal, named after Pope St. John Paul II’s 1995 encyclical, is awarded annually by the de��Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture to honor individuals and organizations whose outstanding contributions have advanced the proclamation of the sanctity of human life.

Announced annually on Respect Life Sunday, the first Sunday of October, the Notre Dame Evangelium Vitae award consists of a specially commissioned medal and $10,000 prize presented at a banquet following a celebratory Mass in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart. Registration for the 2027 Evangelium Vitae Medal Mass and dinner will be available through the de Nicola Center’s website in early 2027. For more information, visit .

Media contact: Shannon Roddel, associate director of media engagement, Chapla.1@nd.edu

Originally published by Kenneth Hallenius at on October 04, 2026.

The gathering, titled “,” is intended as an opportunity for mutual listening and discernment “on the steps to be taken in order to proclaim the Gospel to families today, in light of Amoris Laetitia and taking into account what is currently being done in the local churches.”

Supporting the participants in the meeting will be a select group of theological experts from across the globe—including University of Notre Dame Professor��, a moral theologian and an expert on marriage, family, and Catholic social doctrine.

���� Amoris Laetitia, Pope Francis offered a very rich and affecting treatment of the role of mission and family,” Cloutier said. “While its overall vision was sometimes overshadowed by controversies about very specific phrasings, the framework for this anniversary gathering seeks to refocus on the overall vision. I’m very honored and humbled to serve the Church by contributing to this meeting with bishops and families.”

Among other topics, the meeting aims to address the basic challenges associated with married life as a fruitful, lifelong union, Cloutier noted.

“We know there are so many barriers and obstacles to that commitment today, and it’s important to examine how the Church can more effectively serve in these crucial times,” he said. “The framework also addresses what it calls the ‘fragilities’ that are often ignored or marginalized when the Church speaks about an ‘ideal’ family life.

“Consistent with Francis’s famous image of the ‘field hospital,’ the Church must understand how to serve those in marginalized situations with special attention.”

While the meeting is focused on naming and addressing global challenges for family life, he continued, “Ultimately, the framework for the gathering culminates in emphasizing the true social mission of the family.

“How can the Church help the family to become a genuine ‘apprenticeship in enduring love’ that contributes to the larger society the ‘love, care, and solidarity’ the world so desperately needs?” Cloutier said. “St. John Paul II’s writings began to integrate the Church’s family teaching with social doctrine. The importance of this integration is obvious throughout the framework, and of course in Pope Leo’s approach to the teaching office.”

For people living with HIV, the road to a promising cancer treatment can be longer than it should be, literally.

According to a new multi-institutional , HIV-positive cancer patients face significantly longer travel times than cancer patients without HIV to receive chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy, an experimental treatment that may help target cancer cells while resisting HIV infection.

The University of Notre Dame's (C-GALL) teamed up with researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, University of Notre Dame, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, Virginia Mason Medical Center, University of Washington Positive Research, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to examine whether geography may create an additional barrier to accessing CAR-T clinical trials.

CAR-T therapy, which uses engineered white blood cells (T-cells) to recognize and target cancer cells, has transformed treatment for patients with relapsed or refractory non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) and may provide life-saving care for people living with HIV.

The study was co-led by , director of C-GALL and associate professor of the practice in the , and Luke Maillie, M.D., a hematology/oncology fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. Together, they brought clinical and geospatial perspectives to a question of equity in access to emerging cancer therapies.

“Access to clinical trials for CAR-T therapy is particularly important for people living with HIV, who face higher cancer mortality rates than people without HIV and for whom NHL remains a leading cause of cancer-related death,” said Maillie.

Yet of CAR-T trials have excluded people living with HIV, highlighting their continued underrepresentation in cancer clinical research. That gap prompted Maillie, Sisk, and colleagues to examine not only whether people with HIV were eligible for CAR-T trials, but also how easily they could access those trials geographically.

Geospatial analysis uses location-based data to examine patterns and relationships across geographic areas, helping researchers understand how factors such as distance and accessibility vary by where people live.

“We know that generally there is a link between longer travel times to care and poor health outcomes. Our goal was to apply geospatial analysis to investigate how much more difficult it is for individuals with HIV to reach the nearest clinical trial than the general population,” Sisk explained.

By surveying the National Institutes of Health’s clinical trials for all trials related to the treatment of NHL with CAR-T therapies, the researchers found that people living with HIV experienced a median travel time of 1.15 hours to the nearest CAR-T clinical trial that included them, compared with 0.84 hours for trials that excluded them. In the US South, where HIV prevalence is highest, the gap was even greater: 1.70 hours compared with 0.92 hours.

The analysis included 80 interventional CAR-T trials enrolling adults and with at least one trial site in the U.S. Of those, only 11 (13.8 percent) included people living with HIV, while 58 (72.5 percent) explicitly excluded them. Another 11 trials did not mention HIV in their eligibility criteria.

Access to HIV-inclusive trials was lower across nearly all racial and ethnic groups, income levels, insurance types, and geographic regions. Lower household income was also consistently associated with longer travel times to CAR-T clinical trials across regions.

“These findings highlight a significant gap in access to CAR-T clinical trials for people with HIV, both through exclusion from trials and longer travel times to the trials that include them,” Sisk said. “Expanding HIV-inclusive eligibility criteria and increasing access through decentralized trial sites or partnerships between academic and community centers could help reduce these barriers and ensure that this population has more equitable access to emerging CAR-T therapies.”

