Home > About The Center > Staff > Rev. William M. Lies, C.S.C.
The Rev. William M. Lies, C.S.C., was appointed director of the Center for Social Concerns in 2002. One of the most comprehensive community-based learning centers in higher education, the center offers a wide array of courses, seminars, and other community-based learning, research, and service programs informed by Catholic social tradition.
Beyond directing the center, Lies teaches in the political science department and is a fellow of both the Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies and the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies.
His recent research and teaching focuses on politics and poverty. Beyond the halls of the center and the walls of the classroom, Father Bill gives talks and lectures throughout the country on community-based learning and research, and Catholic social tradition. He has recent publications in edited volumes with the University of Florida Press and Georgetown University Press. He also serves on several domestic and international boards that focus on these areas.
A native of Little Falls, Minnesota, Father Bill is one of ten children and has a twin brother, Jim, who is also a Holy Cross priest. Father Bill earned his bachelor’s degree in English with minors in French and Philosophy from Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. He received his M.Div. degree from the University of Notre Dame and his doctorate in political science from the University of Pittsburgh. He entered the Congregation of Holy Cross in 1987, finished his theological training in 1993, and was ordained a year later at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart at Notre Dame. His study and work in Chile and his fluency in Spanish have allowed him to serve Latino communities in the United States as an associate pastor in California and a pastor in Pittsburgh. He now lives on the Notre Dame campus with the “dawgs” of Alumni Hall, affectionately known by its residents as “the center of the universe.”
Email: William.M.Lies.7@nd.edu
(574) 631-3002
Center for Social Concerns
211 Geddes Hall
Notre Dame, IN 46556
