Magis Medal

Amir Hussain, PhD (Loyola Marymount University ’19)

Amir Hussain has been a faculty member at Loyola Marymount University (LMU) since 2005 and has been selected twice by LMU students as Professor of the Year. He has been the advisor to the Office of Muslim Student Life (MSL), and during his tenure as advisor, MSL received the registered student organization of the year award. Professor Hussain is the recipient of the Popiden Service Award from the Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts (BCLA), the Daum Professor from BCLA, and the Rains Service Award from LMU. Professor Hussain has also received the Ignatius Medal from LMU Campus Ministry for service and has been an Alpha Sigma Nu member since 2019 and chapter advisor for 5 years.

Dr. Hussain is a leader in the field of Islam in North America. He served as President of the American Academy of Religion, the world’s largest scholarly organization for the study of religion. He has edited the primary journal for the study of religion, the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, for 5 years from LMU, making LMU the first and only Catholic university to edit the journal.

Professor Hussain is the editor of the major new reference work for Oxford University Press (OUP), the Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam in North America, has edited three major textbooks on world religion and has a new book coming out this fall. 

Jennifer Neczypor (Loyola Marymount University ’08)

Jennifer has demonstrated a commitment to women’s health at both the local and global scale by providing compassionate, evidence-based, high-quality primary, obstetrics, and gynecologic care to diverse populations of women at all stages of life. She currently works as a certified nurse-midwife at El Rio Health Center, a Federally Qualified Heath Center. Bilingual in English and Spanish, Jennifer uses her language skills to reach a broad population of women from all socioeconomic levels. She is now in her second year of pursuing her DrPH from Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.

After college, Jennifer joined the Peace Corps and served as an educator on the remote island chain of Vanuatu from 2009 to 2011. Not only did she teach in primary schools, but she also began a weekly health education class and led empowerment workshops for young girls on the island. She served as a Global Nursing Fellow in Lira, Uganda and supported over 30 student-midwives, assisting the students in emergency situations and home visits. As a Frist Global Health Leader in Nepal, Jennifer precepted both births and classes and helped with curriculum development at Kathmandu University’s first bachelor-level midwifery program. She volunteered with Medglobal to provide midwifery and family medicine care in IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camps in Syria as part of their earthquake relief mission. Most recently, Jennifer finished over two years with Seed Global Health in Sierra Leone where she served as a midwife and educator. She was instrumental in a program that drastically reduced the country’s high maternal mortality rate. She taught over 230 student midwives and over 200 nurses, midwives, doctors, and community health officers with a focus on emergency obstetric and newborn care.

Dr. Amy Tondreau (Boston College ’04)   

Amy Tondreau is a former elementary school educator and current teacher who demonstrates a passion for preparing public school teachers to take on social justice issues in their practice. She also is committed to ensuring that novice educators who come from traditionally marginalized backgrounds have access to the resources that they need to successfully navigate the profession Amy has co-authored multiple book chapters and articles on culturally sustaining elementary school literacy teaching.

Since graduating from her doctoral program, Amy has worked as an Assistant Professor at public universities in Tennessee and now Maryland. In both positions, she has been dedicated to supporting first generation college students. Notable in this work has been her academic advising. Prior to her current position as an assistant professor of elementary education at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, Amy worked at Austin Peay State University where she worked with a group of undergraduate future Black women educators to form a club which the members named the Social Philosophy of Teaching and Service. This group served as a place for members to recruit more Black teachers into the teacher education program at Austin Peay.

Patricia Vaccaro (University of Scranton ’00)       

Patricia has served in the role of the Director of the Center for Service and Social Justice at the University of Scranton since 1987.  She has a deep commitment to creating service opportunities for students, staff, and faculty. She works with 120 non-profit organizations in the Scranton Community matching student interests and gifts to the needs of the agency partners.  In her years at Scranton, Pat has created a number of service opportunities including the FIRST (First-years Involved in Reflective Service Together), a summer program with at-risk youth, an end-of-year collection drive, tutoring programs, a food pantry and the creation of food insecurity programs. Prior to coming to the University, Pat was a teacher in Scranton’s Diocesan schools. She also was the Volunteer Director and Senior Center Manager for Meals on Wheels of Lackawanna County. Pat was a founding member of the Habitat for Humanity of Lackawanna County Chapter and was on various boards including Voluntary Action Center of NEPA and Catholic Social Services.