“Geospatial data can reveal dimensions of inequality that are difficult to see in the numbers alone,” said , the Joe and Jane Giovanini Professor of IT, Analytics and Operations in the and director of the . “The work of C-GALL shows how putting data on the map can help us understand not just who has access to care, but where barriers exist and how those barriers affect communities. This human-centered approach to data is central to the interdisciplinary research that we are driving within the Lucy Family Institute.”

To learn more about the geospatial research within C-GALL, please visit the Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society .

Contact: Brandi Wampler, associate director of story development, 574-631-2632,��brandiwampler@nd.edu

The drug belzutifan, sold under the name Welireg, is partially effective in treating this cancer, according to , the John M. and Mary Jo Boler Collegiate Professor and associate chair in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Notre Dame. Unfortunately, some tumors are inherently resistant to the drug while others can develop resistance. Lu and collaborators determined that combining it with a laboratory-made protein called recombinant tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) significantly increased the death of tumor cells in laboratory tests and in��models.

Most people who develop clear cell renal cell carcinoma have von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) syndrome, which is caused by a mutation in a tumor suppressor gene VHL, though other people can develop the cancer as well.

Lu and collaborators discovered that losing the VHL gene ignites another protein, HIF-2-alpha, causing it to create high levels of natural TRAIL inside the cell. TRAIL normally triggers cell death, called apoptosis, when it locks onto receptors on the cancer cells. However, the high level of TRAIL traps its own “death” receptors deep inside the cell, preventing any external treatments from reaching them. It also speeds up the cell cycle, causing tumors to increase in size.

Using a recombinant form of TRAIL—essentially a lab-produced version of the protein—and combining it with the belzutifan was key: The belzutifan reduced the HIF-2-alpha protein. This also reduces the amount of natural TRAIL inside the cell, freeing up the hidden death receptors and sending them back to the surface, said Lu, who is affiliated with the�� as well as the , and the .

After reducing the amount of the natural TRAIL protein, Lu and collaborators then introduce the recombinant TRAIL to latch onto the newly exposed receptors.

“This is really kind of magical, because when you reduce TRAIL, you can reduce cell division, cell proliferation, and make the cell more vulnerable to apoptosis,” he said. “You really kind of force the cells into this corner where they can’t divide well.”

Because belzutifan is already FDA-approved and TRAIL-activating therapies are undergoing clinical trials, this combination therapy is a hopeful step in treating clear cell renal cell carcinoma, Lu said.

When he presented the research at a major urology conference, "the physicians, they're excited about this," he said. "They all know this belzutifan resistance is something they have to overcome."

In addition to researchers at Notre Dame, other collaborators included researchers from the University of Galway in Ireland. Support for the project came from the Boler Family Foundation, the Naughton Faculty Research Accelerator Program, and the .

Contact: Brandi Wampler, associate director of story development, 574-631-2632,��brandiwampler@nd.edu

Originally published by Deanna Csomo Ferrell at on September 09, 2026.

Most people have a certain set of standards about what they believe and how to live their lives. But most people don’t bother to write out each one—with citations—on the internet.

isn’t most people.

On his , the University of Notre Dame professor of philosophy details 100-plus philosophical views that he has published in books or journal articles, covering topics from deontology (No. 17) to supererogation noninheritance (No. 72).

���� philosophy, you take your views—about how you ought to live, what to believe, what does and doesn’t exist, whether you have free will, the place of science—and try to make that all coherent,” Portmore said.

Now, he’s compiled many of his views into a book, , forthcoming with Oxford University Press. In it, he shares his personal worldview, which combines the principles of utilitarianism and consequentialism with the ideas of 18th-century German philosopher Immanuel Kant.

Consequentialism defines the moral value of an action by its consequences, and utilitarianism applies consequentialism by assigning value to actions that maximize happiness. Based on utilitarianism, the ends always justify the means, and a person is only as valuable as they are happy.

“It’s very important for all of us to be critical thinkers.”

Conversely, Kantianism asserts that people are inherently valuable, regardless of the happiness they bring, and therefore should always be respected.

In Kantsequentialism, Portmore seeks to combine the best parts of those often-at-odds philosophies.

���� my view, one thing that matters is respecting people’s decisions,” said Portmore, who came to Notre Dame in 2025 after spending 20 years at Arizona State University and five at California State University, Northridge. “But another thing that matters is how much good there is in the world.”

Looking at the world through Portmore’s view involves more nuance than one sentence can contain—hence the 106-item list and 500-page book. But what he wants from the study of moral philosophy can be put simply: “Tell me how I want the world to go, and then tell me which of my options will make the world go that way.”

Unlike other academic fields, philosophy can’t give Portmore answers through observation or experimentation. Therefore, his research goal is to compile a worldview, and as a professor, to help students find their own worldviews, too.

In addition to the individual research and teaching, Portmore is developing a research program in ethics as a program chair for the . His work aligns with and enhances the , which supported his recruitment and appointment last year.

As part of the initiative, Portmore recently convened a two-day workshop that brought together ethical philosophers, including faculty and graduate students, from the University of Michigan and Notre Dame for a weekend of intellectual exchange in Saint Joseph, Michigan. All attendees presented work in progress across a broad range of topics and received feedback from peers.

