Michael Szopiak

Michael Szopiak is the Program Director of the International Education Research Initiative for the Institute for Educational Initiatives. This research effort explores the role and impact of Catholic and faith-based schools in international contexts and seeks to promote a global network of collaborators for understanding and strengthening these institutions.

Szopiak taught high school science and theology and coached baseball in Baton Rouge, Louisiana as a member of the 21st cohort of ACE Teaching Fellows. He returned to the University of Notre Dame after ACE, where he earned his Master of Theological Studies in systematic theology and served as an assistant rector in one of Notre Dame’s undergraduate residence halls. His primary interests lie at the intersection of science and theology, its import for scientific and religious education, and its implications for the integral formation of students in Catholic schools, especially across diverse socio-religious contexts.