Sue Cesare (Loyola University Maryland ’08)

Sue Cesare was inducted into the Loyola University Maryland chapter of Alpha Sigma Nu in 2008 upon the successful completion of her Master of Arts degree in Pastoral Counseling. While raising her family and helping to manage her family’s business, Sue became deeply involved in her parish and the outreach to Baltimore’s homeless.  In 1986, she was inspired to begin the Loaves and Fishes ministry to offer food and fellowship on the streets of Baltimore on weekend evenings.  Loaves and Fishes not only offers practical support for the homeless population but has also afforded countless members of local churches and schools, including Loyola University Maryland, the opportunity to engage in direct service with the materially poor. The program continues to thrive to this day.

Sue has been deeply involved in the practice of spiritual direction and through Loyola Maryland‘s Office of Mission Integration, the sharing of the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius Loyola in their Annotation 19 format.  Sue has volunteered hundreds of hours of her time and talent to direct (along with Fr. Tim Brown, S.J. and Steve Spahn, S.J.) Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises in Everyday Life program (SEEL).  The SEEL program has allowed over 200 members of the greater Baltimore community, including alumni, friends, and colleagues at our Jesuit schools and parishes pray the Spiritual Exercises in their Annotation 19 format. Sue is a founding co-director of the Loyola Ignatian Formation Experience (LIFE) which trains spiritual directors to accompany others in the Spiritual Exercises.

Sue is the proud mother of Audrey Kennedy and John Comly, and a grandmother of six.

Melodie Wyttenbach, Ph.D. ( Saint Louis University ’99)

Dr. Melodie Wyttenbach is the Executive Director of the Roche Center for Catholic Education at Boston College and a faculty member in the Lynch School of Education and Human Development. Recognized as a national leader in training superintendents, principals, and teachers for effective and principled leadership of Catholic elementary schools, Dr. Wyttenbach has had leadership positions at Boston College and the University of Notre Dame. Prior to Boston College, Dr. Wyttenbach first served as a president of a Nativity School in her home city of Milwaukee, after which she was appointed the Academic Director of the Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program at the University of Notre Dame from 2015 until 2019. The Mary Ann Remick Program is a component of the Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) at Notre Dame. An inclusive leader, Dr. Wyttenbach continues to collaborate with the University of Notre Dame by organizing a council of superintendents of Catholic schools that provides guidance and reflection about leadership for superintendents from 24 dioceses across the United States.

As head of the Roche Center for Catholic Education at Boston College since 2019, she has introduced several new programs that support teachers and principals in Catholic schools across the United States. Among them include: a year-long program for teachers called DEI, which emphasizes Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity in Catholic Schools; a masters cohort program in the Lynch School that extends over two years and two summers, and allows teachers to get a master’s degree in education from Boston College even as they continue teaching during the year in their respective Catholic elementary or high schools; a summer immersion program for teachers to gain first-hand experience of the challenges faced by young Hispanic children who cross the southern U.S. border either accompanied or unaccompanied by parents, and a Summer Teacher Institute that includes training for recently hired teachers at East Coast Catholic elementary schools that provides them with basic teaching skills and then accompanies the teachers through the school year with one-on-one mentoring.

Another program Dr. Wyttenbachhas supported and expanded is a national network of two-way immersion learning at Catholic schools. This network facilitates the sharing of research and ideas in two-way language immersion programs nationwide that help students involved in bilingual, bicultural, and bi-literate educational ventures. She also co-directed a national study and report (“Cultivating Talent”) on the powerful influence of Catholic Hispanic teachers on attracting more Hispanic students to Catholic schools.

