Msgr. James P. Shea

Monsignor James P. Shea was inaugurated in 2009 as the sixth president of the University of Mary, becoming the youngest college or university president in the United States at the age of 34. He succeeded Sister Thomas Welder, O.S.B., who had served as president for 31 years.

The oldest of eight children, Msgr. Shea grew up on a dairy and grain farm near Hazelton, North Dakota, just 38 miles from the University of Mary's campus. He began his undergraduate work at Jamestown College, majoring in English and history. He then entered seminary formation for the Diocese of Bismarck, earning a bachelor’s degree and a licentiate in philosophy as a Basselin Fellow in the School of Philosophy at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. He studied classical Greek at the University of Texas at Austin and completed seminary formation at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, studying theology at the Gregorian and Lateran universities. He has studied management at the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business and is also an alumnus of the Institutes for Higher Education at the Graduate School of Education, Harvard University.

Msgr. Shea has worked with Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity at the Gift of Peace AIDS Hospice while teaching religion at two inner-city elementary schools in Washington, D.C. In Rome, he served as chaplain for the Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital and also at the Rome campus of the Center for Catholic Studies at the University of Saint Thomas. Following his ordination to the priesthood in 2002, he returned to North Dakota and served as an associate pastor in Bismarck and Mandan. During that time, he was also the chaplain and an instructor at St. Mary’s Central High School in Bismarck. He then served as pastor to parishes in Killdeer and Halliday (North Dakota), while teaching at Trinity High School in Dickinson. Deeply committed to the education and formation of young people, he has been an inspirational teacher and mentor for many students.

Msgr. Shea is a Knight Commander of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem and serves on the Board of Directors for FOCUS, the Fellowship of Catholic University Students. He has served on the National Advisory Council to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Governor’s Commission on Education Improvement for the State of North Dakota. Msgr. Shea is also a Trustee of Saint John Vianney Seminary in Denver and a member of the Executive Committee of the Board for the Association of Benedictine Colleges and Universities.