AI expert Fei-Fei Li to speak at annual event for first-year class
This summer, Boston College Assistant Fencing Coach Ralf Bissdorf was busy accomplishing something no one else ever has: leading the American women’s foil squad to a team gold medal at the Olympic Games. On August 1, the Americans defeated top-ranked Italy in a gold medal match before a packed Grand Palais, solidifying the United States as a powerhouse in the sport and giving Bissdorf, a former silver medalist in men’s foil, another victory to celebrate. Bissdorf recently spoke with Alix Hackett, senior digital content writer in the Office of University Communications, about his Olympic experience, and how it will impact his work on the Heights.
What have the last few weeks been like for you?
It’s been a mixture of joy, a deep sense of fulfillment, and a party. That describes it best. When you board the plane for Paris, you hope that everybody comes back with a medal. So to be on the plane back, and for some of them to actually have two medals—because two of them won in the
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While You Were Away Boston College news from the summer of 2024
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Fr. Leahy: BC’s Essential Qualities Key to Continuity
individual competition—is just a great joy. These are phenomenal athletes and they all deserve an Olympic medal.
You won a silver medal in men’s individual foil at the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000. How did coaching in the Olympics compare to competing as an athlete?
It’s very different. When you compete yourself, that’s your number one goal in life, so everything else is put on hold. As
BY SEAN SMITH CHRONICLE EDITOR
Speaking at yesterday’s University Convocation, Boston College President William P. Leahy, S.J., said American higher education’s financial and demographic challenges have been exacerbated by an increasingly negative image: that colleges and universities are elitist, too costly, and out of touch with traditional beliefs and commitments.
But Boston College—while not immune to the effects of such trends and is-
sues—has innate strengths and resources to continue building on its success as a toptier, Jesuit, Catholic university, he said.
“I can say with great conviction that amid a competitive and sometimes challenging environment,” Fr. Leahy told the Robsham Theater audience, “Boston College today is so fortunate and strong, and has a bright future.”
Executive Vice President Michael Lochhead and Provost and Dean of Faculties David Quigley also spoke at the convocation, a longstanding tradition of the new
Seidner Gift Will Rename BC Finance Department
BY JACK DUNN ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT FOR UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS
The Finance Department in the Carroll School of Management will be renamed the Seidner Department of Finance thanks to a major gift—the largest in the Carroll School’s history—from University Trustee Marc Seidner ’88.
The gift will provide income support for continued scholarship, research, and teaching in the Seidner Department of Finance, and will endow the Seidner University Professorship, currently held by Nobel laureate Paul M. Romer. Through the gift, Finance becomes the University’s first named academic department and one of the few endowed departments in American higher education.
Seidner, the chief investment officer for non-traditional strategies, a managing director, generalist portfolio manager, and member of the Investment Committee of Pacific Investment Management Company (PIMCO), said he made the gift in recognition of the transformative education both he and his daughter Alexis ’24
received at Boston College, and to further strengthen the Finance Department, which is ranked seventh in the most recent U.S. News survey of undergraduate programs and ninth globally in the prestigious Academic Ranking of World Universities.
“Our philanthropy is a thank-you to Boston College for taking a chance on me as a student and equipping me with the toolkit to succeed personally and profes-
‘States of Becoming’ McMullen Museum fall exhibition to open in September
Marc Seidner ’88
photo by #bizziteam via usa fencing
Ralf Bissdorf exults after the Americans’ gold medal victory in the Olympic Games.
Monday was the start of a new academic year at Boston College—and an occasion to renew some old campus friendships.
photos by caitlin cunningham
PUBLISHED BY THE BOSTON COLLEGE OFFICE OF UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS
Around Campus
A Grand Prize for BC Dining Services Nutrition Navigators Program
Boston College Dining Services is this year’s Grand Prize Winner of the National Association of College and University Food Service (NACUFS) Nutrition Awards. The winning entry, Nutrition Navigators, which helps first-year students with nutrition issues find what they need in BC’s dining halls, also received a Gold Award in the category of Wellness and Nutrition Program of the Year.
Nutrition Navigators, pioneered during the 2023-2024 academic year, operates as a one-on-one “buddy system,” matching first-year students with undergraduate mentors who faced similar challenges in making the transition from home to life on the Heights. The program’s creator, BCDS Administrative Dietitian and Nutritionist Christina Karalolos, said the idea came to her when she noticed there wasn’t a clear support system in place for students with unique dietary needs and restrictions.
“After my first six months at Boston College, I felt like something was missing in terms of support when I had conversations with students,” said Karalolos. “Nutrition Navigators is a way to provide
first-year students, transfer students, and students newly diagnosed with medical nutrition needs or food allergies with support from a current student who has similar needs to their own. It’s nerve-wracking to
University Calendar’s New Look
Members of the Boston College community looking to promote campus events of all types can now do so through the streamlined calendar software program, Localist.
To upload an event, students, faculty, and staff can visit events.bc.edu/, and select “submit an event.” Users will be prompted to provide information about the event such as the location, time, sponsors, contacts, and description. A web filters section at the bottom of the submission page also allows users to have their event linked on a corresponding office or department’s website.
Concept3D, the cloud-based solutions enterprise platform that acquired Localist in 2022, describes it as a “powerful and compliant event management and marketing automation platform [which] lets you centralize and easily manage campus events across departments.”
During the 2023-2024 academic year, the Office of University Communications reported that 2,200 members of the BC community submitted more than 3,100 events to the University calendaring system.
—University Communications
be a first-year student trying to navigate dining halls and food in general. To know someone who has once been where you are just makes the transition so much easier.”
Nutrition Navigators’ impact on the campus community has proven to be effective and received favorable responses from both mentees and mentors, according to BCDS. Qualitative feedback indicated that a peer mentor program like Nutrition Navigators is the preferred form of support for those with medical nutrition needs. As the program enters its second academic year, a growing interest among students is evident with almost 50 registered mentees compared to last year’s six.
“We let the students organically make the relationships into what they want them to be. It’s not a formal process, which I think is attractive to students. Students can be involved in this program as much as they want, or it can be a one-time thing,” said Karalolos, who was recently named Best Food Allergy Champion by MenuTrinfo.
While the program helps students explore the food options available to them, Karalolos also noted that some students simply enjoy the sense of relief that comes from knowing a friendly face on campus with whom they can share a meal in the dining halls.
NACUFS, with members in the United
States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere, was founded in 1958 as the first association solely focused on food service in colleges and universities. The association’s Grand Prize, awarded to “the overall highest impact nutrition program,” is graded in overall impact, forward thinking, achievability, and affordability.
BC Dining Services has earned more than 10 silver and gold NACUFS nutrition and sustainability awards. The Grand Prize win is its first since 2015, when Heights Catering was recognized for its annual Pops on the Heights event.
Director of Dining Services Elizabeth Emery said she is thrilled by the recognition of the Nutrition Navigators program considering how many colleges and universities participate in the NACUFS awards every year.
“We are very proud of Christina Karalolos and our student intern team for their innovative ideas and impressive implementation of this program,” Emery said. “We hope the program helps students with medical nutrition needs make a smoother transition from home to Boston College Dining.”
BC Dining Services is recruiting mentors and mentees for Nutrition Navigators. More information on the program is available at bit.ly/BCDS-health-wellness.
—Audrey Loyack
Hammond Pond Parkway Update
Construction continues this fall on Hammond Pond Parkway, a two-mile roadway south of the Chestnut Hill campus that connects to Beacon Street and serves as a link to many communities south and west of the University, reports the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation.
In late August, preparation for and installation of curbing on the western side walkway was underway as well as sitework for the eastern side pathway. Additionally, the positioning of the street lighting foundations has started, and will continue throughout the fall.
Also during the fall, curbing on the western side walkway will be completed, followed by the installation of the walkway and path there and on the eastern side.
Some landscaping and plantings will be performed along with curb fitting on Beacon Street.
The two-year, $11.3-million project began last December. Undertaken with support from the Healey administration and the City of Newton, the project aims to enhance safety and accessibility for pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles between Beacon Street and Route 9, particularly to the Hammond Pond Reservation and the Webster Conservation Area. Completion is expected in late fall 2025.
