Distinguished Alumnae-Athletic Hall of Fame

ALUMNAE NEWS

DISTINGUISHED ALUMNAE AWARD RECIPIENTS RECOGNIZED AND ATHLETIC HALL OF FAME NOMINEES INDUCTED

(L-R) Monica McNutt ’07, Kristen Coleman McDaniel ’07, MJ Nogay Sorrow ’12, Jennifer Betts Liberto ’03, Giulia Camanaro McPherson ’95, Kathleen Burgess Clark ’82, Anna Deeny Morales ’91

On Friday, May 13, Holy Cross celebrated the three recipients of the Distinguished Alumnae Award and the four inductees into the Athletic Hall of Fame for 2022.

2022 DISTINGUISHED ALUMNAE:

Kathleen Burgess Clark ’82 Anna Deeny Morales ’91 Giulia Campanaro McPherson ’95

2022 ATHLETIC HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES:

Jennifer Betts Liberto ’03 (Lacrosse) Kristen Coleman McDaniel ’07 (Lacrosse) Monica McNutt ’07 (Basketball) Mary Jordan “MJ” Nogay Sorrow ’12 (Golf)

Guests attended a reception prior to the ceremony in the Theatre. President Katy Prebble welcomed the guests and honorees. Alumnae Associate Kathleen Warner Bula ’79 spoke about the criteria for receiving the Distinguished Alumnae Award. Each award recipient was introduced by a family member. Director of Athletics Dena Saunders spoke about the history of the Athletic Hall of Fame and the criteria for being accepted as an inductee. Each award recipient was introduced by a family member, coach, teammate, or friend. Following the introductions, each award recipient thanked Holy Cross and spoke with heartfelt gratitude about the impact their alma mater had on their lives.

DISTINGUISHED ALUMNAE:

KATHLEEN BURGESS CLARK ’82

Kathleen has been a Registered Nurse for 36 years. Her passion for nursing began at The Academy of the Holy Cross when she discovered her love of science and human connections through serving others. AP Biology and her Senior Project at Holy Cross Hospital sealed the start of her nursing journey.

Kathleen graduated from The Catholic University of America School of Nursing in 1986 as a member of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society. She began her work as an RN on a bustling Medical/Surgical Unit at INOVA Fairfax Hospital and on the Float Pool at Suburban Hospital. She often juggled evening and weekend shifts while her first three children were young. Kathleen landed back on Strathmore Avenue as the School Nurse in 2009. Her five daughters attended Holy Cross from 2005 until the youngest graduated in 2019. Kathleen’s last 13 years at Holy Cross have given her the privilege of caring for students’ health needs so they can succeed in the classroom.

As part of the COVID-19 Task Force, Kathleen led the way to keep the school community safe. She spent countless hours researching medical literature, and participating in conferences and task force meetings to develop the school protocol to minimize the spread of COVID-19. She quickly formed relationships with the Montgomery County Health Department and school nurse groups. Kathleen normally has the summer off, but she worked diligently through the last two summers, weekends, evenings and holidays. She researched, interviewed, contracted, and implemented several systems to help with the transition back to hybrid and in-person learning. These included the daily online screening tool, the transition to an online student medical record system, organizing regular COVID-19 testing for the school community, and applying for the Maryland Health Department Grant for COVID-19 testing. She also coordinated two community-based COVID-19 vaccine clinics on campus. She has organized the voluminous data entry and contact tracing required by Montgomery County related to the pandemic for the past two years. She has guided hundreds of families’ questions to protocols and procedures with care and compassion.

Kathleen is blessed to be married to her best friend, Jim Clark, for 35 years. They love spending time with their seven children and spouses, and two grandchildren as well as three more on the way.

ANNA DEENY MORALES ’91

Anna’s profession as a literary critic, translator and librettist in poetry and music stretches from her time as a student at The Academy of the Holy Cross. As a student, she studied piano privately while writing music and performing on the Holy Cross stage. She graduated from Shepherd University in 1995 with a bachelor of arts in English literature and a minor in piano performance. She received her master’s from Dartmouth College in 2002 in comparative literature and her PhD in Hispanic languages and Literatures in 2009 from the University of California, Berkeley.

ALUMNAE NEWS

Anna has taught in the History and Literature Program at Harvard University as well as the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Dartmouth College. At Harvard she was named an “Inspiring Latina” by Latinas Unidas and awarded two Derek Bok Excellence in Teaching Certificates. She currently teaches at the Center for Latin American Studies, and her book, Other Solitudes: Essays on Consciousness and Poetry, is forthcoming in 2023. She is a National Endowment for the Arts Fellow for her translation of Tala by Nobel Laureate Gabriela Mistral. She has translated numerous works of poetry and music as well as edited and guest-edited published books and journals.

Anna’s original works in opera include ¡ZAVALA-ZAVALA! an opera in v cuts, commissioned by the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and composer Brian Arreola. The opera is dedicated to families separated by the U.S. government at the Mexico-U.S border and debuted at the Kennedy Center in 2022. She has also had commissioned works for contemporary dance performed in Italy and Spain. Anna has also served as a judge for the National Translation Award in Poetry and an expert reader for the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship competition. She currently sits on the board of directors of the In Series and chairs the Gabriela Mistral Youth Poetry at the Library of Congress.

Anna and her husband Greg Locraft, Jr. live in the DC area with their two children, Cecilia and Lucas.

GIULIA CAMPANARO MCPHERSON ’95

Giulia credits her time at The Academy of the Holy Cross with nurturing her interest in global studies and human rights. Through her coursework on Catholic social teaching and participation in Amnesty International and the Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership program, Holy Cross helped pave the way for a career dedicated to advancing the rights of the disadvantaged. She has 20 years of leadership experience in the humanitarian and development sectors.