A mother of three young children, Dr. Wyttenbach and her husband also actively participate in a Sunday religious education series called “Breakfast with God” that reaches about 100 children weekly

Amy Betros (Canisius ’20)

In 1992, Amy Betros was a successful entrepreneur and owner of her own restaurant, Amy’s Place. Her life changed forever that year after meeting Norm Paolini in Portugal, who was working as a research scientist at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. Upon returning to Buffalo, the two decided to do something to help the less fortunate community in the Buffalo area. They started their charitable service, Madonna on the Streets Inc., working out of the back of Betros’ restaurant. On Aug. 1, 1994 they purchased the property and St. Luke’s Mission of Mercy was born.

St. Luke’s Mission has grown to encompass over 250 regular families, with 16 full time missionaries, 85 associate missionaries and hundreds of volunteers. They also have grown with 23 homes for women and children and have a school program that educates 22 children.
Her message continues to come loud and clear. “If someone is hungry, it is likely someone will say to them, ‘go to St. Luke’s,’” said St. Luke’s school program offers children in unfortunate circumstances an opportunity. Betros said the goal is to give them the individual attention they need so that they have a chance to move on and be accepted into high schools in the area.
Betros said St. Luke’s is spiritually conjoined with the Buffalo Diocese, however financially St. Luke’s survives on the grace of individual and corporate sponsors and receives no money from the government or diocese.

David Huff (Rockhurst University ’69)

In November 1970, David Huff was installed by the Most Reverend Charles Helmsing, Bishop of Kansas City-St Joseph, in the first class of Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion for the diocese and assigned as the first lay minister for his parish of St Francis Xavier in St Joseph, Missouri. After being inducted into ASN in 1969, David Huff went on to do graduate studies in Pastoral Ministry from Loyola University of New Orleans and graduated as a physician assistant in 1975 from the United States Medical Center in Springfield, Missouri, serving his internship at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tallahassee, Florida.

In May 1979, David served as the first medical administrator with the U.S. Department of Justice Federal Prison Service in Big Spring, Texas, helping to design their medical program.

In September 1995 he was accepted as a volunteer Catholic chaplain by the Missouri Department of Corrections at their recently opened Park Building Treatment Center in St Joseph, serving in that capacity until 2000. In recognition of his work in prison ministry, David received the Catholic Citizen of the Year Award in September 2000, for the Diocese of Kansas City-St Joseph.

In June 2000 David entered his novice year as an Oblate of St Benedict and took his final oblation in Summer 2001 for the monastic community of Conception Abbey in Conception, Missouri. He currently does a monthly blog for the oblate community and their newsletter on living the spiritual life as focused on the Rule of St Benedict.

Upon retirement in August 2007, he and his moved to the Lake Chapala region in the State of Jalisco in Mexico. David has served his community as a volunteer in such diverse areas as the Lake Chapala Society where his medical training allowed him to assist in the blood pressure program offered to members of the local Mexican community and later to help formulate the LCS Docent program and serve as its first management director. From 2008-2013, David was part of a parish team of lay ministers who visited and took Holy Communion to the homes of the ill, elderly and disabled people of San Andres.

In May 2017 he was featured on a YouTube video on “Living at Lake Chapala” for a newly developed website called Expats in Mexico. The video was well received in assisting the recent expat arrivals and those contemplating transition to Mexico to reside. David has subsequently done blogs on the website entitled “The Good Life at Lake Chapala.”

Over the past five decades, David served at parishes in five dioceses across the United States and currently the Archdiocese of Guadalajara at Parroquia San Andres in Ajijic.

