Theology professor Bernard Brady is the new associate director of the Office for Mission.
Brady will remain an active faculty member in the Theology Department and joins the Office for Mission in a role dedicated to working with faculty across the university about mission.
“I’m very excited about adding to the Office for Mission and working with faculty on questions of mission, linking the mission to their teaching and scholarship, helping faculty take ownership of the mission,” Brady said.
The role formalizes and builds on work Brady has already been doing: He has helped with new faculty mission retreats for the past nine years, and has been an active member of Office for Mission committees formed by Vice President for Mission Father Larry Snyder.
“Bernie has already been an incredible resource to me and our office,” Snyder said. “We’ve really started doing a lot more with faculty with conversations and focus around mission, and having Bernie here in this new capacity will really help us do that well.”
Much of Brady’s scholarship and teaching in his 29 years at St. Thomas has centered on Catholic morality and social thought, creating a natural bridge to his work helping faculty connect their work to St. Thomas’ mission. His role will also help build beyond the current focus on mission for new faculty members.
“We’re hoping to encourage conversations about the mission with faculty beyond their orientation and when they’re hired, into different stages in their career, and hopefully enlisting faculty at different stages along their career about their sense of promoting the mission,” Brady said. “When we do our jobs as faculty we tend to do the job in front of us, keep our nose to the grindstone. What the Office for Mission can do is help them look up from our daily tasks and reflect on how it contributes to the common good.”