“Michigan is not only geographically convenient, but both of our schools have an incredible department of ethicists and philosophers,” said , associate professor of philosophy at Notre Dame and one of the workshop co-planners. “People put a lot of effort into their feedback, making it sharp, but constructive in spirit—and multiple attendees said it was the best feedback they’ve received on their work.”

Portmore is also shaping philosophical conversation globally as editor-in-chief of Ethics: An International Journal of Social, Political, and Legal Philosophy, which has published scholarly work for over a century. He reviews more than 700 papers submitted each year, helping both rising and established philosophers make their mark in the field.

“It’s a way to pay back the community that gave me this wonderful profession,” Portmore said. “My life as a philosopher changed when I got my first publication in the journal that I now edit.”

Complete understanding

At the beginning of his scholarly career, Portmore traveled to Australia to study under the famous utilitarian Peter Singer at Monash University’s Centre for Human Bioethics.

Singer is known for his belief that an individual’s value is solely dependent on how happy they are—going so far as to claim a happy rabbit’s life is considered more valuable than an unhappy human.

Portmore initially agreed with him, because he was fully aligned with utilitarianism at that time and was determined to bring all other philosophers into the fold. He wanted all to agree that actions and their consequences—and the worlds they create — should be ranked according to the point of view of the universe.

But as Portmore learned from and debated other Monash faculty, it became difficult to convince himself of utilitarianism, let alone other scholars.

“The more I thought about it, I thought, ‘Why should I do that?’” he said. “I have reasons to want some worlds more than others that have nothing to do with the point of view of the universe.”

That realization put Portmore on the path towards developing Kantsequentialism. It wasn’t his first turning point; in fact, when he started his undergraduate studies at the University of California, San Diego, he thought understanding the world would be fulfilled by studying science, not philosophy.

But Portmore realized the field wasn’t for him when he saw how many assumptions scientists take for granted. For example, one philosophical theory called idealism suggests that reality is entirely made up of ideas and thoughts, not anything physical. While Portmore admits he personally thinks idealism is patently false, he argues it’s still a perspective that needs to be considered.

“Some people think philosophy doesn’t make any progress because we’re still talking about the same things that Plato and Aristotle talked about thousands of years ago. I make progress when I see students open their eyes and start questioning the assumptions of the previous generation.”

“Scientists don’t argue that their view is better than idealism; they just assume that idealism is false and move on,” he said. “So if I want to understand the world completely, science is not where it’s at.”

That’s an easier process with support from one of the world's largest philosophy departments. Notre Dame’s continued investment in the humanities, Portmore said, has attracted and developed a strong cohort of other ethical philosophers with whom he can discuss ideas. It’s a place where he has found others like him who seek understanding.

Understanding the world is more than a matter of intellectual curiosity, Portmore said, because society can make grave errors when things go unquestioned. Ideas ranging from geocentrism to enslavement were once widely accepted norms, he said, and philosophy seeks to root out other harmful ideas from modern society.

And that’s why Portmore believes philosophy isn’t just for philosophers.

“It’s very important for all of us to be critical thinkers—ones who don’t just accept something because your parents accepted it or the generation before you accepted it or your culture or your nation accepts it,” he said. “It’s important to learn to question those things.”

Teaching disagreement

A large part of Portmore’s role as a philosopher is teaching his students how to question everything, whether they’re first-years completing the or accomplished Ph.D. candidates.

He gets particularly energized when students begin examining all areas of their own lives: Should we be eating meat? Does God exist? Should we be giving to charity? Is science infallible? How do we know we’re not dreaming?

“I’m not there to teach them certain facts,” Portmore said. “I’m teaching them a set of skills and trying to elicit some intellectual curiosity in them, a willingness to be open-minded and to critically reflect on what they were brought up to believe.”

That can be difficult in introductory courses full of students with no particular interest in philosophy, and especially with those hesitant to openly disagree with their professors. When Portmore brings up something like idealism, he doesn’t want his students taking notes—he wants them to say, “That’s insane!”

Once students learn that it’s OK to disagree, Portmore said, he can teach them how to disagree properly and express themselves effectively. Those are key skills for every student, no matter their major.

Everyone should spend time thinking about how they should live their life, Portmore said. and that process moves forward every time someone asks a question.

“Some people think philosophy doesn’t make any progress because we’re still talking about the same things that Plato and Aristotle talked about thousands of years ago,” he said. “I make progress when I see students open their eyes and start questioning the assumptions of the previous generation.”

Originally published by Adah McMillan at on September 29, 2026.

After more than 18 years of service to the , including 15 years as its executive director, Dolly Duffy ’84 will retire effective June 30, 2027, concluding a tenure defined by faith, service, innovation, and an abiding belief in the power of the Notre Dame family.

From her roots in the small town of Fort Pierre, South Dakota, to Notre Dame communities in nearly every corner of the world, Duffy has spent her career bringing people together around a University and a mission she loves deeply.

Duffy joined the Alumni Association in 2008 and was named executive director in 2011, becoming the first woman to lead the Notre Dame Alumni Association. Over the ensuing 15 years, she helped guide the Alumni Association into an era of global and digital connection while preserving what has always made the Notre Dame family distinctive: relationships rooted in faith, friendship, service, and a desire to be a force for good.

