Gwen O'Brien
Director of Community Relations
As Director of Community Relations in the Office for Public Affairs at Notre Dame, Gwen serves the University as a campus/community liaison, initiating and building relationships between Notre Dame and local community organizations to promote meaningful engagement.
Gwen's work includes serving as the project manager for the Regional Economic Impact Report; campus coordinator of the annual United Way workplace campaign; and coordinator of Outreach ND activities, which offer faculty and staff engaged with the community through research or enrichment the opportunity to network and even collaborate on future projects. She also sits on the boards of the Northeast Neighborhood Revitalization Organization (NNRO); theh Northeast Neighborhood Council (NENC); Downtown South Bend, Inc. (DTSB); United Way of St. Joseph County and Hannah's House of Michiana.
Gwen joined the Public Affairs team in July 2022 with 15 years of higher education communications and relationship building experience refined at the University of Notre Dame, as Director of Internal Communications, and at Saint Mary’s College, as Director of Integrated Communications and Director of Media Relations.
She has been an active member of the South Bend-Elkhart community for 35 years. Her background includes recording local history as a reporter/on-air host for the South Bend Tribune, WSBT-TV and WNIT-TV.
Gwen earned her bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism at the University of Kansas and attended Sacred Heart grade and high schools in Chicago and Lake Forest, IL, where she grew up. She and her family are parishioners at St. Pius X Catholic Church in Granger, where she has served in ministries and on committees for more than 25 years.
Motivated by the renaissance underway in South Bend, in 2021 Gwen and her family moved from Granger to the Northeast Neighborhood, steps from downtown, Eddy Street Commons, and Notre Dame Stadium. In their free time, Gwen and her husband love long walks along the new Link Trail, which links downtown to campus. Sometimes, they even bring along their crazy dogs, Maggie and Sadie, who were featured on the BeyoND Instagram account. Living close to campus is wonderful, says Gwen, adding that her commute takes seven minutes, door to door, by car and 30 minutes by foot! Life is good living in the shadow of the Dome.