John Sebastian, vice president for Mission and Ministry, tenured professor of English, and lecturer in LMU School of Education’s higher education administration program, has been elected to a four-year term on the National Board of the Lilly Network for Church-Related Colleges and Universities.
Founded in 1991, the Lilly Network of Church-related Colleges and Universities (formerly known as the Lilly Fellows Program), seeks to strengthen the quality and shape the character of church-related institutions of learning through three programmatic initiatives: First, it offers postdoctoral teaching fellowships for early career scholars who desire positions of teaching, scholarship, and leadership within church-related institutions; second, it supports students of exceptional academic talent who are exploring vocations in church-related higher education during their first three years of graduate school in the Lilly Graduate Fellows Program; third, it maintains a collaborative network of Church-Related Colleges and Universities that sponsors a variety of activities and publications designed to explore the Christian character of the academic vocation and to strengthen the religious nature of church-related institutions.
The Lilly Network represents among its current membership of 100 schools a diversity of denominational traditions, institutional types, and geographical locations. Loyola Marymount University is a founding member of this network, which is based at Christ College, the interdisciplinary honors college of Valparaiso University in Northwest Indiana.
Sebastian, who joined LMU in 2017, leads a diverse team that animates LMU’s mission by supporting liturgical and sacramental life; by fostering the formation and spiritual growth of students, faculty, staff, trustees, and alumni; by promoting the distinctive elements and the shared characteristics of the charisms of the university’s three sponsoring religious congregations; by coordinating advocacy and action on behalf of social justice; by developing ministers, educators, and pastoral leaders for the local Church; and by building communities of scholars who animate the Catholic intellectual tradition. Under Sebastian’s leadership, Mission and Ministry has established interfaith dialogue and understanding as vital to the LMU’s commitment to the service of faith and promotion of justice and has collaborated closely with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in advancing anti-racist initiatives grounded in Catholic social teaching.
Sebastian earned his Ph.D. in medieval studies in 2004 from Cornell University. He also holds a master’s degree in medieval studies from Cornell University, an M.A. in English from Georgetown University, and a bachelor’s degree in English and medieval studies from Georgetown and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Sigma Nu. Sebastian was in the initial cohort of the Ignatian Colleagues Program and earned a certificate for graduate-level coursework from the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies at Boston College. He is an expert on Middle English literature, especially religious drama. Sebastian joined LMU from Loyola University New Orleans, where he served as vice president for Mission and Ministry in addition to serving at various times as the inaugural director of the Common Curriculum, director of the Medieval Studies Program, and deputy director of the University Honors Program. He was also the founding director of Loyola’s Ignatian Faculty Fellows Program. He began his academic career on Loyola’s faculty and earned the Loyola Faculty Senate’s recognitions for excellence in advising, teaching, and service.