Today, the Notre Dame family includes more than 160,000 alumni and 262 clubs around the world. Under Duffy’s leadership, the Alumni Association has found new ways to help alumni, parents, and friends remain connected to Notre Dame wherever life takes them.

“When Father Sorin envisioned that Notre Dame would become a great force for good, he could not have known the impact our alumni would have in every corner of the world,” said University President “Thanks to Dolly’s extraordinary leadership over the past 15 years, the Notre Dame family across the globe is more connected than it has ever been, bound together by cherished friendships, a desire for lifelong learning, a shared commitment to serve others, and an unfailing dedication to and love for the mission of Our Lady’s University. We could not be more grateful for Dolly’s many invaluable contributions, and we look forward to celebrating her in the months ahead.”

During her tenure, the Alumni Association broadened the ways the Notre Dame family engaged with the University in faith, learning, service, and professional life. FaithND, the Alumni Association’s spiritual outreach program, has grown into a worldwide community, with its Daily Gospel Reflection alone reaching more than 100,000 subscribers. ThinkND, the association’s free online learning community, opened the intellectual life of the University to learners around the world, while the career-focused IrishCompass created new opportunities for alumni and students to mentor, network, and support one another professionally.

Duffy also championed opportunities to put faith into action through service. Family Volunteer Camp brings generations of Notre Dame families together to serve the South Bend community each summer, and the Notre Dame Global Day of Service each spring mobilizes thousands of volunteers through hundreds of projects across the United States and around the world.

Together, those efforts reflect a conviction at the heart of Duffy’s leadership: A relationship with Notre Dame is meant to deepen over a lifetime.

“Dolly has spent her career strengthening what we believe is the greatest alumni network in the world,” said , vice president for University Relations. “Numbers alone cannot capture her impact. Dolly understands that Notre Dame has always been about people, caring for and accompanying one another through life, and finding ways to serve something larger than ourselves. She has brought an uncommon combination of faith, energy, and love for this University to everything she has done.”

That spirit has carried Duffy across the globe, meeting alumni, parents, and friends where they live and helping connect local communities more deeply with Notre Dame and one another.

“Dolly helped us think more expansively about what it means to belong to the Notre Dame family,” Dick Nussbaum, former Alumni Association president and current Hesburgh Trustee, said. “Whether you are 10 miles from the Golden Dome or 10,000 miles away, she wanted you to know that Notre Dame was still your home. And then she challenged all of us to take the gifts of the Notre Dame community back into the world. Dolly did the impossible. She became an ND legend after replacing an ND legend, [former Alumni Association Executive Director] Chuck Lennon.”

Whether welcoming families home for Reunion, joining the Notre Dame community in prayer, gathering Notre Dame communities thousands of miles from campus, or accompanying members of the Notre Dame family through moments of celebration and loss, Duffy has embodied the Alumni Association’s commitment to keep Notre Dame close to its people and its people close to one another.

“Serving the alumni, parents, and friends of the University has been the privilege of a lifetime,” Duffy said. “I truly have the best job at the University. I get to meet the most amazing people and help them connect with each other and Notre Dame. As I tell our volunteer leaders and the incredible staff at the Alumni Association, we are keeping the Notre Dame spirit alive all over the world. It doesn’t get any better than that.”

A global search will commence shortly to identify the next executive director of the Notre Dame Alumni Association.

, professor and director of the doctoral program in the at the University of Notre Dame, will receive the 2026 Ratzinger Prize in Theology, widely regarded as the most prestigious award in the field.

Pope Leo XIV will present the prize to Cavadini at the Vatican Apostolic Palace on December 19.

Cavadini is the third theologian from Notre Dame to win the Ratzinger Prize, following professors emeriti (who received the award from Pope Francis in 2024) and (honored by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012).

“I am very humbled to receive this award, especially after two truly giants in our field and members of our department have received it,” Cavadini said. “I have sought to live out my vocation as a theologian following the example of Origen of Alexandria, a third-century theologian, who repeatedly declared that he wished to be a vir ecclesiasticus, a man of the Church. At Notre Dame, I have been able to live out my vocation as a man of the Church and, at the same time, as a man of the academy.”

Since 2011, the Ratzinger Prize has been annually awarded to scholars, both Catholic and of other faiths, who have made significant contributions to the study of theology in fields such as philosophy, law, and sociology. In recent years, the scope has also expanded to honor musicians, architects, and sculptors.

In announcing the award, the Vatican recognized Cavadini for his work in patristic theology, with a focus on St. Augustine.

“Cavadini is highly regarded for the rigor of his theological publications, his commitment and zeal in university teaching, his academic expertise, his pastoral passion, and his lifelong service to the Church," said Roberto Regoli, president of the Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation.

In addition to his work on Augustine, Cavadini’s research focuses on early medieval theology and the history of biblical and patristic exegesis. His scholarship includes books such as Visioning Augustine (John Wiley & Sons Ltd.: 2019), more than 50 articles in refereed journals or edited collections, and a forthcoming work titled Augustine’s On the Trinity: A Companion.

Cavadini received his bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University, a master’s degree from Marquette University, and a doctorate from Yale University. He came to Notre Dame in 1990 and has since served in a number of administrative and scholarly positions, including chairing the theology department from 1997 to 2010 and directing the for 26 years. In 2009, Cavadini was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI to a five-year term on the International Theological Commission, and since 2003, he has been a consultant for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine.