Giulia has a bachelor’s degree in political science from Villanova University and a master’s in international development studies from The George Washington University. Since 2016 Giulia has served as director of advocacy and operations at Jesuit Refugee Service/USA, an international Catholic organization serving refugees and other forcibly displaced people. In this role, she leads JRS/USA’s policy and advocacy portfolio, the community engagement program to educate and mobilize advocates, and institutional operations. She also serves as chair of the board of directors for Educate2Envision International, chair of the board of directors for AMP Global Youth, and member of the Board of Directors for Magis Americas.

Giulia and her husband Joe live in Bethesda, MD with their children Joseph, Rocco, and Maria, who attend Little Flower School. Joe is also a product of Catholic schools and served for 20 years in the U.S. Coast Guard. They lived in San Juan, PR and Oakland, CA before returning home in 2013.

ATHLETIC HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES:

JENNIFER BETTS LIBERTO ’03 – Lacrosse

From an early age, Jen was passionate about athletics. If she wasn’t playing organized sports, she was playing friendly games in the neighborhood. She played varsity lacrosse, soccer, and basketball at Holy Cross. She excelled in lacrosse, receiving numerous high school honors, including WCAC Player of the Year. Her love of the game lead her to Gettysburg College where she earned a bachelor of arts degree in business management. Jen played four years of lacrosse at Gettysburg College and helped the team advance to the program’s first two NCAA Final Four games and one NCAA national championship game.

Continuing with the athletics theme in her life, Jen sought a career that incorporated her love of sport. After graduation, she worked for the City of Rockville Department of Recreation Parks and became the supervisor of the sports division. After the birth of her second child, she decided to become a stay-at-home mother.

Jen lives in Rockville, MD with her husband TJ and three children Madeline, Trip and Livia.

KRISTEN COLEMAN MCDANIEL ’07 – Lacrosse

Kristen’s career at Holy Cross included four years on the varsity soccer and lacrosse teams and, in doing so, earning multiple awards and recognitions participating in seasons, and school records including being named USA Lacrosse All-American. She continued her success at Fairfield University where she was honored to be chosen as Fairfield Female Athlete of the Year as a freshman. In 2021 Kristen was inducted into the Fairfield University Athletic Hall of Fame and represented Fairfield on the MAAC 40th Anniversary Women’s Lacrosse Team. She earned her graduate degree in sports marketing and management from Georgetown, where she played on the women’s lacrosse team, and ended her lacrosse career as one of their leading scorers and as a member of the All Big East Academic Team.

In 2012 Kristen became head lacrosse coach at The Academy of the Holy Cross, and the team was recognized with a top 10 national ranking, and she was awarded the Montgomery County Gazette Coach of the Year. She then became varsity lacrosse head coach and the assistant athletic director at Stone Ridge. Kristen is proud that numerous student athletes at Holy Cross and Stone Ridge have gone on to play lacrosse in college. During her time at Stone Ridge, the lacrosse team has been nationally ranked and defeated conference rivals Visitation and St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes. Kristen was selected as the USA Lacrosse 2021 Coach of the Year in the Mid-Atlantic Area.

Kristen and her husband Warren live in Kensington, MD with their three children, Emery, Cole and Finley.

ALUMNAE NEWS

MONICA MCNUTT ’07 – Basketball

As a student at The Academy of the Holy Cross, Monica was a champion basketball player which helped the Tartans to win a WCAC and City Championship. She earned a bachelor’s degree and completed a career as a standout women’s basketball player at Georgetown University in 2011 and a master’s degree in journalism from The University of Maryland in 2013.

Monica is a sports reporter, host, and basketball analyst based in New York City. In 2021 she added host for the ESPN programs Sportscenter, Around the Horn,

Debatable, NBA Today and WNBA Studio to her roster of network assignments. She was a WNBA game analyst at the Connecticut Sun, is a studio analyst for the New York Knicks, and co-hosts MSG PM on MSG Networks. Her work has been seen on Fox Sports 1, CBS Sports Network,Turner/NBA TV, and the NBC’s family of networks as she made her debut covering the Olympics during the summer of 2021. She is the co-host of “The Jr. NBA Coaches Corner” podcast as well as the forthcoming “SALA Series” podcast, a conversation with leaders across the industry. In February 2021 Monica was featured in The Washington Post. She has also worked on WJLA ABC7/News Channel 8 in Washington, D.C., The American Sports Network, BeIN Sports and NBC Sports Washington.

Monica is proud to be an example to the young women watching her and able to offer her perspective in daily sports commentary.

MARY JORDAN “MJ” NOGAY SORROW ’12 – Golf

MJ learned golf at the early age of three from her dad. She found a love for the game that has continued to this day. Throughout her youth, she twice competed as Maryland representative in US Kids tournaments as well as PGA and USGA tournaments. At Holy Cross, MJ played in the WCAC, where the team played match-play against mostly boys’ teams and co-ed schools. She was selected First Team All-WCAC and selected Honorable Mention All-Met by The Washington Post in 2012. She also participated in junior golf tournaments state and nationwide and won four tournaments in four different junior tours. She was selected for both the Maryland State girls’ team and the Maryland-Virginia girls’ team for interstate competitions.

MJ played Division 1 golf at Presbyterian College and continued her golf career post-graduation as a PGA Class A teaching professional. As an assistant golf professional at the Club at Brookstone and Greenville Country Club in Greenville, SC, she specialized in the development of youth programs and teaching and provided lessons to women and men of all ages.

MJ recently moved to Conway, SC with her husband Mitch. They enjoy their new home, the beach, and their dog Hogan.