Dr. Mark C. Reed, President, Loyola University Chicago

Mark C. Reed is the 25th president of Loyola University Chicago. One of the world’s leading Jesuit research universities, Loyola is also among the largest and most complex, with nearly 17,000 students, 13 colleges and schools, and four campuses in the greater Chicago area and one in Rome, Italy.

Prior to Loyola, Dr. Reed served for seven years as the first lay president of Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, PA. Before that, he served for fifteen years in multiple senior leadership roles, including senior vice president for administration and chief of staff, at Fairfield University in Fairfield, CT, where he was also honored with the Distinguished Faculty-Administrator Award.

Dr. Reed’s career has focused on strengthening the institutions he has served, particularly in the areas of expanded academic programs, academic excellence and impactful research, strategic partnerships, university finances and endowment, student formation, and advancement of the Jesuit, Catholic mission. Additionally, he has regularly taught undergraduate and graduate courses in calculus and statistics.

Dr. Reed has been engaged in addressing broader issues in education. He currently serves as a member of the NCAA Division I Board of Directors and its Finance Committee. He is a board member of the American Council on Education (ACE), the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities (ACCU), Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU), Loyola Academy in Wilmette, IL. He is past chair of the Council of Presidents for the Atlantic 10 Conference and past chair of the Board of Trustees for St. Joseph’s Preparatory School in Philadelphia.

A lifelong product of Jesuit education, Dr. Reed earned a high school diploma from St. Joseph’s Prep, a BS in mathematics and MBA from Fairfield University, a MEd in secondary educational administration from Boston College, and an EdD in higher education management from the University of Pennsylvania.

Omar Brown currently serves as senior vice president, community and impact. In this role, he drives diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives throughout the conference. Among those initiatives are the Big Ten Equality Coalition – which engages, empowers, and educates student-athletes, administrators, partners, and alumni – and landmark events such as the historic Big Life Series trip to Selma and Montgomery, Alabama.
 
Brown oversees additional diversity initiatives including the Big Ten Advisory Commission and the Big Ten DEI Roundtable. In June 2022, he led the formation of LGBTQ+ Working Group to further elevate and amplify the voices of LGBTQ+ community across the Big Ten Conference.

He joined the conference in 2020 as vice president, people & culture, where he oversaw both DEI and HR efforts within the conference. 

Prior to joining the Big Ten, Brown was an organizational transformation leader in Deloitte’s Human Capital Consulting practice, specializing in helping companies navigate through the complex people and process issues associated with business transformation.

From 2012 to 2015, Brown was part of the leadership team at the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), where he spent more than two years as vice president of human resources (HR). It was in that role that he was responsible for keeping Chicago buses and trains moving by transforming HR’s focus to be “the heart” of the organization with a proactive customer-centric strategy to drive cultural change and support the CTA’s core values.
 
Throughout his career, Brown applied his experience in benefits consulting, finance, and diversity to counsel the City of Chicago, University of Illinois System, Illinois Housing Development Authority, General Board of Pension, and Aon Hewitt.
 
Brown is an adjunct professor at the Loyola’s Quinlan School of Business in its Baumhart Scholars program, where he lectures on managing and motivating in the workplace. He also serves on the boards of the NorthShore University HealthSystem and the McGaw YMCA of Evanston. Additionally, he is the president of the Fellowship of Afro-American Men (F.A.A.M.) basketball league, which supports middle school aged boys and girls in Evanston, Ill.

He holds a master’s degree in public policy from Northwestern University, a master’s degree in business administration from Loyola University Chicago’s Quinlan School of Business, and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Northeastern Illinois University.