In addition to his leadership appointments, he has taught both undergraduate and graduate courses and directed nearly 40 dissertations.

“I would hope that honored with this award are all of my students—past and present and future, graduate and undergraduate—all of my colleagues in the Department of Theology to whom I owe so much, and all of the faculty and staff of the McGrath Institute for Church Life, of whose gifts I have been the beneficiary for the last 26 years,” Cavadini said. “Most of all, perhaps, I hope this award redounds, with gratitude, to the credit of Our Lady, the patroness of our University, under whose protection we have flourished for the last 183 years, and may it be so for the next 183 years.”

Contact: Erin Blasko, director of media engagement, 574-631-4127, eblasko@nd.edu

After the Mass, there will be a procession to the Sacred Heart of Jesus statue for the consecration, where Bishop Rhoades and University leaders will pray for healing, for an end to divisions, and for strength to follow Christ’s call to selfless love.

“Since my days as an undergraduate student, one of my favorite places on campus is the area around the statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in front of the Main Building at the center of campus,” Father Dowd said. “Jesus is depicted with open arms and an open heart. I have always found that area to be a place of peace and inspiration. Under the statue are the words, ‘Come to me, all!’ This flows from Fr. Sorin’s founding vision for Notre Dame to create a place where God’s love is at the center of our life and who we strive to be.

“Like Jesus, we are called to have a heart that is wide open to God and to others, especially those who are most vulnerable and on the margins of our society. And, at Notre Dame, it is important that head and heart are always working together to address the world’s most important challenges.”

What it means to be consecrated

The concept of a consecration is simple, said , vice president in the Office of Mission Engagement and Church Affairs.

“It means to set something apart to be sanctified or to be made holy—and individuals consecrate themselves all the time,” he said. “I’m a consecrated religious in the Congregation of Holy Cross, which means that by my vows, I attempt to set myself apart and try to be a priest who has a heart like the Sacred Heart of Jesus.”

Individuals, institutions, or countries can also be consecrated to the Blessed Mother or to a particular saint, Father Haake noted, but the Sacred Heart holds special significance for the University because the priests of Holy Cross have a devotion to it.

“The Sacred Heart is a devotion that focuses on love, mercy, forgiveness, and sacrifice,” he said. “It’s focused on the offering that the Lord made for us on the cross—and we’re called to imitate that for God and for our neighbors, just as any Christian would.”

A student-led devotion

The consecration, which was inspired by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ decision to consecrate the United States to the Sacred Heart in June, is a student-led initiative—which makes it all the more meaningful, Father Haake said. It is also the first time in living memory that the University has been consecrated.

“Students from a variety of groups and backgrounds came together to focus on this devotion,” he said. “And, if they are called to the Sacred Heart, to me that means they want to bring God closer to them and to feel more tangibly the abundant love of God and to imitate it.”

The DeBartolo Performing Arts Center will host (Sacred Heart: His Reign Has No End) at 6:30 p.m. Friday, October 2; the film is free, but ticketed.

The honor adds to Notre Dame’s recent recognition as an employer. Last year, the University was ranked No. 1 on Forbes’s America’s Best Large Employers list, placing Notre Dame among the nation’s leading large employers.

“This recognition is especially meaningful because it is largely based on responses from our employees,” said Shannon Cullinan, the University’s executive vice president. “We believe our people are our greatest asset, and we're pleased they feel a sense of belonging and purpose here.”

Notre Dame Human Resources Vice President Heather Christophersen said the recognition reflects the strength of Notre Dame’s workplace culture and the people who shape it.

“What makes Notre Dame distinctive as a workplace is that people come here not only to do meaningful work, but to be part of something larger than themselves,” Christophersen said. “That shared sense of purpose creates a remarkable community. We’re proud to see that recognized again by Forbes, and even prouder of the people who create that experience for one another every day.”

For more than 180 years, Notre Dame has contributed to the economic, intellectual, and cultural vitality of the South Bend region and the state of Indiana. As one of the state’s major employers, the University supports communities through employment, education, research, service, and partnerships.

Forbes’s Best Employers by State ranking is based on an independent survey conducted with market research firm Statista. For the 2026 ranking, more than 245,000 employees of US organizations participated in the survey. Respondents evaluated their employers on factors including wages and benefits, workplace culture, management, career advancement opportunities, and working conditions. They also evaluated former employers and organizations they knew through their industry, friends, or family. Responses were combined with survey data from the previous three years, with greater weight given to recent responses and feedback from current employees within each state.

To find your golden opportunity, visit .

In July 2026, the Lab convened two workshops in collaboration with , a nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing people together to tackle difficult technological questions and advance a technological future aligned with overall public interest. One workshop brought together mid-level professionals tasked with implementing AI on their teams, while the second convening featured senior and executive leaders making decisions about AI adoption across the organization. Both groups were asked a mirrored set of questions to assess understandings of how AI is reshaping their work or workplace.

The findings illuminated disparities in overall views and experiences of AI adoption based both on individuals’ positions within organizations and their identities and roles beyond the workplace. These findings, along with key recommendations for organizations looking to support employees in these transitions, are published in a .