During the lengthy construction period, commuters to BC using the Hammond Pond Parkway should expect delays and periodic detours and are encouraged to use alternate routes to the main campus.
—Phil Gloudemans
ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT FOR UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS
Jack Dunn
SENIOR DIRECTOR FOR UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS
Patricia Delaney
EDITOR Sean Smith
CONTRIBUTING STAFF Phil Gloudemans Ed Hayward
Audrey Loyack
Rosanne Pellegrini Kathleen Sullivan
PHOTOGRAPHERS
Caitlin Cunningham Lee Pellegrini
The Boston College Chronicle (USPS 009491), the internal newspaper for faculty and staff, is published biweekly from September to May by Boston College, with editorial offices at the Office of University Communications, 3 Lake Street, Brighton, MA 02135 (617)552-3350.
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Dietitian/Nutritionist Christina Karalolos, creator of Nutrition Navigators.
photo by caitlin cunningham
‘Godmother of AI’ to Speak at First Yr. Convocation
BY SEAN SMITH CHRONICLE EDITOR
Renowned computer scientist Fei-Fei Li, the so-called “Godmother of AI” whose groundbreaking work on human-centered artificial intelligence has made her a leading voice in the conversation about technology’s role in society, will be the featured speaker at Boston College’s First Year Academic Convocation on September 5 in Conte Forum.
Li, who served as a vice president at Google and chief scientist at Google Cloud, will offer both professional and personal insights on the opportunities and challenges of AI—the subject of her 2023 book The Worlds I See: Curiosity, Exploration, and Discovery at the Dawn of AI—to the BC Class of 2028.
Preceding Li’s talk will be the traditional First Flight Procession, which begins with the assembly of members of the new class on Linden Lane, where faculty, staff, and administrators challenge the students to follow the charge of St. Ignatius to “Set the world aflame.” The torchlit procession that follows—and which is repeated by the class on the day of its Commencement—winds through Gasson Hall, down the Higgins Stairs, and into Conte Forum.
The Office of First Year Experience, which organizes the event, said, “As we enter new territories with artificial intelligence, our incoming students are beginning one of their first major transitions. Dr. Fei-Fei Li provides an excellent narrative linking together her journey of transformation with
her work as a researcher, scholar, and professor.
“We hope our first-year and transfer students will be inspired by her personal and professional lived experiences as they transition into Boston College.”
Li is the inaugural Sequoia Professor in the Computer Science Department at Stanford University, and co-director of Stanford’s Human-Centered AI Institute. She directed Stanford’s AI Lab from 2013 to 2018— she worked at Google and Google Cloud during her sabbatical from Stanford—and has served as a board member or advisor in various public or private companies.
She has shared her expertise in testimony before the United States Congress, as a
special advisor to the Secretary General of the United Nations, and as a member of the California Future of Work Commission for the Governor of California, and the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource Task Force for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and the National Science Foundation.
A native of Beijing who immigrated to the United States with her parents when she was 16, Li earned degrees from Princeton University and the California Institute of Technology. While at Caltech, she worked on the one-shot learning technique—which can make predictions based on minimal data and is important for computer vision and natural language processing—and became a key contributor to AI. She later conceptualized the ImageNet database, laying the foundation for generative AI.
In a 2023 interview, Li described The Worlds I See as “half memoir, half science.”
“[It] captures both the science part of AI as well as the journey of a scientist who is coming of age,” she said. “My background is, I guess, not that of a typical kid. So I do traverse different worlds physically, temporally. As a scientist who has been involved not only in the science of it but also in the social aspect of the science, I see the worlds in different dimensions, so it was very important that I made [the title] plural: The Worlds. Because I’m a computervision AI scientist, the worlds I see capture that very essence of seeing.”
Li said the framework for human-centered AI comprises three elements. “One is that it recognizes AI as part of a multidisci-
Heyer Is First Joseph Chair in Theology
BY KATHLEEN SULLIVAN STAFF WRITER
Kristin Heyer, a professor of theological ethics and former director of graduate studies in the Theology Department, has been named as Boston College’s inaugural Joseph Chair in Theology.
Heyer, who earned a doctorate in theological ethics from Boston College, focuses her scholarship and teaching on topics such as moral agency, migration, social inequality, and modern Catholic social teaching. She is author of the award-winning books Kinship Across Borders: A Christian Ethic of Immigration and Prophetic and Public: The Social Witness of U.S. Catholicism, as well as dozens of articles and book chapters. She is co-editor of six books, including Christianity and the Law of Migration and The Moral Vision of Pope Francis: Expanding the U.S. Reception of the First Jesuit Pope
“Professor Heyer is an outstanding and highly respected scholar, whose expertise in the areas of social ethics, migration ethics, Catholic social thought, and religion and politics makes a significant contribution to the University’s Jesuit, Catholic mission,” said Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences Dean Gregory Kalscheur, S.J. “She served as president of the Catholic Theological Society of America, and she is an engaging teacher, offering courses in the Core Cur-
riculum, the major, and the graduate program. Professor Heyer is a most appropriate choice to serve as the inaugural Joseph Chair in Theology.”
Established in 2012 by anonymous donors, the Joseph Chair in Theology supports a professorial chair in either the Theology Department or the Clough School of Theology and Ministry. The donors also created Joseph Chairs in Catholic Spirituality, Catholic Philosophy, and Catholic Systematic Theology.
“I am deeply honored to be appointed as the inaugural Joseph Chair in Theology,” said Heyer, who joined the Boston College faculty in 2015. “The University’s commitment to theology has been unwavering, which is all the more noteworthy amid challenges the discipline increasingly faces. I have been impressed by how much Boston College graduates continue to shape the field of theology in significant ways, like my faculty colleagues. I am grateful for this opportunity to further support our current and future students and the wider University.”
In June, Heyer completed her term as president of the Catholic Theological Society of America, the principal association of Catholic theologians in North America and the largest professional society of theologians in the world. As CTSA president, Heyer led the organization in the face of
increased precarity in Catholic higher education and the synodal movement under way in the Church. She brought to vote significant changes, oversaw success in new fundraising efforts, and promoted transparency and stewardship.
Heyer serves as a co-chair of Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church, an international network of scholars and practitioners in the field of theological ethics. Her research has had global reach through presentations in Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, India, Italy and Sweden.
plinary field; it’s not just a niche computer science field. We use AI to do scientific discovery, we want to understand AI’s economic impact, we want to use AI to super-power education and learning. It’s deeply interdisciplinary. We want to make sure we study and forecast what’s coming.
“We also recognize that the most important use of a tool as powerful as AI is to augment humanity, not to replace it,” she explained. “When we think about this technology, we need to put human dignity, human well-being—human jobs—in the center of consideration.”
Understandably, such a large language model and its power creates great excitement, said Li, “but we should recognize human intelligence is very, very complex. It’s emotional, it’s compassionate, it’s intentional, it has its own blind spots, it’s social. When we develop tomorrow’s AI, we should be inspired by this level of nuance instead of only recognizing the narrowness of intelligence.”
Since 2004, each incoming Boston College first-year class has engaged in a reflective dialogue, “Conversations in the First Year,” about a common text as a means to offer insight on responding to life’s questions, and to find direction in each student’s personal journey—a shared experience embodying the richness of the Catholic intellectual tradition at Boston College. The author of that year’s text presents the convocation’s keynote address, which serves to broaden students’ perspectives on, and appreciation for, what they have read.
Mass of the Holy Spirit Is Sept. 5
University President William P. Leahy, S.J., will celebrate the annual Mass of the Holy Spirit with homilist Vice President and University Secretary Casey Beaumier, S.J., director of the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies, on September 5 at noon on the Plaza at O’Neill Library.
Classes will be canceled on that day from noon to 1:15 p.m. In case of inclement weather, the Mass will be moved to Conte Forum.
All members of the University are invited to attend the Mass, a traditional opening of the school year at Jesuit institutions dating back to the Middle Ages. The festive liturgy serves to welcome new members into the Boston College community, renew friendships, and invoke the presence of the Holy Spirit for the year to come.
The Mass of the Holy Spirit is organized by the Office of Campus Ministry in the Division of Mission and Ministry.
