Magis Medal Winners

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 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.

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 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 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.

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.

Lieutenant Commander (LCDR) Colleen Scott began her journey combating public health inequities before even learning what “public health” meant. Leveraging her Jesuit education and focus on service and social justice, she joined the AmeriCorps Learn & Serve program as a volunteer for sexual assault advocacy and community outreach at Gonzaga University. Colleen worked alongside a team of AmeriCorps volunteers using theatre performance as an educational outreach tool to ensure 18- to 22-year-old people across Spokane, Washington received knowledge and support services for sexual assault. Honoring her passion for service, she later spent 2.5 years as a health education and development Peace Corps volunteer in rural Zambia helping build village-level capacity to identify and prioritize health needs with local health clinics. During her time in Zambia, Colleen discovered the public health field dedicated to the science of protecting and improving the health of people and their communities. Driven to learn and develop the skills necessary to pursue a career in public health, she went back to school to earn both a Master’s and Doctorate of Public Health degrees.

Dedicated to improving the health of communities while also protecting the most vulnerable among us, Dr. Scott holds a Certificate in Complex Humanitarian Emergencies and completed her Master’s practicum working with health educators to improve HIV prevention and testing services in Kakuma and Dadaab Refugee Camps in Kenya. To continue serving communities across the globe and at home, Colleen applied and was selected to commission as a United States Public Health Service (USPHS) Officer: one of the eight Uniformed Services protecting our Nation and the only branch committed to the service of health. As a USPHS Officer, Colleen strives to protect, promote, and advance the health and safety of the nation. She has deployed 16 times, responding to public health emergencies including two deployments responding for the 2022 monkeypox outbreak, eight times for the COVID-19 pandemic, three times for hurricanes Irma, Harvey, and Maria, and twice for Ebola.

When not responding to public health emergencies,  LCDR Scott works daily to halt the global HIV/AIDS pandemic at The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as the Scientific Integrity Protocol Unit Lead for the Division of Global HIV and tuberculosis, her duty station for the last nine years. LCDR Scott supports HIV research and program activities in 44 countries ensuring scientific integrity, excellence, and ethics/human subjects protections in support of both CDC and The United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) missions combating the global HIV and tuberculosis pandemics.

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.

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.

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.

Since 2000, Teresa Andreone, MD, Ph.D., has been an attending physician at Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital in St Louis, Missouri. She holds the rank of professor in the Pediatrics Department of St Louis University School of Medicine and has worked tirelessly in the pediatric intensive care unit. While in residency in Cincinnati, she joined the medical staff at Camp Korelitz, a camp for children with Type 1 diabetes then served as Medical Director for 26 years returning to Cincinnati for planning and camp preparation. Only COVID could stop her from running that camp. Dr. Andreone fully embodies the mission of Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital, revealing the healing presence of God. Her faith sustains and powers her while taking care of the sickest children as well as their parents.   In addition to her medical services, she has published papers in biochemistry and clinical medicine and served as teacher and mentor to physicians in training in St Louis. Terry fully and completely exemplifies the tenets of Alpha Sigma Nu.

Victoria Graf, Ph.D. is the Academic Program Director for the Special Education Program at Loyola Marymount University. She has spent her career as a fierce advocate for individuals with disabilities, a champion for educating teachers to serve students with disabilities, a spokesperson for state and national organizations, and is currently a convener of disability rights focused educators across the globe.  She created one of the first Catholic Inclusion Educator Preparation Programs in the U.S. and a online program for Catholic educators to teach and support Catholic school students with disabilities and their families. She has engaged an army of staunch disability supporters who call attention to the needs of this marginalized population and collaborates with disability rights advocates in Ireland, Northern Ireland, and South Africa.  Dr. Graf’s work impacts many sectors: schools, districts, dioceses, and community and state agencies. The impact of her work reflects her focused commitment “to the well-being of others,” particularly those often neglected in schools and systems.  Her enthusiasm inspires her students and colleagues to go out into the field and fight for the rights of people living on the margins—for the greater glory of God.

Aaron Van Dyke, PhD, is the chair, faculty-in-residence, and spiritual mentor in Fairfield University’s Ignatian Residential College.  Dr. Van Dyke’s gift is connecting the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola with college students’ journeys to self-awareness.  He shared his identity as a gay man and how the Exercises led him to see himself and others in the likeness of God. His impact on his students is profound.  Prof. Van Dyke not only advances his students’ research, but does so in a way that connects them to Ignatian spirituality, introducing the writings of St. Ignatius and the Jesuit Rev. Anthony de Mello, with lessons relevant to their research trajectory.  Similarly, Prof. Van Dyke uses the Examen to teach chemistry. Guiding the class through the Examen, students are encouraged to study organic chemistry in the context of our lives and apply learning to better the world. Prof. Van Dyke also serves as a mentor in the Ignatian Colleagues Program and is becoming an Ignatian Spiritual Director with Fairfield University’s Murphy Center.

