Jay Caponigro, director of the University of Notre Dame’s Robinson Community Learning Center (RCLC), has been promoted to the position of director of community engagement at the University, effective March 1.
In the newly established position, Caponigro will assist Tim Sexton, associate vice president for public affairs, in the development, execution and measurement of Notre Dame’s efforts to strengthen and enhance its relationship with the local community.
A 1991 Notre Dame graduate, Caponigro holds a master’s degree in religious studies from the University of Chicago. From 1995 to 1999, he was executive director of Chicago’s Southwest Organizing Project, which included 25 churches and schools in the racially diverse neighborhoods of that city’s southwest side. For the last 10 years he has directed the RCLC, managing violence-prevention, youth entrepreneurship and educational projects for adults and children in South Bend’s Northeast Neighborhood.
In partnership with religious and civic leaders and with assistance from some 250 Notre Dame volunteers, RCLC programs involve more than 5,000 local participants each academic year.