"While we continue funding longer-term research on AI's impacts on workers and workplace dynamics, [IBM director of the Lab] and I felt a sense of urgency to understand how people are experiencing these transitions right now," said , Notre Dame director of the ND-IBM Tech Ethics Lab. "What we learned about things like grief, invisible labor, and this fundamental gap between how leaders and workers describe what's going on in their organizations are insights that matter and are important to illuminate in the present moment."

Key Findings

With the advent of generative and agentic AI, both cohorts reported speed and productivity increasingly becoming the most important values at work, with overall standards decreasing and an attitude of “good enough” work becoming the norm across the organization. At the same time, workshop attendees reported that rolling out AI across the organization created a new subset of tasks essential to AI transformation, which were often not tracked in formal job descriptions, performance reviews, or key organizational performance metrics. Examples of these hidden tasks include validating and reviewing AI outputs, translating high-level strategy into practice, cross-functional coordination, and employee training. Collectively, researchers referred to this as “glue work.”

Middle managers frequently reported taking on this extra work, with some participants describing new labor falling disproportionately to women across the organization.

Simultaneously, executive leaders questioned whether AI-enabled organizations would need the middle management tier in the future, while also worrying about “distributed deskilling,” the loss of formal and informal avenues where workplace expertise develops, like mentoring, knowledge transfer, and training. The workshops exposed a growing tension between the two viewpoints: the skillsets executives feared losing were already being performed, often invisibly, by the middle management tier whose utility was being questioned.

The Way Forward: Key Recommendations for Leaders

"A technology’s existence or capabilities doesn’t automatically determine what our AI future looks like—that’s a convenient, but powerful narrative created to offload responsibility," said . "Nothing is decided for us. There are many futures in front of us, as a collective. Leaders, however, do shape these futures, whether they acknowledge it or not. The real questions are whose voices get incorporated into these visions, and what (or who) we are actually optimizing for when decisions get made about what work matters and why."

Participants in the workshops were not all pessimistic, with some offering a vision of what better AI adoption could look like, ideally centered around greater organizational coherence and policies supporting human agency. Participants suggested that increased deliberation before adoption was key, including discussion on which aspects of work should remain human, protecting opportunities to fail and learn from mistakes, gains in efficiency returned to workers as time for higher-level work and more work-life balance, and quality standards that stay high regardless of AI use.

The final list of recommendations for business leaders that emerged centered two core themes: leaders must be more deliberate and transparent about what they measure and recognize, and they must be more thoughtful and intentional about who has a voice in the AI decisionmaking process. If and how leaders act on these themes, the findings suggest, may meaningfully shape what AI adoption at work looks like in practice, and how it’s experienced by the people it impacts the most.

To learn more about the findings, recommendations for leaders navigating AI transitions, and ideas for further research, read the .

Originally published by Ian Husler��at on September 15, 2026.

, a professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering and associate dean for faculty advancement and inclusion in the College of Engineering, has been named vice president and associate provost for faculty recruitment support at the University of Notre Dame. His appointment begins January 1, 2027.

Schmiedeler will lead the Office of the Provost’s efforts to assist colleges, schools, and departments with hiring for Notre Dame’s Catholic mission—including working with units to create proactive hiring strategies, offering deans and search committees guidance on best practices, and identifying potential candidates. His work will support Notre Dame’s continued commitment to an academic environment nurtured by a predominant number of Catholic intellectuals as well as scholars of various backgrounds and perspectives who contribute to the University’s Catholic mission.

He will also partner with the to support its work in nurturing engagement with and understanding of the University’s Catholic mission among faculty of all faiths and none and help integrate mission hiring with the University’s .

“Jim is one of our most accomplished scholar-teachers and a gifted administrator with a deep commitment to Notre Dame’s Catholic mission,” said��, the Charles and Jill Fischer Provost. “I can’t think of a better person to take on this vital role in advancing Notre Dame as the leading global Catholic research university by helping us recruit excellent faculty.”

An internationally recognized expert on robotics, Schmiedeler will also remain an active researcher following his appointment, dividing his time between the Office of the Provost, the classroom, and his . His research legged locomotion and the intersection of robotics and human biomechanics. His active projects span lower-limb prostheses, exoskeletons to assist human walking, and quantifying human balance deficits. In his associate dean role, he works closely with all departments in the college to share and implement best practices around faculty advancement and inclusion.

Schmiedeler earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Notre Dame, and his master’s and doctorate in mechanical engineering from Ohio State University. He taught at the University of Iowa and Ohio State before joining the Notre Dame faculty in 2003. He has received the National Science Foundation’s Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.

“I am grateful for the privilege to work with colleagues across campus in elevating our faculty recruitment efforts,” Schmiedeler said. “Notre Dame is blessed with truly outstanding faculty in all units. Their excellence is our strongest asset in attracting the next generation of scholars to advance our unique mission.”

The , part of the University of Notre Dame’s , has received a $10 million grant from the OpenAI Foundation to help governments bring AI-powered weather services to millions of farmers across South and Southeast Asia and East Africa. The initiative connects agricultural innovation with funding to help millions of smallholder farmers adapt to climate change.

The initiative is led by , the Keough-Hesburgh Professor of Sustainable Development at the University of Notre Dame and . AIM for Scale is a global initiative that has previously received support from the International Affairs Office of the UAE Presidential Court and the Gates Foundation.