—University Communications
Kristin Heyer
Fei-Fei Li
photo by drew kelly
Alumnus Popolo Joins BC Board of Trustees
BY PHIL GLOUDEMANS STAFF WRITER
Joe Popolo Jr. ’89, founder and CEO of Charles & Potomac, LLC, a Dallas-based private investment firm focused on technology, health care, media, energy, and real estate, was elected to the Boston College Board of Trustees at its meeting this summer. A former member of BC’s Board of Regents, Popolo began his four-year term in June.
After graduating from Boston College with a bachelor’s degree in finance, Popolo later earned an M.B.A. in finance and economics from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, receiving a Dean’s Award of Distinction.
Following graduation from Booth, he helped transform the Freeman Company— a leading global event agency offering a complete solution for exhibitors, corporate events and trade shows—into the world’s leading live event brand experience company. As its president for eight years and CEO for 11, Popolo and his team tripled Freeman’s size to $3 billion in revenue, expanding the agency into new services and geographic markets, while leading 7,500 employees in 25 cities on four continents.
Responsible for more than $1.5 billion in merger and acquisition activity over his career, Popolo led the team that marketed and sold Freeman’s Encore Event Technology subsidiary to Blackstone, an investment
management company, in 2019, creating the world’s largest venue-based audio-visual company. He also served on Freeman’s board of directors for 18 years and chaired its finance committee.
Popolo was recognized as an Ernst & Young Southwest Entrepreneur of the Year in 2013, and the Dallas Business Journal honored him with its Most Admired CEO Award in 2018.
Currently, Popolo is chairman of the board of Pinnacle Live, LLC, a premium in-house audio-visual company; a board
member of Ondas Holdings, Inc., a leading provider of technology platforms that digitize industrial and government operations; and he sits on the respective advisory boards of the Jordan Edmiston Group, Samesurf, and Advisory Research.
Popolo’s family is inextricably linked to BC. His maternal grandfather, Charlestown native Eddie Connelly, dreamed of playing football at the Heights and was accepted in 1929, but was forced to decline due to family struggles; however, he sent two of his seven children to BC, Helen ’67, and Edward Jr. ’72.
Joseph V. Popolo Sr., Joe’s father, earned an M.B.A. from the Carroll School of Management in 1967. Katherine (Kit) ’20, and Joseph (Buck) III ’23, the children of Joe Jr. and his wife, former BC Board of Regents member Christine Freeman Popolo, each earned bachelor’s degrees from CSOM; their youngest child, Connor, is a CSOM senior.
“Boston College is a special place to our family,” said Popolo, an Eagles football season ticket holder, who was presented with the John P. Curley 1913 Award, which honors an outstanding volunteer and supporter of BC Athletics, in 2018.
In a nod to his grandfather, Popolo established The Popolo Family Edward Connelly Football Scholarship in 2019, and reflecting his entrepreneurial bent, the Popolo Family Executive Directorship endowment was announced in May 2023.
Jere Doyle ’87, who has led the Edmund H. Shea Jr. Center for Entrepreneurship since 2015, was named the inaugural recipient.
“Entrepreneurs, in all their pursuits, drive progress,” said Popolo when the award was announced. Citing Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw, Popolo noted: “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress relies on the unreasonable man.”
Chris and Joe Popolo currently serve on the executive committee of Soaring Higher, BC’s $3 billion fundraising campaign launched in September 2023, aimed at bolstering the University’s highest, most strategic priorities, and enhancing its standing as a great, Jesuit, Catholic university.
In addition to his BC philanthropic commitments, Popolo serves on the executive board of the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University; he co-founded and serves as a director of the HALO Initiative for Catholic Education in Dallas; and is a Patron of the Arts in the Vatican Museums, which promotes, restores, and conserves the museum’s collection and buildings.
In 2022, Popolo and several BC alums founded the Friends of the Heights, a fandriven and alumni-led name, image, and likeness (NIL) collective supporting BC student-athletes.
Leadership Says BC Can Withstand Challenges
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academic year.
During his remarks, Fr. Leahy, who announced in June that he will step down as president in 2026, outlined the process for choosing his successor. The search will be led by the Board of Trustees Executive Committee, he said, and include trustees and trustee associates, as well as student, faculty, and staff leaders, the BC Board of Regents, BC Alumni Board, Jesuit leaders, and members of the University’s Jesuit Community. The timetable calls for the next president to be named by the spring of 2025 and, following a sabbatical and orientation period, to take office in the summer of 2026.
The Trustees Executive Committee is “committed to maintaining stability, continuity, and momentum during the presidential search and transition,” said Fr. Leahy.
In his overview of the pressures affecting enrollment in American higher education, Fr. Leahy cited the ongoing decline in the number of births in the United States— down 17 percent from 2007 to 2023—the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on the number of international students opting to study in the U.S., as well as the U.S. Supreme Court decision limiting use of affirmative action in undergraduate admission and problems with the U.S. Education Department’s Free Application for Student Aid (FAFSA) program. Fewer student deposits, combined with
other financial trends, has had a cascade effect on American higher education, said Fr. Leahy, with some colleges and universities eliminating academic majors, reducing faculty and staff, undergoing institutional restructuring, merging, or closing.
Meanwhile, he said, the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel precipitated months of unrest in American higher education, as campus protests and demonstrations disrupted teaching and learning and raised issues of free speech and campus safety. Critics in government, the media, and many segments of the public excoriated colleges and universities for their response—or what they saw as the lack of it—in dealing with the turbulence, further diminishing support for higher education.
While Boston College, as a higher education institution, is hardly insulated from such controversies, Fr. Leahy said the prospects for its sustained upward trajectory are excellent: “BC has a vibrant, caring community of talented students, faculty, and staff serious about teaching, research, and learning. Finances and enrollment remain strong, and it is blessed to be in a worldclass city and have an attractive campus. It is an institution with vision, stability, and momentum, and its alumni, parents, and friends are known for their loyalty and enthusiasm.”
The University’s $3 billion Soaring Higher Campaign, launched almost a year
ago and expected to be at its halfway point later next month, is critical to ensuring that BC continues its academic and formational mission, he said.
“We have had another strong year, showing clear evidence of momentum and growing support among BC among alumni, parents, and friends. But still much work needs to be done to reach the $3 billion goal.”
Fr. Leahy listed what he called the “essential” characteristics for BC: a place that “prizes search for truth, dialogue, teaching, research, where people can disagree, engage in debate and learn from one another,” for example, and which “insists that everyone on campus should be valued, treated with respect, and helped to feel welcome and at home, manifesting our Judeo-Christian, Catholic roots that all are made in the image and likeness of God and that members of our community should strive to love God and neighbor.”
In an overview of BC’s financial and facilities operations, Lochhead pointed to such highlights as double-digit growth in the University’s endowment—now nearing $4 billion—a strong credit rating, and a now 50-year tradition of balanced budgets. These and other vital elements make it possible for BC to meet academic and institutional goals, such as offering ample undergraduate financial aid.
Following a summer that saw some $57
million in construction-related activity, Lochhead said, the University looks ahead to upcoming projects such as the “Newton East” campus, at the former site of Mount Alvernia High School, and the Catholic Religious Archives building on Brighton Campus. Related to this, BC expects to complete its new 10-year Institutional Master Plan shortly.
While also referencing the pressures facing American higher education, especially with regard to the Gaza conflict and the U.S. Supreme Court affirmative action ruling, Quigley pointed to numerous academic- and enrollment-related highlights for BC during the past year, including: the opening of Messina College [see page 7]; $83 million in sponsored research activity; the first graduates in the Boston College Prison Education Program; and the arrival of another academically impressive first-year class at the Heights, as well as 79 new fulltime faculty members.
Quigley touched on the formational aspects of BC as a Jesuit, Catholic university promoting a “culture of care and concern,” noting that times of controversy and discord compels administrators, faculty, and staff to serve as role models for positive engagement.
“Our generational responsibility is to create a hope-filled future for the next generation,” he said. “I can think of no more noble calling.”
Joe Popolo Jr. ’89: “Boston College is a special place to our family.”