Michael J. Schuck (Saint Louis University ’73)

Dr. Michael Schuck is a longtime Professor of Christian Ethics in the Theology Department at Loyola University Chicago, where he has introduced countless graduate and undergraduate students to the world of theological ethics in general and environmental ethics in particular. He holds a dual appointment in Loyola’s new School of Environmental Sustainability. In addition to his many years in the classroom, Mike is also a past Director of the Hank Center for Catholic Intellectual Heritage at Loyola University. In addition to all this work, Mike has been an integral teacher and mentor in the Jesuit First Studies Program at Loyola for several decades. Through this work, Mike teaches and prepares Jesuits for the rigorous studies that mark their formation. Mike is also the co-director of the International Jesuit Ecology Project that has produced Healing Earth, a free online textbook in Environmental Science, ethics, spirituality, and action. Out of this work, Mike was called upon by the International Association of Jesuit Universities (IAJU) and the Vatican’s Dicastery on Integral Human Development to lead international efforts to help Jesuit and other Catholic universities across the world respond to Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato Si’. As a result of his work, well over a hundred Catholic colleges and universities across the globe have committed to joining the Laudato Si’ journey. Mike also teaches in and helps run the Magis Exchange Program, which is a relatively new international exchange program of the IAJU. Mike teaches students in this program who study environmental issues in their home country and in their host country during the exchange. In true Alpha Sigma Nu form, Mike is an internationally recognized, loyal scholar of service who is easily among the top lay leaders spreading the Pope’s urgent message to care for our common home. He not only does this in his own teaching, research, and lifestyle, but he also paves the way for countless others to do the same as an integral part of their development in Jesuit higher education.

2021 Winners

  Dr. Teresa Andreone (John Carroll University ’73)         Dr. Victoria Graf (Loyola Marymount ’94)

 Dr. Aaron Van Dyke (Seattle University ’03)

2020 Winners       

William Brandt (Saint Louis University ’71)                      Lennis Echterling (Rockhurst ’68)                                  

Haley Bulen (Loyola Marymount ’20)                              Gabriel María Pérez Alcalá (Loyola Andalucia ’16)

2019 Winners      

Dr. Phil Lane (Fairfield ’90)                         Janet Lee (Regis University ’09)

2018 Winners

Dr. Douglas McCabe ( Marquette ’70)                 Dr. Nhi Pham ( Seattle University ’94)

Lena Adely (Le Moyne College ’06)

Ingrid Alvarado (Spring Hill College ’05)

Celestino Arias, OFM Cap. (Boston College ’89)

Connie Hardy Atkins (John Carroll University ’94)

Frederick G. Attea (Canisius College ’60)

Katy Baldwin (Xavier University ’08)

Ryan Bart (Gonzaga University ’11)

Becky Bavinger (Georgetown University ’06)

Barbara Bedford, Ph.D. (Marquette University ’67)

Keisha L. Benjamin (Loyola University Maryland ’11)

Bryan Bertucci, M.D. (Spring Hill College ’72)

Jordan Fox Besek (Fordham University ’10)

Bob Betterton (Le Moyne College ’52)

John Biguenet (Loyola University New Orleans ’70)

Jerome Bongiorno (Saint Peter’s University ’83) and Marylou Tibaldo- Bongiorno (Saint Peter’s University ’83)

Jeanne Bovard (University of Scranton ’10)

Gregory Boyle, S.J. (Loyola Marymount University ’90)

Megan Brenner-Zwara (Canisius College ’09)

Melissa Chalmers Broome (Loyola University Maryland ’99)

Mari-Kim Bunnell, M.D. (Fairfield University ’83)

Raymond Carey (College of the Holy Cross ’48)

Sara Chieffo (Georgetown University ’01)

Edward Chow, M.D. (University of San Francisco ’58)

Timothy Cogan (Wheeling Jesuit University ’68)

Elaine Clyburn (Le Moyne College ’56)

Joe Cotton (Seattle University ’13)

Cornelia E. Davis, M.D. (Gonzaga ’67)

Janeece Docal (Xavier University ’98)

Brendan Donckers (Santa Clara University ’02)

Maria Dzida (Loyola Marymount University ’74)

Stephen Eberle (Loyola University Maryland ’06)