William Brandt has been a fixture on the national stage in the fields of business, civic and political endeavors for over 45 years. He is the founder and Executive Chairman of Development Specialists, Inc., widely recognized as one of the foremost firms in the corporate restructuring industry. In 2015, he finished his third consecutive term serving as Chair of the Illinois Finance Authority (IFA), having first been appointed by the Governor in 2008. The IFA is one of the nation’s largest state-sponsored entities engaged in issuing taxable and tax-exempt bonds and making loans for business, nonprofit organizations, and local governments.

Mr. Brandt, a graduate of Saint Louis University and the University of Chicago, has a longstanding commitment to higher education, seen in his service as chair of the National Advisory Council for the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California at Berkeley and as a member of the Board of Trustees of Loyola University Chicago from 2007 to 2016. It is the confluence of Mr. Brandt’s work at the IFA and as a Loyola Trustee which makes him a worthy nominee for the Magis Medal. In 2013, a presentation by the dean of Loyola’s Stritch School of Medicine focused on the fact that a number of Dreamers had recently applied to the medical school. Because Dreamers are not U.S. citizens, the usual avenues of obtaining tuition loans were closed to them. After extensive consultations with the governor and senior senator of Illinois, Mr. Brandt created a program at the IFA which would offer Dreamers full tuition to medical school through an innovative loan structure and advocated that Dreamers be granted licenses to practice medicine in Illinois. The students could garner a loan for the full cost of tuition to medical school, and have the entire interest on the loan forgiven thereafter on one condition: following graduation and residency, they would come back to Illinois and practice for three years in a medically-underserved area of the state. The program was confirmed at an IFA meeting in July 2013. All medical and dental schools in Illinois were authorized to accept Dreamer students under this program and were assured of funding, with Loyola being the first to adopt the program. Thanks to Mr. Brandt’s efforts, seven years later, the first group of Dreamers has already graduated and gone on to serve needy patients.

Lennis Echterling (Ph.D., Purdue University, ‘76) is a Professor of Counseling at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Inspired by his Jesuit college education, he has pursued a career of service, particularly during crises and disasters. He has served as an intervener, consultant, and trainer following many traumatic events, including tornadoes, floods, hurricanes, the tsunami in India, the 9/11 attacks at the Pentagon, the shootings at Virginia Tech, and landmine explosions in the Middle East. One of his projects involved developing programs that promoted landmine safety for over 15,000 children. He also developed Pathways to Resilience, a program for survivors of war-related violence. For seven years, he was a volunteer therapist for the children of Virginia National Guard members serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. In addition, Dr. Echterling created public education documents on promoting psychological resilience. These were sent to thousands of school counselors, teachers, therapists, mental health counselors, leaders of faith groups, parents, and other concerned individuals.

In 1986, Dr. Echterling founded the Critical Incident Stress Management Team in the Shenandoah Valley. In this volunteer role, he has provided crisis services to hundreds of first responders following traumatic incidents. He regularly trains law enforcement officers in suicide prevention. In Texas, he has supported social workers, counselors, clergy, volunteers, and psychologists who worked in programs overwhelmed with immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers.

Dr. Echterling’s scholarship projects, which often emerged from his service work, include such books as “Crisis Intervention: Building Resilience in Troubled Times,” “Thriving: A Manual for Students in the Helping Professions,” and “Beyond Brief Counseling.” These texts are used in graduate counseling and therapy programs around the country. He also has written 16 book chapters and 48 professional journal articles on such topics as PTSD, neuroscience, play therapy, and supervision.

Dr. Echterling’s approach to teaching has been to reduce the barriers between the classroom and the community, between theory and practice. Over the decades, he has involved his counseling students in providing thousands of hours of service by applying psychology to real-world problems. He also has trained thousands of counselors, psychologists, social workers, therapists, teachers, nurses, clergy, and volunteers in numerous workshops throughout the world. Dr. Echterling sees potential in his students that they often cannot see in themselves, inspiring them to reach beyond their professional goals and to move into positions of service and leadership.

A parishioner of the Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church of Harrisonburg for over four decades, Dr. Echterling has pursued the mission of Alpha Sigma Nu that encourages the “lifetime pursuit of intellectual development, deepening Ignatian spirituality, service to others, and a commitment to the core principles of Jesuit education.”

Haley Bulen is a rising senior at Loyola Marymount University majoring in Film and Television Production and minoring in Screenwriting and Theatre Arts. Nominated for the Magis Medal by her professor/mentor, Haley has shown compassion and diligence and answers the call for social and racial justice. She engages with social media activism, sharing educational materials and spreading awareness. Haley puts her words into action by participating in donation drives, community clean ups, and other service programs. She has a passion for using storytelling as a tool for education, empowerment, and striving for justice.

As a filmmaker and screenwriter, she creates content that challenges the norm and celebrates diverse voices, including those of women, LGBTQ+, and the neurologically diverse. She shares her skills and gifts by producing films telling the stories of her fellow students and their search for social justice. Alongside several mentors and collaborators, she has written a children’s television pilot titled “Camp Hero,” which follows a transgender protagonist. She is also directing her senior thesis film this fall, “Fasting with Family,” a story about a Jewish family learning to forgive one another during Yom Kippur. Her goal is to create, amplify, and support art that celebrates human connection and makes the world a more just, equitable, and empathetic place.