BCSSW’s Bullock Named a Social Work Pioneer
Karen Bullock, the Louise McMahon Ahearn Endowed Professor in the Boston College School of Social Work and in Global Public Health, an acclaimed researcher in health-related equity and inclusion issues, has been named a Social Work Pioneer by the National Association of Social Work Foundation.
A member of the BCSSW faculty since 2022, Bullock combines considerable mental health experience and expertise in health disparities, health equity, serious illness care, aging and gerontology, hospice, palliative, and end-of-life care decision making. She champions a meaningful role for social work in the area of hospice and palliative care—now known as serious illness care—because of the specialized skill set and expertise it intersects with those of physicians, nurses, and allied health clinicians on primary care teams.
The Social Work Pioneers program is administered by the NASW Foundation, a 501c3 organization that supports the educational, research, and charitable initiatives of NASW, a 120,000-member professional organization of social workers in the United States. Pioneers are nominated for review by a steering committee that meets
annually to make selections, and each new cohort is feted at the NASW Social Work Pioneers Event; this year’s celebration is October 19 in Washington, D.C.
“NASW Pioneers are social workers who have explored new territories and built outposts for human services on many frontiers,” reads the foundation’s description of the honor. “[Each] one has made an important contribution to the social
work profession, and to social policies through service, teaching, writing, research, program development, administration, or legislation. NASW Pioneers have paved the way for thousands of other social workers to contribute to the betterment of the human condition; and they are role models for future generations of social workers.”
[For more about the NASW Pioneers, see naswfoundation.org/Our-Work/ NASW-Social-Work-Pioneers.]
Bullock has been a principal investigator and/or co-investigator for more than $5 million in federal grant funding focused on equity and inclusion for workforce development, aging, and health network sustainability. She is a John A. Hartford Faculty Scholar and has an appointment in the Department of Psychosocial Oncology and Palliative Care at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. She served on several national boards and committees, including the Social Work Hospice & Palliative Care Network as vice chair and the American Cancer Society Oncology Social Work Research Peer Review Committee.
Earlier this year, Bullock was selected for the Richard Payne Outstanding Achievement in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Award by the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, the professional organization for physicians specializing in hospice and palliative medicine, nurses, and other health care providers.
Bullock said being designated a Social Work Pioneer is more than a professional honor.
“My passion for the social work profession grew out of my own lived experiences of being born and raised in a family with very limited resources. We collectively supported one another in our community and beyond. For me, social work has been a conduit for leading by example; the NASW Code of Ethics is an extension of my core values of human dignity and self-worth, justice, integrity, and competence.
“Humbly, I have embraced these professional values and my reward is the honor of being named a Social Work Pioneer. NASW has been a constant source of advocacy, political action, and empowerment for me to do this work; and has been the catalyst for the impact I have been fortunate to achieve as a social worker over the past 30-plus years.”
—Sean Smith
Largest Gift in CSOM History Supports Finance Dept.
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sionally,” said Seidner.
“It is also a way to show my appreciation for the profession of finance, and to help prepare the next generation of financial professionals to enhance the critical role finance plays in the global economy. Finally, it is a way for me to show my respect and admiration for [John and Linda Powers Family Carroll School of Management Dean] Andy Boynton, department chair Ronnie Sadka, and the Finance faculty for their world-class research achievements and for what they have done over many decades to make BC’s Finance Department one of the premier undergraduate programs in the country and the world.”
The gift, a collective decision in philanthropic pursuits by Marc, Mary Lou, Casey, and Alexis Seidner, is the latest in a series of contributions to key University priorities that Seidner and his family have made to Boston College, including endowing the inaugural Seidner Family Executive Directorship of the Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society, held by Laura Steinberg.
“Marc has been a leading voice on the Academic Affairs Committee of the Board of Trustees, and he has been instrumental in advancing the University’s most important strategic goals over the past decade,” said Provost and Dean of Faculties David Quigley. “His support for the Schiller Institute’s Executive Directorship has now been matched by our first-ever naming gift for an academic department. The Seidner family’s generosity has been essential in sustaining Boston College’s institutional momentum.”
Added Boynton, “Marc’s extraordinary
success in the world of finance and his philanthropic generosity have enabled us to attract academic royalty in Paul Romer and to advance an academic department that is one of the best in the world. But what impresses me most about Marc is how his career, his heart, and his spirit align with the University’s motto ‘Ever to Excel.’ We are grateful for all that he has done for the Carroll School and Boston College.”
A native of Sydney, Australia, who was raised in Canada and the United States, Seidner enrolled at the Heights in 1984 and studied economics in the College of Arts and Sciences under faculty luminaries such as Richard Tresch, Catherine Schneider, and Joseph Quinn, whose mentorship, he says, helped launch his career in asset management.
“Sitting on the dais at Commencement this year and watching Joe Quinn accept the Bellarmine Award was pretty moving for me,” said Seidner. “It was great mentors like professors Quinn, Tresch, and Schneider who inspired me to learn about economics, which translated into a passion for markets and a desire to pursue a career in asset management. Their teaching and support, combined with the formative Jesuit education I received at BC, prepared me well in my career and life.”
A leading portfolio manager and strategist in fixed income and global financial markets, Seidner began his career at Fidelity Management and Research Company, taking subsequent advancing roles at Standish Mellon Asset Management and Harvard Management Company before joining PIMCO in 2009.
One of the world’s largest global investment firms, PIMCO oversees more than
70 mutual funds and manages investments for a wide range of clients, including public and private pensions and retirement plans. It also serves as an advisor and asset manager to companies, central banks, educational institutions, foundations, and endowments. Based in Newport Beach, Calif., PIMCO has 10 offices worldwide and almost $2 trillion in assets under management.
“Our
philanthropy is a thankyou to Boston College for taking a chance on me as a student and equipping me with the toolkit to succeed personally and professionally.”
—Marc Seidner
In addition to his philanthropic support of BC, Seidner has been a member of the Board of Trustees since 2019, serving on the Investment and Endowment and Academic Affairs committees. He is a former member and co-chair of the BC Board of Regents and a member of the Parents Leadership Council. He has also been actively involved in the Carroll School’s annual Finance Conference, which draws the world’s leading finance experts to examine pertinent issues in the field.
The Seidner gift supports Boston College’s Soaring Higher campaign, which seeks to raise critical funding for academic priorities, financial aid, and student life. To date, $1.47 billion has been raised towards the campaign’s $3 billion goal.
“My hope and expectation are that the gift helps the Finance Department to build upon its proud history of matriculating outstanding students to manage an increasingly complex global market system— individuals who will continue to make a real difference in the world and in the lives of others,” said Seidner. “Excellence is a constant, continual, and regenerative pursuit. I hope the gift will help BC to continue to live up to its motto.”
Quigley said he is particularly grateful to Seidner and his family for the gift, which demonstrates their deep connection to Boston College and appreciation for the distinctive Jesuit education it provides.
“Marc reflected on his own experience as an economics major at BC as he supported his daughter Alexis’s undergraduate years in the Carroll School of Management,” said Quigley. “He takes great pride in the Seidner family’s multigenerational connection to Boston College, and marvels at the many ways in which Alexis and her friends have benefited from the University’s contemporary vitality.”
Quigley says that he also hopes this inaugural department-naming gift will inspire other alumni and parents to follow suit.
“The Seidner gift has enabled us to establish the Seidner University Professorship, held by one of the nation’s leading economists, and the Center for the Economics of Ideas, and will continue to support faculty in their scholarship, research, and teaching in the Carroll School of Management,” said Quigley. “It is a gift that will pay dividends to the University for years to come.”
Karen Bullock
photo by caitlin cunningham
WHILE YOU WERE AWAY
Boston College’s new Messina College welcomed 110 first-year students to its inaugural class in July. The college is part of the University’s $100 million Pine Manor Institute for Student Success initiative to enhance educational opportunity for underrepresented, first-generation students, and marks the first time BC will offer an associate’s degree. In all, Messina will enroll approximately 200 students who will live in dormitories on the campus.
Students and their parents arrived on July 7 for Move In Day, which included an orientation program featuring remarks by Messina College Dean Erick Berellezza, S.J., Provost and Dean of Faculties David Quigley, and Office of Undergraduate Admission Senior Associate Director Stephen Koo, who helped lead Messina recruitment efforts.
