PHILADELPHIA – St. Joseph’s University president, Jesuit Father Timothy R. Lannon, S.J., will leave the university at the conclusion of the current academic year to become the president of Creighton University in Omaha, Neb.

Father Lannon’s departure comes as the university concludes its capital campaign, which to date has raised $139 million of its stated $150 million goal. Since beginning his term as president in July 2003, Father Lannan has been at the helm of major university initiatives, most notably the purchase of Episcopal Academy’s 38-acre Merion campus.

He played a significant role in boosting St. Joseph’s academic reputation, an effort that included new endowed faculty chairs and student scholarships, the revision of the undergraduate curriculum and the openings of the Pedro Arrupe Center for Business Ethics, the Catholic Bioethics Institute and the Kinney Center for Autism Education and Support.