Rosemary Flanigan, C.S.J.. (Rockhurst University ’82)

John Foley, S.J. (Loyola University Chicago ’08)

William P. Ford III (Fordham University ’04)

Julie Frye (Gonzaga ’03)

Diana Fuentes-Michel (Loyola Marymount University ’79)

Janine Geske (Marquette University ’75)

Joseph W. Giere, M.D. (Boston College ’58)

Colin Gilbert (Loyola Marymount University ’06)

Simron Gill (University of San Francisco ’12)

Christopher Giorlando (Saint Peter’s University ’10)

Elizabeth Grabowski (University of Detroit Mercy ’11)

Michael Green (Marquette University ’85)

Robert M. Greene (Canisius College ’65)

Dr. Cheryl Tawede Grills (Loyola Marymount University ’08)

Terence M. Gurley (Wheeling Jesuit University ’69)

M. Margaret Hadcock, M.D., FACS (Loyola University Chicago’78)

Elisabeth Hagen, M.D. (Saint Joseph’s University ’89)

Jacob Hayden (Saint Peter’s University ’09)

John Hornbeck (Rockhurst University ’69)

Catherine Jones (Saint Joseph’s University ’14)

Jose Miguel Juarez (College of the Holy Cross ’08)

Karen Kallenberg (Regis University ’08)

Beth Katz (Creighton University ’00)

Christopher Kerr (John Carroll University ’04)

James Kimmey, M.D. (Saint Louis University ’93)

Curtis Kleisinger (Campion College ’15)

John Kurowski (Loyola University Chicago ’75)

Elizabeth Lambert (Fairfield University ’10)

Jenny Girard Malley (Santa Clara University ’90)

Martina Martin (University of Scranton ’80)

Mary McFarland, Ph.D. (Gonzaga University ’71)

George McGraw (Loyola University Chicago ’08)

David E. Miller (Loyola University Chicago ’75)

Elissa Forstmann Moran (Loyola University New Orleans ’93)

Peter Neeley, S.J. (University of San Francisco ’85)

Thomas Nolan (Saint Louis University ’01)

Kate Novotny (Marquette University ’10)

Deborah O’Halloran (Marquette University ’80)

Mary Pimmel-Freeman (Rockhurst University ’06)

Mark Potter (Fairfield University ’95)

David Pritchard (Loyola University New Orleans’74)

Katherine Prizeman (University of Scranton ’07)

Tonya Rawe (Xavier University ’99)

Jeff Reppucci (College of the Holy Cross ’13)

Richard Riesbeck (Wheeling Jesuit University ’03) and Michael Steltenkamp, S.J. (Wheeling Jesuit University ’95)

Rebecca Reuter (Santa Clara University ’03)

Jennifer Chavez Rubio (Regis University ’01)

Louise Ryan (Seattle University ’82)

Sr. Johnice Rzadkiewicz, C.S.S.F. (Canisius College ’13)

Grace Salceanu (Fordham University ’06)

Jennifer Scalici (Spring Hill College ’99)

Annie Schaeffing (John Carroll University ’09)

Sister Mary Scullion, R.S.M. (Saint Joseph’s University ’11)

Patricia Selby (U. of Detroit Mercy ’06)

Shaun Skelton (Marquette University ’82)

Jesse Sullivan (Saint Louis University ’05)

Katherine N. Sullivan (University of Scranton ’10)

Richard Swan (Regis University ’79)

Kellie Terry-Sepulveda (College of the Holy Cross ’99)

Charles Thomas Jr., Ed.D. (Creighton University ’13)

David Tucker (Boston College ’96)

Mary Jo Veverka (Creighton University ’69)

Michael Vincent (Santa Clara University ’05)

Lindsey Weston (Saint Louis University ’13)

Kimberly Whalen (Seattle University ’12)

Robert C. Wright (College of the Holy Cross ’65)

Rebecca Yang (Georgetown University ’12)

Jennifer Zocco (Fairfield University ’10)