Getting to Know Vice President of Ignatian Community & Belonging Drew Hudson

From its earliest days, Saint Ignatius High School has been a place where young men of promise, often from modest means, were formed in faith, discipline, and hope. “My work at Saint Ignatius is grounded in that same conviction: that a Jesuit education is meant to open doors, strengthen families, and prepare young men to serve both Church and society with competence and conscience,” says Drew Hudson, recently appointed Vice President of Ignatian Community and Belonging at Saint Ignatius High School. He approaches his role as a steward fully devoted to the transformative power of Catholic education in the Jesuit tradition and a lifetime of service to schools. 

While not a graduate of Saint Ignatius, Hudson reflects that he would have benefitted from the opportunity to attend the school. Like many young men, he found his high school years challenging and struggled to find his niche—which he eventually did in college. He pursued a career in education in part because he never wanted another student to feel alienated by the experience or an institution. 

Hudson believes that Saint Ignatius has been living its mission for generations. For decades Jesuits, lay faculty, coaches, and benefactors were doing the quiet, faithful work of forming young men in mind, body, and spirit. For many alumni from the 1950s and 1960s, the school was a lifeline: a place where sons of working families received discipline, opportunity, and a moral compass that carried them into adulthood, work, family life, and service to Church and country.

That mission hasn’t changed—but the world around it has, says Hudson. The scale, complexity, and visibility of a Jesuit education today requires greater intentionality to ensure that what once happened organically continues to happen faithfully. “We have 1,400 young men entrusted to us, from over 100 different middle schools from across all of Northeast Ohio—we are not just a neighborhood school. At 140 years old, Saint Ignatius is a nationally recognized college-preparatory school with rigorous academics and competitive admissions. At the same time, the school remains committed—just as it always has been—to forming young men whose lives will be transformed by that education. My job is to safeguard that continuity,” Hudson shares. 

In earlier decades, much of this work lived in relationships that unfolded naturally within a smaller, more homogeneous environment. Today’s students arrive from a wider range of life experiences, educational backgrounds, and family circumstances. Without careful coordination, reflection, and leadership, even the strongest traditions can become fragmented.

Hudson knows what it’s like to work daily with families for whom education is a leap of faith—parents entrusting their children to an institution that promises not simply academic success, but also formation and opportunity. He previously served as Principal and Executive Director of Academics at Cristo Rey Jesuit in Houston, Texas. 

Jesuit education has always been about more than academics, he notes. Whether accompanying students through service experiences, mentoring first-generation college applicants, fostering leadership among younger students, or cultivating spaces where young men listen, reflect and act with integrity, he knows his work continues the tradition of forming Men for Others. 

The dedicated educator believes that although some of the faces of our students may look different than they did sixty years ago, their hopes are strikingly familiar: to learn, to belong, to build a meaningful life, and to honor the sacrifices of those who came before them. “Our responsibility—as it has always been—is to meet those hopes with faith, rigor and love,” he says thoughtfully.

Hudson has embraced his role at Saint Ignatius, often attending athletic events, plays, and concerts, participating in service opportunities, or sitting down for a slice of pizza with students in Rade Dining Hall. 

He and his wife Danielle recently relocated back to the Cleveland area with their two young children.

This story originally appeared in the Winter 2026 issue of the Saint Ignatius magazine. Click here to read the full issue.