Christine Caron Gebhardt, director of the Gender Relations Center at the University of Notre Dame, has been appointed assistant vice president for student services in the Division of Student Affairs, effective Monday (Nov. 11).
In this role, Caron Gebhardt will oversee the student service departments that support student health and well-being at Notre Dame, including the nationally accredited University Counseling Center, the nationally accredited University Health Services, the McDonald Center for Student Well-Being and the new Center for Student Support and Care, which includes the Care and Wellness program and the Sara Bea Disability Services. She will also serve as the division’s senior contact for student crisis, withdrawal and readmission, both for individual cases and the overall design of Notre Dame’s student response and intervention protocols.
“Christine is deeply committed to the holistic formation of our students, and she has successfully launched major new efforts in violence prevention and inclusion in her time at Notre Dame,” said Erin Hoffmann Harding, vice president for student affairs. “I am delighted that she will lead the development of an expanded vision for nurturing student health and well-being with her team, campus colleagues and students.”
Caron Gebhardt earned her doctoral degree in theological ethics with a focus on biomedical ethics from Vanderbilt University, where she also earned a master’s degree in theological studies. She received her bachelor’s degree in multidisciplinary studies and the pre-medical program from the College of Holy Cross. She began her career at Notre Dame in 2012.
In her seven years as director of the Gender Relations Center, Caron Gebhardt has worked collaboratively with various offices within the Division of Student Affairs and the wider University to address topics related to healthy relationships, diversity and inclusion, and violence prevention. Concurrently, she serves as co-chair for both the Committee for Sexual Assault Prevention and the greeNDot violence prevention program. She is also a Title IX resource coordinator and an instructor for the Moreau First Year Experience.
Prior to Notre Dame, Caron Gebhardt worked for 16 years as the director of education and formation at Christ the King Church and the principal of Christ the King Grade School in Nashville, Tennessee. As a faculty member at Vanderbilt University, Seattle University and other institutions across the south, she has more than 11 years of experience teaching courses on theological and philosophical ethics, biomedical ethics, human sexuality, gender and Catholic Social Justice.
Caron Gebhardt lives in South Bend with her husband, Carl, and two children, Jacob and Rachael.