The funding is part of a broader $60 million investment from the OpenAI Foundation that brings together AIM for Scale; the University of Chicago; the University of California, Berkeley; Precision Development; Digital Green and CIMMYT. Together, the organizations aim to expand access to AI-powered weather and crop disease forecasting tools for 100 million smallholder farmers over the next three years.

For Winters, the funding represents an opportunity to tackle a challenge that has long confronted the development community: how to move evidence-based innovations beyond successful pilots and into sustainable initiatives capable of reaching millions of people.

“Artificial intelligence is creating extraordinary new possibilities for farmers, but innovation alone is not enough,” Winters said. “The real challenge is ensuring that these tools become part of systems that can sustainably reach millions of farmers based in low- and middle-income countries. This funding gives us an opportunity to work with governments to translate rapid advances in AI into services that farmers can rely on year after year.”

Taking AI-powered forecasts to scale

Smallholder farmers grow approximately one-third of the world’s food, yet many lack access to timely, localized information to guide critical decisions about planting, harvesting and protecting their crops. Dry spells, storms and disease outbreaks can threaten an entire season’s production and the livelihoods that depend on it.

Recent advances in artificial intelligence are creating new possibilities for closing this information gap. AI weather models can produce reliable, localized forecasts using substantially less computing power than traditional forecasting systems. AI can also help deliver forecasts and related advice to farmers through text messages, calls, chatbots and other channels.

Research suggests that access to timely forecasts can influence farmers’ decisions about what and when to plant and how much to invest, with the potential to increase incomes and reduce crop losses.

But developing better technology is only part of the challenge.

AIM for Scale will use the OpenAI Foundation funding to help governments move AI-powered weather services from promising pilots to sustainable delivery at national scale. Working with governments, multilateral development banks, academia and implementing partners, AIM for Scale will help connect these innovations with the partnerships, technical assistance and large-scale financing needed to reach millions of farmers.

This work will draw on the complementary expertise of organizations across the broader partnership. The University of Chicago and UC Berkeley will support national meteorological agencies in tailoring and operationalizing AI weather models. Precision Development will work with governments and civil society organizations to turn forecasts into practical advice and deliver it through trusted channels. Digital Green will integrate improved forecasts into FarmerChat, its AI agricultural advisory platform, while using farmer feedback to inform forecasting teams.

A portion of AIM for Scale’s $10 million grant will be awarded through a sub-grant to CIMMYT to advance AI-enabled crop disease forecasting. CIMMYT will strengthen its wheat pathogen forecasting capabilities, using AI and NASA Earth observation data to identify potential outbreaks earlier.

Originally published by April Toler at on Sept. 10.

Contact: Tracy DeStazio, associate director of media relations, 574-631-9958 or tdestazi@nd.edu

After more than a decade of erosion, support for democracy has stopped falling and begun a modest but widespread recovery across the Americas.

The findings are detailed in the 2026 Pulse of Democracy, released today by the , part of the University of Notre Dame’s , and by .

The 2026 AmericasBarometer includes 25,282 interviews across 21 nationally representative surveys in countries across the Americas. The survey examines how citizens perceive and experience democracy and governance, including their views on democratic legitimacy, trust in institutions, corruption, citizen security, migration, political participation and government performance. This year’s study again includes the United States and Canada alongside Latin America and, for the first time, Cuba.

finds that support for democracy increased across nearly every country surveyed between 2023 and 2026, marking the first broad regional upturn in a generation. Although citizens across much of the region report improvements in economic and physical security, they remain far less convinced that governments are honest, capable and responsive to their needs, highlighting the need to strengthen trust in government and accountability.

“The findings offer some encouraging signs, but they also underscore the work that remains,” said , acting director of Notre Dame’s Kellogg Institute and associate professor of sociology and peace studies at the University. “Improving people’s daily lives matters, but strengthening democracy also requires institutions that people trust.”

The report’s key findings

About two-thirds of Latin Americans express support for democracy in 2026, up 6 percentage points from 2023, according to the report. Support increased in nearly every country and across age groups and educational levels rather than being driven by any single demographic group. Substantial differences remain across countries, however, and the recovery follows nearly a decade of comparatively low democratic support.

In most countries, fewer people say their national economy has worsened compared with 2023, and household food insecurity has declined from its pandemic-era peak. Still, roughly one in four people across the region report experiencing food insecurity, and improvements are unevenly distributed.

The share of people who feel unsafe in their own neighborhoods has been declining steadily for nearly a decade and fell again in 2026. Crime victimization has declined only modestly, however, and substantial differences in experiences with crime remain across countries.

Citizens with greater economic security, less food insecurity, lower exposure to crime and fewer experiences with corruption express higher support for democracy. On average, several of these conditions improved across the region between 2023 and 2026, coinciding with the broader increase in democratic support.

“The modest recovery in support for democracy is real and encouraging, but it is also fragile,” said Noam Lupu, director of Vanderbilt University’s Center for Global Democracy and the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of Political Science. “People are reporting improvements in their economic and physical security, but they still want governments that are honest, capable and responsive.”

Better economic conditions and lower crime rates boost support for democracy. But government failures weaken support.

Citizens who experience greater economic and food security and less crime and corruption express higher support for democracy. But government failures undercut democratic support.

Despite this progress, everyday corruption has changed little, satisfaction with local public services remains low and citizens’ evaluations of political leaders vary widely. The findings suggest that improvements in material conditions can bolster democratic goodwill, but persistent failures of governance and representation continue to hold it back.