“The campus feels like a complete transformation has taken place,” said Fr. Berrelleza, about a week before students arrived, as crews painted, cleaned, and landscaped the renovated student center and dining room—just one of many projects coming to a close on the former Pine Manor College campus.
“After so many conversations about creating a space that is inviting for our students, over time, seeing that actual transformation now has been a really fun part of my job,” Fr. Berrelleza said.
Aligned with BC’s Core Curriculum, Messina offers the majors of applied data science, applied psychology and human development, general business, and health sciences. With their degree, students can apply to earn their bachelor’s degrees at BC or other four-year colleges and universities; or go on to other programs focused on specialized skills, careers, or public service.
An expert on the complex relationship between Ireland, Northern Ireland, and Europe, especially in the post-Brexit era, Mary C. Murphy was appointed as director of the Boston College Irish Institute Murphy, who had headed the University College Cork (UCC) Department of Government and Politics since January 2023, also has an appointment as a professor in BC’s Political Science Department.
She is co-author of A Troubled Constitutional Future: Northern Ireland After Brexit, which was selected for the University Association for Contemporary European Studies (UACES) Best Book Prize in 2023. UACES described A Troubled Constitutional Future as “an informative, wellresearched book on the complexities of the UK-Irish relationship, the impact of Brexit on Northern Ireland and its potential constitutional consequences...it weaves together insights from the different communities in and around Northern Ireland and highlights the challenges to be addressed.”
Her publications also include Europe and Northern Ireland’s Future: Negotiating Brexit’s Unique Case and Northern Ireland and the European Union: The Dynamics of a Changing Relationship.
“I feel very privileged to be joining
The inaugural class, drawn largely from Boston, other gateway cities in Massachusetts, as well as from some additional states across the country, spent its first few weeks engaged in the First Year Discovery Seminar, a focal point of other University programs to prepare students for the workload, challenges, and conversations they will encounter.
“We are working with partners across the University so the seminar builds that bridge that helps these students transition to Boston College and get acclimated to this space,” Fr. Berrelleza said. “We will have them involved and engaged in their formation from social, spiritual, and physical standpoints—who they are as people— in addition to their growth academically and intellectually.”
For many students, the idea of attending Messina College wasn’t on their radar screens a year ago. But throughout last fall, BC admission staff began getting the word out to high school guidance counselors.
Ana Sampaio of Framingham, Mass., is a health sciences major who plans to study nursing and work as a NICU nurse. She recalled when a guidance counselor at Keefe Regional Technical High School told her about BC’s new college.
“I was completely amazed,” said Sampaio, a native of Brazil. “I was like, ‘OK, I want to go there.’”
For someone who is always looking for new opportunities, Sampaio said Messina College was a perfect fit for her academic and career goals.
“I always try to stay a step ahead and look at every opportunity and go after them, so when I heard about Boston College opening Messina College, that was a big motivator for me,” said Sampaio, who
the Boston College community and to be taking up the directorship of the Irish Institute,” said Murphy. “Boston College has long played a pivotal and valued role in supporting the economic, social, political, and cultural landscape of the island of Ireland. I look forward to building on that immense legacy over the years ahead and to positioning BC as a premier location for the study of Ireland in the United States.
is already a certified nursing assistant. “It was like a door opening.”
Excitement was running high among faculty as well.
Assistant Professor of the Practice of Biology Antonio Serrato-Capuchina, formerly of Boston University, earned a doctorate in genetics from the University of North Carolina and did postdoctoral work at Harvard University. A native of Mexico who was 12 when his family moved to the U.S., Serrato-Capuchina said he’s excited to support students and hopes to give them the tools that will make their own educational journeys less of an uphill battle than his.
As the first in his family to go to col-
“I also welcome the opportunity for the Irish Institute to continue to encourage the consolidation of peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland, to support NorthSouth and British-Irish relations, and to help the island of Ireland to adjust and respond to the challenges it faces in the post-Brexit era. At a time of widespread political and economic upheaval, Boston College and the Irish Institute are committed to contributing positively to U.S.-Irish relations and to the future of both parts of the island of Ireland. I am hugely excited to be part of that endeavor.”
Murphy’s appointment represents a new beginning for the Irish Institute, launched in 1998 and widely praised for offering programs and initiatives to promote reconciliation between Ireland and Northern Ireland through increased mutual understanding and cross-border partnerships. During the early 2010s, the institute broadened its geographical scope to include other regions—notably the Middle East and North Africa—and took a broader role within the University to aid international outreach.
Under director Robert Mauro, it became the Global Leadership Institute (GLI), retaining elements of the Irish Institute model while undertaking ventures
lege, he had to overcome not only financial hardship, but also a lack of experience and institutional knowledge about how higher education works. He saw the position at Messina as the perfect combination of teaching and outreach.
“I have constantly been involved in educational outreach,” said Serrato-Capunchina. “My mentality is shaped by my own academic path, which was way harder than it should have been. But I have always been a go-getter and I hope to share what I’ve learned with our students. I want to be a positive force and uplift our students and their communities.”
More at https://bit.ly/messina-college-opens
such as a leadership program for Kuwaiti youths and an initiative to assist in the professionalization of Mexico’s police force.
But Mauro, who died in the fall of 2022, retained the institute’s ties to, and interest in, Ireland in the midst of various political and economic changes, including Ireland’s emergence as a landing place for major technology firms and the advent of Brexit.
“Irish Studies is looking forward to working with Professor Mary C. Murphy and enhancing insights from political science in our interdisciplinary programming, alongside our long-standing strengths in the study of Irish history, culture, and literature,” said Sullivan Chair in Irish Studies Guy Beiner. “The Irish Institute will cultivate relations between Boston College and Irish political networks, liaising with the diplomatic missions from Ireland, Northern Ireland, and the United Kingdom. The institute also will develop the study of political science for a better understanding of the many dynamic changes on the island of Ireland and the significance of its relations with Britain, Europe, and the United States.”
More at https://bit.ly/mary-murphy-bcirish-institute
Messina College students ate lunch earlier this month in the Ashby Hall dining room on Brookline Campus. They are part of the two-year college’s 110-member first cohort.
photo by lee pellegrini
Irish Institute Director Mary C. Murphy
Bissdorf’s Golden Summer
Continued from page 1
a coach, my normal life had to go on. It’s two-and-a-half years of work and then for the last few months, you really focus on the Olympic Games: getting the team ready, finalizing strategies, making sure that everybody is in good shape.
The Boston College women’s lacrosse team won its second national title in four years on May 25, rallying from a 6-0 deficit to beat Northwestern 14-13 in a competitive championship game that wasn’t decided until the final seconds.
It was the seventh consecutive championship game appearance for the Eagles, who finished the season 20-3. After winning the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament and entering the NCAA Tournament as the second overall seed, BC defeated Princeton, Michigan, and Syracuse to reach the final, held at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, NC. The Eagles are now one of eight schools with multiple lacrosse championships.
The Boston College community mourned the passing of one of its most successful, loyal, and committed alumni, John M. (Jack) Connors Jr. ’63, H’07, who died on July 23. He was 82.
Connors, a founding partner and chairman of the national marketing communications company Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos Inc., was a highly influential figure in Boston’s business, political, educational, and philanthropic domains—and known for bringing them together to support various causes and projects, particularly those that improved lives of the less fortunate. He was credited with helping bring about the partnership between Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women’s hospital, and chaired the board for Partners HealthCare, the entity formed by the two hospitals (now known as Mass General Brigham). He also chaired the Dana-Farber/Partners CancerCare and Harvard CancerCare boards.
Over the years, the Boston native donated and raised tens of millions of dollars to reduce poverty, support education, and provide opportunities for young people to realize their potential. Among the institutions that benefited from his generosity and service was Boston College, where he studied in the School for Business Administration. Connors, the first in his family to attend college, served as a University trustee—twice as board chair—from 1979 to 2018; he became a trustee associate in 2018. He also co-chaired two of BC’s capital campaigns, including Ever to Excel, which raised $441 million from 1997 to
Kayla Martello ’24, who scored five goals in the championship game, was named the NCAA Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.
