This story is part of Georgetown Faces, a storytelling series that celebrates the beloved figures, unsung heroes and dedicated Hoyas who make our campus special.
From a young age, Jamie Kralovec was fascinated by Ignatian spirituality, even dreaming of becoming a Jesuit himself.
“I simultaneously fell in love with the Jesuit tradition and how the Jesuit social mission could make cities more livable and just places,” he said of growing up.
After graduating from a Jesuit high school in Chicago, Kralovec pursued his twin passions at Notre Dame, exploring Catholic social teaching and the Catholic Church’s engagement with cities. He went on to receive his master’s in urban planning from New York University.
While Kralovec ultimately decided not to become a Jesuit, his deep connection to Jesuit values and passion for urban planning became his academic and professional compass — guiding him to work for the Obama Administration’s urban planning initiative, and, in 2014, for Georgetown University as the program director for the Master’s in Urban & Regional Planning program.
Today, Kralovec serves as the associate director of Mission Integration in the School of Continuing Studies (SCS), where he focuses on the university’s Jesuit values full-time.
Deeply immersed in Ignatian spirituality and Jesuit values, Kralovec has played a key role in bringing the Spirit of Georgetown to life at SCS and beyond.
He authors contemplative blog posts, hosts workshops and seminars about spiritual topics and offers ways for religious and non-religious community members to reflect and renew through spiritual retreats and daily meditations.
Additionally, Kralovec developed and instructs the community-based learning course “Jesuit Values in Professional Practice,” which provides pedagogical support to incorporate the Spirit of Georgetown into the instructional design of program courses and promotes Jesuit values among faculty and staff in SCS. He also collaborates with the Office of Mission & Ministry to enhance multi-faith resources for the community’s diverse spiritual needs and maintains an invitational open-door policy to serve as a resource for all community members.
“My greatest joy at Georgetown is helping others, particularly students, develop habits of discernment and self-reflection that lead to lives of greater meaning and purpose,” he said.
When he isn’t leading retreats at the Calcagnini Contemplative Center or studying to complete his Doctor of Ministry degree from Fordham University, he can be found spending time with his wife Cassie and three kids (Matty, Maggie and Quinnie), writing about urban planning and Ignatian spirituality for magazines and other outlets, or fostering spiritually inclusive spaces for community members.
What led me to Georgetown: After graduate school, I worked on the Obama presidential campaign and did urban planning work for the Obama team in an initiative called Strong Cities, Strong Communities, which brought together my passions for equity, community development and ethical urban development. In the fall of 2014, a job opened up at Georgetown to be the program director for the newly created Master’s in Urban & Regional Planning program. It was like a grace or gift that this job opened up and that a lot of people in my life encouraged me to apply for it.
How Georgetown brought me closer to my spirituality: In the last 10 years, I have reconnected with the Jesuit tradition of education and with Ignatian spirituality. In 2015, former Vice President for Mission and Ministry Fr. Kevin O’Brien, S.J., invited me to make the 19th Annotation of the Spiritual Exercises retreat as part of a cohort of faculty and staff. Making the Spiritual Exercises, which is at the root of our educational tradition in a pretty intense way, led me to deepen my vocational commitment at Georgetown by training to become an Ignatian spiritual director through Holy Trinity Catholic Church and pursuing further graduate study in Christian spirituality at Fordham University.
I feel very fortunate to have had so many invitations while I’ve been at this university, where I can experience firsthand the richness of this spiritual tradition. In addition to the Exercises, some formative invitations from Georgetown have included a Magis Immersion trip to the U.S.-Mexico border, and representing the university at the annual Collegium Colloquy on Catholic intellectual life for faculty at Catholic colleges, and at a national commission on Ignatian Pedagogy as part of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities.
Why I embarked on this career: In high school, I was so enthralled with the Jesuits and their urban roots that I briefly considered pursuing a vocation to become a Jesuit myself. While I ultimately elected for the vocation of married life, my spiritual journey continues to embody the Ignatian charism of contemplation in action. The model of vowed Jesuit life inspires my ongoing discernment about how to be of the greatest service to my family and all of my professional communities.