The share of adults reporting an intention to emigrate fell from 31 percent in 2023 to 25 percent in 2026, returning roughly to pre-pandemic levels. Improving conditions in countries of origin coincide with the decline, while migration pressures remain substantial and vary considerably across countries.

New data and expanded public resources

Alongside the Pulse of Democracy, Vanderbilt’s Center for Global Democracy and LAPOP Lab released the 2026 AmericasBarometer data and updated , along with questionnaires, technical documentation and other resources, free of charge.

About the AmericasBarometer

The AmericasBarometer is the flagship survey project of Vanderbilt University’s Center for Global Democracy and its LAPOP Lab, a global leader in comparative public opinion research. Since 2004, it has collected more than 433,000 interviews across 35 countries, creating an extensive comparative record of how citizens across the hemisphere perceive and experience democracy and governance. The surveys use nationally representative samples of voting-age adults and cover topics including democratic legitimacy, trust in institutions, corruption, citizen security, migration, political participation and government performance. In 2025, Vanderbilt partnered with the Kellogg Institute to launch the 2025-26 report.

About the Kellogg Institute

The Kellogg Institute, part of the Keough 91��Ƶ of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame, is a leading center for interdisciplinary research dedicated to understanding, strengthening and renewing democracy worldwide.

About Vanderbilt University’s Center for Global Democracy

The Center for Global Democracy is Vanderbilt University’s leading social science institute dedicated to research and innovation in democratic politics. Its research examines how citizens perceive, experience and support democracy across countries and over time. Its research portfolio includes the LAPOP Lab, a global leader in international survey research and home to the AmericasBarometer.

Originally published by��April Toler at on Sept. 9.

Contact: Tracy DeStazio, associate director of media relations, 574-631-9958 or tdestazi@nd.edu

“As Notre Dame reinstates standardized testing, our goal remains unchanged: We hope to attract exceptional young people, from every background and walk of life, to be part of Notre Dame,” said , Notre Dame vice president for undergraduate enrollment. “Rooted in our Catholic mission and committed to academic excellence, we want students with strong academic potential, high moral character, and a desire to serve the common good. A test score, evaluated in full context of an applicant’s individual circumstances, is an additional measure to aid us in that process.”

Notre Dame’s decision follows a detailed review of its own admissions data across multiple cycles, which confirmed that standardized test scores provide important quantitative evidence of academic preparation and showed a strong correlation between test scores and classroom performance after students matriculate. Evaluated relative to the opportunities and norms of an applicant’s local high school and community, test scores give the admissions team additional information to better understand a student’s academic profile. The review also underscored an insight articulated by researchers at peer institutions: Students from a variety of backgrounds, including first-generation, Pell-eligible, and rural applicants, are among the populations most likely to be overlooked in the admissions process without a test requirement.

University officials emphasize that this change will not alter the comprehensive nature of the admissions process. A test score is one data point among dozens that Notre Dame considers, including curriculum rigor, performance in the classroom, essays, letters of recommendations, extracurricular activities, volunteerism, and the context of a student’s high school and community. No single variable opens or closes a door at Notre Dame. Scores will continue to be evaluated contextually rather than against a fixed threshold.

Notre Dame’s approach to admissions rests on a simple conviction: Talent and promise are everywhere, in rural high schools, in Catholic schools, in homeschools, and in large public systems. The inclusion of a test score helps to ensure that students applying from schools that are less well-known to admissions officers have the same opportunity as those attending more familiar schools.

In today’s announcement, Notre Dame highlighted several initiatives that reflect its long-standing commitment to affordability and access:

Affordability for families at all income levels. Through , the University practices need-blind admissions for all applicants, domestic and international; meets the full demonstrated financial need of every admitted student; and does not include loans in its financial aid packages.

• Price transparency. For most families earning $60,000 or less annually, the University will cover tuition, fees, housing, and food. For families earning up to $150,000 annually, Notre Dame will cover tuition, and for families earning up to $200,000 annually, Notre Dame will cover at least half of tuition.

• Fee waivers. Notre Dame makes application fee waivers available to any student for whom the cost of applying is a barrier.

• Four-year financial aid promise. Notre Dame recently announced that a family’s financial aid will not decrease over a student’s four years on campus, absent a significant change in family income, and will increase if a family’s demonstrated need grows.

Free SAT preparation and admissions counseling. Effective for fall 2028 applicants, Notre Dame, in partnership with 91��Ƶhouse.world, will be offering free SAT Bootcamp and College Admissions Workshops to students engaged with a variety of schools and community-based organizations.

Support for rural and small-town students. Notre Dame is a proud member of the STARS College Network and, in collaboration with the network, has added a dedicated college adviser position to work directly with rural students as they navigate the college admissions process, from application through enrollment.

A simplified application. For fall 2027 applicants, Notre Dame simplified its Common Application supplement.

“Together, these initiatives reflect what has always been true of Notre Dame,” Kidder said. “Notre Dame seeks to welcome students from all pathways and income levels who are drawn to the University’s Catholic character and whose academic excellence, intellectual curiosity, and passion for serving those around them will enrich our community and world.”

Contact: Erin Blasko, director of media engagement, 574-631-4127,��eblasko@nd.edu