Michael J. Sheeran

During his doctoral work in the politics department at Princeton University, Sheeran spent two years conducting interviews, reading, and observing the communal discernment tradition, as exemplified in the voteless decisions of Quakers in their Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. This resulted in his book Beyond Majority Rule, which was published in 1983.

Sheeran received his doctorate in politics from Princeton in 1977. He also holds a Licentiate (European equivalent of a master's degree) in Sacred Theology, a Licentiate in Philosophy, a master's degree in political science, a master's degree in Moral and Pastoral Theology and a bachelor's degree in Philosophy and Letters. All are from St. Louis University.

Sheeran has taught at St. Louis University and at Regis Jesuit High School in Denver. He joined Regis University in 1975, and in 1993 became its president. He assumed his current position at AJCU in early 2013 and soon after hosted a historic meeting of college and university presidents, chairs of board of trustees, and the Superior General of the Society of Jesus, Rev. Adolfo Nicolás, S.J. He also hosted the first meeting of President Bill Clinton and Pope John Paul II while president at Regis.

In 1968, Sheeran became interested in the Religious Society of Friends while studying religious communities which practice "communal discernment", a decision-making process which the Jesuit order also utilized when it was founded in 1540, but lost within a few generations.

Michael J. Sheeran, S.J., (born 1940) is a Jesuit priest, president of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU), former president of Regis University in Denver, Colorado, and author of the book Beyond Majority Rule: Voteless Decisions in the Society of Friends.

Sheeran was born in New York City in 1940, and entered the Society of Jesus at Florissant, Missouri, in 1957. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1970.