“I’m so proud of our team and all the people that make something like this happen,” said head coach Acacia WalkerWeinstein, who has been at the Heights for 12 seasons. “This sport has come a long way from when I started, and we have so much support from our administration and from our community and from our schools, and we’ve just come a long way.”
More at https://bit.ly/womens-lacrosse2024-champions
2003.
A visible example of Connors’ support for his alma mater is the Connors Learning Center in O’Neill Library, which opened in 1991 thanks to a gift from Connors and his wife, Eileen ’66, M.S.W. ’95. In 2005, the couple made a major gift to establish the Connors Family Retreat and Conference Center in Dover, which hosts retreats, events, and meetings for Boston College students, faculty, and staff, and the broader community.
Two years later, BC showed its appreciation for Connors by awarding him an honorary Doctor of Business Administration degree, and also inviting him to address the Class of 2007.
More at https://bit.ly/jack-connors-obituary
At 29 when I won the medal, it seemed to be the highlight of my life, and I wasn’t sure whether I would ever achieve something of higher significance. But obviously you can’t stop living at the age of 29, so you have to set new goals. Nowadays, it seems more fulfilling to do it as a coach, because you help athletes to fulfill their dreams, and you welcome new athletes into this circle of Olympic medalists. It’s a more shared joy than when you win it yourself.
Did you like your team’s chances going into the Olympics?
some confidence and trust. I told them, “Look, you are fencing in front of 6,000 spectators. It’s probably the coolest venue in fencing you have ever seen so far, in the Grand Palais. So go out, enjoy. Showtime. This is it. This is where we want to be, and now let’s do this.”
What was going through your head when you realized that you’d won gold?
It was primarily the joy that everybody would be going home with a medal. I was just happy for them. I didn’t know at the time that it was the first Olympic gold medal for a U.S. fencing team ever, but to achieve something of that magnitude is just pure, pure joy. After we won, I walked around trying to soak up the energy in the place, the feeling that I had, so that I could put it in a time capsule in myself and always remember.
We have four very unique fencers, all great human beings, all individually ranked top 12 in the world at the time we went into Paris. When I got the job, the team was world rank number four, and going into the Paris Olympics we were two, but the reality is pretty much everybody can beat everybody there in team competition. You cannot assume that you’ve got anybody beat, you have to stay humble.
That said, I thought from the beginning it was possible to win gold. The team was well prepared, in good shape, and we had good strategies in place, so I liked our odds. We’d beaten Italy, who were ranked number one, the last three times. We’d lost to Canada before, but the last few times we beat them too. And China, I think we had lost once in the last three years, but generally we looked good against them.
After the semifinals I got scolded by Lee Kiefer, the Olympic individual champion, for smiling too much, but I was just confident. You can compare it to a major exam—often you feel like, “Okay, I need another week to prepare,” but when I woke up that morning I didn’t want it to be another day. I said, “Today’s the day. Let’s do this. We are ready, let’s go.” It’s a very rare feeling in life.
What did you say to your team going into the gold medal match against the Italians?
About an hour before the match we went over the strategy. I said, “We have beaten them before. I think we can do this.” It was just a normal talk, getting people a little excited, not overly nervous, portraying
What did you think of the players calling themselves the “Wreck-it Ralfs” in your honor?
I actually didn’t know about that until later but I thought it was really nice. These are the small things that normally nobody sees or hears, but they make the experience more unique.
Will you continue coaching Team USA?
That’s a good question. Obviously, I love all the team members, I love the process, I have a good relationship with a lot of athletes who are coming up through the ranks, but I’m not the only one who has a part in this decision: There’s my wife who I love dearly and there’s the federation, since all of our contracts expire, so we’ll see.
What will you bring back from this experience to your coaching position at the Heights?
The idea that anything is possible. I like really interesting projects, and I think BC fencing is an interesting project. We are not the number one choice in the country as a college, but we are getting better every year, which is something that I personally find very cool. If you are the underdog, and then over the years you keep improving your situation, I think that’s more rewarding. So I’d like to remind the people at BC that it’s possible. Sometimes it takes a little bit of time, sometimes one or two stars have to align, but anything is possible. Support the athletes, and let’s continue this interesting project.
More at https://bit.ly/ralf-bissdorf-interview
The women’s lacrosse team earned an invitation to the White House by winning its second national title in four years.
photo by harrison kelly
photo by gary wayne gilbert
photo by #bizziteam via usa fencing
Bissdorf (second from right) and the United States fencing team celebrate its gold medal win at the Olympics.
AHANA Alumni Attend RECONNECT III Event
BY AUDREY LOYACK STAFF WRITER
Boston College welcomed nearly 500 AHANA alumni back to campus on July 26-28 for RECONNECT III—a celebration of the AHANA alumni community, a spirited reunion of new and old friends, and commemoration of memories from their time on the Heights.
The event marked the third weekendlong celebration since 2009 of one of the largest and most anticipated gatherings of the BC AHANA alumni community.
RECONNECT was pioneered in 2009 by late University Trustee and varsity hallof-famer Keith A. Francis ’76 in collaboration with other alumni, trustees, and University leadership. Francis spearheaded the idea for the weekend-long celebrations in hopes of encouraging BC’s AHANA alumni community to become more involved in their local Alumni Association chapters.
This year’s RECONNECT program included addresses from University President William P. Leahy, S.J., and other BC senior leaders; the AHANA Alumni Leadership Reception; a presentation on the Pine Manor Institute for Student Success from its executive director, University Vice President Joy Moore ’81, H’10; and talks by Pine Manor Institute administrators Karl Bell, director of mentoring and academic achievement, and Carly Anderson, director of academic and alumni outreach.
The weekend also featured the RECONNECT III Gala and Keith A. Francis ‘76 Tribute; the Keep the Faith Service and Brunch; and the Thea Bowman AHANA and Intercultural Center Open House,
where alumni heard remarks from Vice President for Student Affairs Shawna Cooper Whitehead, Thea Bowman AHANA and Intercultural Center Director Yvonne McBarnett, and current students.
“I continue to be so grateful for the incredible support of RECONNECT from our AHANA alumni, parents, and friends, and in particular our volunteers,” said Associate Vice President for Alumni Relations Leah Spencer. “Programmatically, the first RECONNECT continues to inspire and influence the types of events we offer, along with the perspective and guidance from our volunteers. Events like the gala and the Keep the Faith service are very much the cornerstones to RECONNECT.
“Our program continues to feature events that focus on networking; educating alumni about new initiatives and the great ways in which the University continues to evolve; and remarks from key leaders at BC, including Fr. Leahy.”
Spencer said some of the most impactful moments from RECONNECT III were those in which alumni spoke about their continuing involvement in the AHANA community and the University. She cited the AHANA Leadership Reception, which featured a panel of volunteer leaders: University Trustee Darcel Clark ’83, founding co-chair of the AHANA Alumni Advisory Council; University Trustee René Jones ’86, P’25, a Soaring Higher campaign co-chair; AHANA Alumni Advisory Council Executive Committee Chair Robert Marshall ’88, P’17, a member of the BC Board of Regents; and Esther Chang ’02, J.D.’07, member of the Alumni Association Board of Directors and Soaring Higher Campaign
Executive Committee.
“The goal of the event was for our volunteer leaders to share their stories and to inspire those alumni in the audience to become more engaged with the University, with a hope that some of our youngest alumni would one day follow in the footsteps of those on the panel” said Spencer.
She also noted that AHANA Alumni Advisory Council Vice-chair Arivee Vargas Rozier-Byrd ’05, J.D. ’08, H’22, announced that Jones, his wife, and his Soaring Higher Campaign co-chair Brigid Doherty ’96 have committed to creating an endowed scholarship that will support AHANA students at Boston College. “We can’t thank René and Brigid enough for this amazing gift and their remarkable generosity, which will directly impact AHANA students for generations to come.”
The gala—which this year had a “black tie sneaker ball” theme where guests came dressed in their best formal attire and favorite pair of sneakers—featured presenta-
tion of the Keith A. Francis ’76 Inspiration Award, which recognizes a graduate whose work and service at Boston College and beyond best reflects Francis’ relentless pursuit of excellence and social justice.
