By Jane Lawicki

Rev. Michael P. Caruso, SJ, EdD, has been named the next president of Saint Ignatius College Prep, located at 1076 W. Roosevelt Rd. Currently chair of the Department of Educational Leadership at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, he will begin his appointment in summer 2010.

“Fr. Caruso is a very personable and engaging Jesuit who has a great energy and passion for Jesuit secondary education,” said Peter Thompson, a 1986 alumnus of Saint Ignatius who chairs its alumni board and headed its presidential search committee. “In addition to being a distinguished scholar and professional educator, he is a deeply pastoral man.”

For the current academic year, the current president, Rev. Brian Paulson, SJ, will lead the school, and Fr. Caruso will travel from Los Angeles to attend meetings and key events. Thompson praised Fr. Paulson for his work as a priest, educator, and executive and for his lasting impact on the school.

Under Fr. Paulson, Saint Ignatius developed a nationally recognized program for adult faith formation. He also expanded programming in the arts, including a choir, dance, and orchestra program, and also expanded counseling services.

Academic scholarships and athletics also grew dramatically under Fr. Paulson’s tenure. Academic standards increased ACT scores to an average of 27.1 and funds raised over the past ten years total $62 million. Fr. Paulson cited the hiring of Principal Dr. Catherine Karl as one his major accomplishments and was confident that she and Fr. Caruso would work well together.

“In addition to the support which Dr. Karl has offered me, I would like to recognize and thank John Chandler, our vice president of operations and development, and Gregory Gleason, our vice president of Finance,” Fr. Paulson said. “Both of these men provide extraordinary service to Saint Ignatius College Prep and have supported me personally in innumerable ways. I owe these three school leaders a tremendous debt of gratitude and will miss working with them very much. “

Besides his work as department chair, Fr. Caruso is an associate professor of education with an emphasis in Catholic administration. His areas of interest are Catholic school leadership, spirituality in education, and the historic foundations of Catholic education.

“I think families choose Catholic schools for many reasons, but among the more positive motives is they believe our schools will continue to complement the good lessons taught at home,” Fr. Caruso said. “They look to the men and women at Saint Ignatius and all of our Catholic schools with a great deal of confidence as they entrust their greatest treasure to our care and guidance.”

Fr. Caruso has worked extensively in forming Catholic elementary and high school teachers and administrators in the Diocese of Orange and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, which has one of the most diverse Catholic school systems in the United States.

“We are not only educating young men and women to be academically successful, to excel in college, and to take an active role in our democratic society,” he said. “Our charge is greater [because] we also are preparing young men and women to be active leaders in the church. I have often been amazed to see, in every city where I have worked, that a large number of the lay leaders are men and women who are graduates of Jesuit high schools; I know this to be the case in Chicago as well. “

Fr. Caruso earned his BA from Conception Seminary College in Missouri and his MDiv/STB from St. Mary of the Lake University in Mundelein, IL. Ordained for the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph in Missouri, he entered the Jesuits and earned his EdD from the University of San Francisco’s Institute of Catholic Educational Leadership.

Prior to his position in Los Angeles, he taught at DeSmet Jesuit High School in St. Louis and Regis Jesuit High School in Denver. He also has worked in college campus ministry at Rockhurst Jesuit University in Kansas City. When not teaching or working, he enjoys cooking and watching reruns of Seinfeld or the show Animal Planet. His musical tastes range from sacred music from the baroque period and Anglican chant to jazz and contemporary groups such as the Killers. While acknowledging he will miss California winters, he is excited about moving to Chicago.

“Chicago is such a diverse, vibrant, and exciting city, beautifully situated on Lake Michigan,” he said. “Saint Ignatius has served as a beacon of hope and an anchor for the city. I hope to cultivate good relations with our neighbors and friends who live and work in the area.”

Beginning in Aug. 2010, Fr. Paulson will be the rector of the overall Jesuit community at Loyola University Chicago, and superior of the four main communities. There are about 80 Jesuits who belong to the larger Jesuit community at Loyola, living in four separate buildings in the Rogers Park community of Chicago near Loyola University, and one house in Oak Park, IL, near the Loyola University Medical Center.