Lewis & Clark Welcomes Jay Weitman to Lead Campus Safety

Jay Weitman BS ’95 has joined Lewis & Clark as the director of Campus Safety effective February 6. Weitman replaces José Curiel who left L&C to become the director of Campus Safety at Pacific Lutheran University in May 2022. Since that time, Bill Curtis, director of Emergency Management, has served our institution as the interim director of Campus Safety.

Weitman’s career in law enforcement spans three decades. He began as a campus safety officer at Lewis & Clark and is now retiring from the Lake Oswego Police Department as a sergeant who supervises the traffic team, school resource officer team, and community service officer team.

“I am thrilled to welcome Jay ‘back’ to Lewis & Clark,” Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students Evette Castillo Clark said. “I am very excited about his energy in returning to his alma mater and the new vision, spirit, and innovation that he will bring to Campus Safety, and Parking and Transportation operations. This is a critical leadership role for our campus community, and I’m confident that Jay’s years of experience in service, training, and civic relations throughout Portland will be a value-add.”

During Weitman’s police career, he worked in various roles as a patrol officer, detective, defensive tactics instructor, and procedural justice/police legitimacy/bias instructor among many other things. His focus over the past 18 years as part of Lake Oswego Police Department’s management team has included direct supervision over police officers working on patrol and traffic teams where he developed a strong leadership style that promotes team work, open communication, trust, and fairness.

Weitman has led and managed several projects and programs as part of the City of Lake Oswego’s joint equity and diversity initiatives plus many other community engagement programs. These experiences created opportunities to develop and curate important partnerships between the police and many other city departments with local community groups such as Respond to Racism Lake Oswego, LO For Love, the West Linn Alliance, and others in the Portland area.

“I’m looking forward to returning to Lewis & Clark as the campus safety director and I’m excited to explore any opportunities to enhance engagement between campus safety officers, students, faculty, and staff. I plan to provide additional training opportunities directed at strengthening relationships and trust between our officers and community members on all three campuses.”

Weitman was born and raised in Portland and attended Lake Oswego High School. In addition to his degree in psychology from Lewis & Clark, he also earned a master’s in business administration from Marylhurst University.

Weitman and his wife Garen Cornoyer Weitman BA ’95 were married in Agnes Flanagan Chapel 30 years ago. Garen is a licensed psychologist with a private practice providing therapy and crisis services mostly to public safety personnel. The couple lives in West Linn with their three-year-old labrador, Lily, who also works in Garen’s office as a comfort K9.

“I wish to thank the search committee (Rocky Campbell, Jessica Carron, Juliane Corpus, Bill Curtis, Scooter Flanagan, Fabian Guerrero, Diana Pacheco, Mark Pietrok, and committee chair Dr. Benjamin Meoz), for their commitment and efforts in this process and for engaging other members of our campus community and the staff in Campus Safety and Parking and Transportation,” Clark said. “Much gratitude and appreciation is also given to Bill Curtis who has, without question, served in the interim role with outstanding leadership, great dedication and professionalism, and the timely response and care necessary to ensure safe campus-wide operations. Please join me in thanking all of our campus partners and welcoming Jay!”