This year’s winner was Juan Fernando Lopera ’99, the inaugural chief diversity, equity, and inclusion officer for Beth Israel Lahey Health. In the award citation, the Alumni Association noted that Lopera has devoted his career to combining his passion for social justice and health equity to progress the mission of Beth Israel Lahey and the Jesuit values of Boston College: “While sitting on several boards, Juan also has found time to return to Boston College and participate as a panelist with the AHANA Alumni Advisory Council on health equity matters. His devotion, service, and commitment through his life’s work to the AHANA community embodies the values and morals that Keith stood for and lived by.”
Law’s Cassidy to Chair State Board of Bar Overseers
Professor and Dean’s Distinguished Scholar R. Michael Cassidy has been appointed by the Supreme Judicial Court to serve as chair of the Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers (BBO). An expert in prosecutorial ethics who provides training nationally to public sector attorneys on their responsibilities under the Rules of Professional Conduct, Cassidy has served on the board since 2021. His yearlong term began on July 2.
The BBO was established by the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) in 1974 as an independent administrative body to protect the public by evaluating complaints against attorneys. Over 40 lawyers, paralegals, investigators, and financial auditors are employed by the BBO to regulate the 42,000 Massachusetts attorneys.
“I am honored to serve the profession in this capacity,” Cassidy said. “My work on the BBO informs my teaching and scholarship, and my teaching and scholarship inform my service to the profession. It is nice when there is a symbiosis between them.”
The board comprises 12 volunteer members, each of whom are appointed by the SJC for respective four-year terms. Eight of the members are attorneys; four
are public representatives. The board acts as an administrative tribunal to consider disciplinary charges brought by the Bar Counsel, an independent administrative body that investigates and evaluates complaints of unethical conduct against attorneys.
When an attorney is found to have committed misconduct, the board recommends the imposition of discipline, which can be reviewed by the Supreme Judicial Court.
This past March, the BBO sought to change its name to the “Board of Bar Oversight” because of the link between the word “overseers” and Southern slavery. Although the SJC supported the board’s efforts to ensure that lawyers of all backgrounds are valued, the request was rejected in July.
“The news that Mike Cassidy has been named the new chair of the Board of Bar Overseers will be welcomed throughout the world of lawyers and their clients,” said J. Donald Monan Professor Emeritus Daniel R. Coquillette, a former BC Law dean. “I cannot imagine a more thoughtful and fairer person. Mike has deep experience with all aspects of the bar and will bring transparency and accountability to all he does. The bar is in safe hands with Mike as chair.”
Cassidy has worked at BC Law for 28 years, teaching Criminal Law, Evidence and Legal Ethics. He also teaches an undergraduate seminar, “The Rule of Law and the Meaning of Justice.”
Among his numerous other contributions to the legal profession, Cassidy has served as a member of the Massachusetts State Ethics Commission, Judicial Nominating Commission, Governor’s Commission on Corrections Reform, SJC committees on Massachusetts Evidence Law and Rules of Professional Conduct, and as editor-in-chief of the Massachusetts Law Review
Cassidy has also served as an advisor to the National District Attorneys’ Association and a legal consultant to the United States Department of Justice on issues of police misconduct and prosecutorial ethics. In 2012, he was elected to the American Law Institute.
“This is a fabulous appointment, and a real honor for Mike Cassidy,” said BC Law colleague Paul R. Tremblay, the Dean’s Distinguished Scholar and a clinical professor in BC Law Magazine. “Mike is a nationally prominent scholar on the topic of virtue ethics, which is a wonderful perspective for the chair of the BBO to embrace.”
Boston College Law School/additional material by Phil Gloudemans
Alumni and their family members enjoying the RECONNECT III gathering July 26-28.
photo by university advancement
R. Michael Cassidy
photo by caitlin cunningham
Undergrads Take Part in Summer Law Scholars Program
BY ROSANNE PELLEGRINI STAFF WRITER
A summer career exploration experience helped Amaris Ramos, a junior in the Lynch School of Education and Human Development, solidify her interest in pursuing law school after graduation.
She and another BC undergraduate, also interested in a legal career, had an immersive opportunity to explore the study and practice of law through a program at Stanford Law School.
Ramos and Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences senior Alexa Piedra were among only 20 college students nationwide chosen to participate in the selective Stanford Law Scholars Institute (SLSI), held in June.
Both born and raised in Texas and of Mexican American heritage, they were part of the third SLSI cohort. Held on the Stanford Law School campus, the institute is a fully-subsidized, residential, and experiential learning program that provides participants with activities, workshops, networking events, and other programs to help them prepare for law school—from navigating the application process to charting a course toward a future legal career.
“SLSI showed me the power of each individual’s voice in the legal system, both as practitioners and participants,” Ramos said. “The program imbued me with a sense of strength in my identity, in diversity, and in their ability to transform who the legal system serves.”
Ramos, of El Paso, is majoring in transformative educational studies and political science at BC, with a minor in English. Her institute bio notes that she aspires to learn from the world around her, and gain understanding through the narratives
of those she encounters. At BC, she has sought to raise awareness of the importance of life stories, especially those of people of color, to create a space where all feel welcome. Her goal is to facilitate change in the government and education sectors, by promoting greater inclusivity of underrepresented voices.
“The program complemented my BC studies by reinforcing the idea of looking inward to transform the world outside of us and serve the whole person,” Ramos said. “SLSI allowed me to reflect on my BC education and highlight how it has served my journey in navigating the world of academia as a student of color and how I can use that experience to change it for the better, breaking down its borders and welcoming all.”
At BC, Piedra—a political science major and management and leadership minor from Houston—has volunteered at Catholic Charities El Centro teaching adult immigrants English, and at the Prison Book Program, sending books incarcerated individuals.
These experiences, according to her bio, have exposed her to the complexities of the incarceration system and to the difficult transition period for immigrants in the United States. They also inspired Piedra’s research on the rights of undocumented workers via her involvement in the Pine Manor Institute for Student Success McNair Scholars Program, which prepares undergraduates from firstgeneration and underrepresented backgrounds to pursue advanced degrees and careers in research and academia.
As she continues her professional learning journey, Piedra hopes “to make meaningful changes to the areas she has the privilege of stepping into.”
The SLSI is part of an effort to help create a legal profession that better serves all communities, according to the program website. Led by Diane Chin, co-founder and co-director of the SLSI Institute and former Stanford Law inaugural associate dean for public service and public interest law, and Faye Deal, Stanford Law associate dean for admissions and financial aid, the institute benefits undergraduates who want to explore the opportunities and rewards of a legal career.
Scholars gain insight into academic life at a law school through a schedule of classes with prominent Stanford Law faculty, group discussions, workshops, and a field trip to a San Francisco courtroom and to city hall, among other activities.
“A legal education can seem out of reach for many students, especially those from communities that have been historically underrepresented in the legal profession,” according to Chin. “Our goal is to lower the barriers to access to law school and a law career by immersing the scholars in the law school academic life and introducing them to the many areas of law and the vast array of options a law degree can provide.”
Beyond the academic and social activi-
ties, the cohort received assistance with the law school application process, including a LSAT preparation course and ongoing coaching which will continue through the process of applying and gaining entry to law school. SLSI also provides both online training and a speakers’ series.
“Much of the knowledge needed to apply to law school is not taught in the classroom,” according to Deal. “By providing guidance in crafting a strong law school application and helping the scholars build soft skills such as time management and addressing imposter syndrome, we hope this program will help prepare our scholars to be successful in their law school journeys.”
“SLSI definitely enhanced my interest in pursuing law school after graduation,” Ramos said of the experience. “Before, I was unsure of wanting to attend law school because of the surface-level, unwelcoming idea I had of it. However, SLSI brought such a new and fulfilling perspective on law school by centering it around the whole person and the relationships we engage in. It reignited and further set aflame the passion I have to transform our government and legal system through the connections we make with others.”