Gabriel Maria Perez Alcala, Ph.D., is the President of Universidad Loyola Andalucia in Andalucia, Spain, but it is not simply for his excellence in this administrative role that he is awarded the Magis Medal. Dr. Alcala Perez lives as a lay collaborator in the mission of the Society of Jesus. Since 2011, when he was the founding president of Universidad Loyola Andalucia, he has thought of the university as a proyecto social, that is, a university in solidarity with the marginalized, committed to finding solutions to the deepest issues of the southern Spain region. He has inspired a university focused on issues aligned with the Universal Apostolic Preferences, ensuring that main research lines of the university address economic and environmental justice.

Dr. Alcala Perez is a model of Ignatian leadership. He employs Ignatian discernment in his decision making and teaches the university community that living cura personalis makes the community stronger. He shares his spiritual richness when accompanying young people in their vocational journey.

Under his inspiration and leadership Universidad Loyola founded the first ASN chapter in Europe, recognizing that an ASN chapter will promote the Jesuit mission and values of the university, and its members would inspire other students to live the ASN values. He leads the continuing collaboration with ASN for the promotion of the honor society in Europe and worldwide, and uses his platform at Loyola to encourage engagement in the global Catholic and Jesuit networks.

In his Magis Medal nomination, Dr. Alcala Perez’s leadership of Universidad Loyola was called “the salt and the light” (Matthew 5:13-16) bringing hope to the young people of the region while showing by his actions that Loyola’s programs and initiatives are always to give greater glory to God.

Dr. Perez holds a Ph.D in economics from the University of Córdoba, and in addition to his duties as president, teaches economics.

Dr. Lane is associate professor of economics at Fairfield University, but to his students he is much more. As a professor and Ignatian Spirituality Mentor, Dr. Lane embodies scholarship, loyalty, and service in his life and teaching. His encouragement, selflessness, and commitment to helping his students grow are examples of the Jesuit values of magis and cura personalis. According to his student nominee, “I truly believe I would not be the person I am today without his guidance and positivity throughout these three years of knowing him as a mentor and professor. Dr. Phil Lane lives out his ASN pledge every day and inspires me to carry the flame as I prepare to graduate in the spring of 2019. There is not a single other professor at Fairfield University that has had this type of an impact on me.”

He has received numerous honors and awards, including Teacher of the Year from Alpha Sigma Nu, Advisor of the Year from FUSA, and the Father McGrath Faculty Award from the National School of Banking.

Dr. Lane received his BA from Providence College, his MA from Northeastern University, and his PhD from Tufts University. He was inducted into Alpha Sigma Nu at Fairfield University in 1990.

Janet Lee has lived a life of service since her Peace Corps tour in Ethiopia after her graduation from Regis College i­­­­­n 1974. Since returning to Regis University as a librarian in 1982 and serving as the Dean of Library since 2012, she has melded her professional passion for libraries and literacy in serving underserved populations locally and internationally, most specifically returning to her adopted home of Ethiopia on several occasions to assist in library development and literacy training with an emphasis on first language publishing.

While on sabbatical in 2010 in Mekelle, Ethiopia, she helped establish the Segenat Children and Youth Library, a fully functioning children’s library with an online catalog, reference services, and audio-visual resources. This brought her to the attention of the Ethiopian Community Development Council, which had an even more expansive library project in the historical town of Axum, known for its stelae, rock-hewn churches, and the Ark of the Covenant. After being awarded a coveted Fulbright Scholar award, she spent ten months in Axum (2017-18), dividing her time between the University of Aksum and the Axumite Heritage Foundation Library, where she assisted with cataloging the extensive collection and setting up a Chromebook Lab that provided access to open access text books, content-rich databases, and the Ethiopian Ministry of Education-approved curriculum.

An advocate for publishing children’s books in first languages, or mother tongues, she has assisted in delivering workshops in cloth book publishing (where the medium is pieces of cloth rather than paper) and in collaboration with the African Storybook project, an open access publishing platform where books may be translated into multiple African languages, downloaded, or printed for distribution. From these workshops, seven books in Ethiopian languages were selected and published on the platform, providing children with attractive books in their own languages.

Locally, under her direction, the Regis University Library has sponsored Arrupe Jesuit High School students as part of Arrupe’s Corporate Work-Study program. Janet worked with the local ASN chapter in setting up an online catalog for the library of the dual-language Escuela de Guadalupe, a K-5 elementary school. She is currently the co-editor of Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal, an open access peer-reviewed journal with a focus on development, advancement, and critique of higher education in the Jesuit tradition. She has published and presented extensively on library and literacy issues related to first language publishing and library development as it relates to Ethiopia, Africa, the developing world, and Arrupe Jesuit High School.

She received her BA from Regis College in 1974, her MBA from Regis University in 1990 and was inducted into the Regis University Chapter of ASN in December 2009.