Alexa Piedra ’25, left, and Amaris Ramos ’26
BC Scenes Settling In
(Clockwise from top left) A “Week of Welcome” greeted the Boston College Class of 2028 from August 22-25, as first-year students moved onto residence halls on Newton Campus and Upper Campus; attended an Opportunity Fair to learn about academic programs, volunteer opportunities, campus retreats, campus recreation, intramurals, student employment, and other aspects of BC life; made new friends and heard from senior BC administrators at the annual University Welcome; and posed for the class photo in Alumni Stadium.
photos by frank curran
Lowell Humanities Series to Kick Off Sept. 11
A wide range of leading voices in the humanities—representing social history, art, poetry, psychology, sociology, and more—will be welcomed to campus this fall by the venerable Boston College Lowell Humanities Series, which begins on September 11.
“As usual, we have aimed for diverse fields in the humanities, and I’m especially thrilled that almost all of our speakers work in multiple genres or address more than one discipline,” said Professor of History Sylvia Sellers-García, who now leads the series following an interim directorship during the last academic year.
“These talented thinkers demonstrate how some of the most influential work in the humanities is not neatly contained by disciplinary boundaries. With the upcoming presidential election, I was hoping to feature speakers that could address politics in imaginative ways,” she added. “Orna Guralnik will focus on how politics affects our interpersonal relationships, and Reuben Jonathan Miller will address the important topic of voting rights. I hope this year’s lectures will stimulate rewarding conversations both in and out of the classroom.”
The events—co-sponsored by a number of BC departments, programs, and initiatives—begin at 7 p.m. and take place in Gasson 100.
September 11: Amy Stanley—A social historian of early modern and modern Japan with special interests in global history, women’s and gender history, and narrative, Stanley is the Wayne V. Jones Research Professor of History at Northwestern University. Her most recent book, Stranger in the Shogun’s City: A Japanese Woman and Her World, won the National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography and PEN/ America Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award in Biography, and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. She also is the author of Selling Women: Prostitution, Markets, and the Household in Early Modern Japan, and articles in the American Historical Review, The Journal of Japanese Studies, and The Journal of Asian Studies. (Cosponsored by the BC History Department and the Asian American Studies Program)
September 25: Rita Duffy—A Belfast native, Duffy is one of Ireland’s groundbreaking visual artists. Her public art projects include “Thaw,” inspired by the Belfast ship Titanic, which explored local experiences of colonialism and sectarianism with a universal climate crisis. In 2011, she was awarded a fellowship to work at the Transitional Justice Institute at her alma mater, the University of Ulster. She was honored for her contribution to visual arts in Ireland and elected to Aosdana, Ireland’s “people of the arts.” In 2024, she was appointed the Charlotte Maxeke-Mary Robinson Irish South Africa Research Chair at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa. Duffy’s work is held in museum and private collections worldwide,
while her public art projects continue to grow and explore issues of female identity, history and politics, and borders. (Cosponsored by Irish Studies at Boston College and the Art, Art History, and Film Department)
October 9: Camille Dungy—The most recent of Dungy’s four collections of poetry, Trophic Cascade, won the Colorado Book Award. She is also the author of the essay collections Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden and Guidebook to Relative Strangers: Journeys into Race, Motherhood and History, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. A 2019 Guggenheim fellow, her other honors include National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, an American Book Award, two NAACP Image Award nominations, and two Hurston/Wright Legacy Award nominations. Dungy’s poems have been published in Best American Poetry, The 100 Best African American Poems, the Pushcart Anthology, and many other anthologies. (Cosponsored by the Boston College Poetry Days Series, American Studies Program, and English Department)
October 16: Orna Guralnik—A clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst in New York City, Guralnik lectures and publishes on topics of couples’ treatment and culture, dissociation and depersonalization, culture and psychoanalysis. A co-founder of the
Center for the Study of Dissociation and Depersonalization at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, she has completed the filming of several seasons of Showtime’s documentary series “Couples Therapy.” Guralnik is on the faculty at New York University and at the National Institute for the Psychotherapies, where she teaches courses on the trans-generational transmission of trauma, socio-politics/ideology and psychoanalysis, and dissociation. (Cosponsored by the Boston College Center for Psychological Humanities & Ethics)
November 13: Reuben Jonathan Miller—MacArthur fellow and sociologist at the University of Chicago’s Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy and Practice, Miller is the author of Halfway Home: Race, Punishment, and the Afterlife of Mass Incarceration. As a chaplain at Chicago’s Cook County Jail and sociologist studying mass incarceration, he has spent years alongside prisoners, formerly incarcerated people, their families and friends, to understand the lifelong burden that even a single arrest can entail. His work reveals that life after incarceration is its own form of prison. Miller also is an American Bar Foundation research professor and has been a member of the Institute for Advanced Study, and a New America and Rockefeller Foundation fellow. (Cosponsored by the PULSE Program for Service Learning, Winston Center for Leadership and Ethics,
Forum on Racial Justice in America, and Sociology Department)
November 20: Sy Montgomery—The author of 34 books, Montgomery has scripted, directed, and appeared in the “National Geographic” segments “Spell of the Tiger” and “Mother Bear Man.” Her most recent book, Secrets of the Octopus, is the companion to National Geographic’s 2024 miniseries of the same name. Her other books include The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness—a finalist for the 2015 National Book Award for Nonfiction—The Good Good Pig, and How to Be a Good Creature: A Memoir in Thirteen Animals; her children’s book Kakapo Rescue: Saving the World’s Strangest Parrot won a Silbert Medal. She was a winner of the New England Independent Booksellers Association Nonfiction Award, the Children’s Book Guild Nonfiction Award, and the Henry Bergh Award for Nonfiction.
The Lowell Humanities Series is sponsored by the Lowell Institute, the Institute for the Liberal Arts at Boston College, and the Office of the Provost and Dean of Faculties.
LHS events, which are free and open to the public, will be on Eventbrite, an event management and ticketing website; there also will be the option to scan a QR code at the door. For more information on the series and speakers, see www.bc.edu/lowell. —University Communications
(L-R) Amy Stanley, Orna Guralnik, and Camille Dungy
photos by brian mcconkey (stanley) and sean mcging/courtesy showtime (guralnik)
(L-R) Rita Duffy, Sy Montgomery, and Reuben Jonathan Miller
Carol Hartman, Expert in Psychiatric Nursing
Connell School of Nursing Professor Emeritus Carol Ruth Hartman, a pioneering force in psychiatric nursing who taught at Boston College from 1967 to 1995, died earlier this month.
After earning a doctorate in nursing science in 1967 under the mentorship of June Mellow, a pioneer in nurse psychotherapy, Dr. Hartman joined the faculty at Boston College. During her tenure, she initiated and developed the graduate psychiatric nursing program receiving several grants to train hundreds of advanced practice nurses, leaving behind a legacy of students who continue to champion her philosophy of community-based care for vulnerable populations.
Dr. Hartman’s early work and writings focused on the care of children with mentally ill parents. At the Massachusetts Mental Health Center, she collaborated with Henry Grunebaum on an innovative joint admission program for psychiatrically ill mothers and their young children. As the nurse-clinician for the Intensive Nursing Aftercare Project, Dr. Hartman supervised a team of specially-trained psychiatric nurses who provided the nursing intervention.
Expanding her research into areas such as post-traumatic stress disorder, crime victimization, and child sexual abuse, Dr. Hartman’s work had a profound impact on understanding trauma and its effects on children, families, and communities. Her collaboration on studies of very young victims highlighted the importance of addressing trauma in its earliest stages.
She is remembered by her colleagues and students as a mentor, a “force” in her field, and a master of the “Dynamic Formulation”—a concept she used to help graduate students understand their patients. Known for her humor, wisdom, and no-nonsense approach to academia, Dr. Hartman was a steady hand and a tireless advocate for children with mentally ill parents and, according to colleagues and students, her life was marked by her unwavering dedication to compassion, intellect, and service.
Dr. Hartman had cherished memories of her youth in northern California, particularly fishing with her father—a pastime that would instill in her a love for nature and a deep connection to her roots.
She began her nursing education at Samuel Merritt School of Nursing, earning an R.N. license. With a passion for serving her country, she enlisted in the United States Army during the Korean War, where she served as a first lieutenant stationed in Puerto Rico and received a medal. Her time in the military not only honed her skills as a nurse, but also deepened her commitment to the well-being of others.
Dr. Hartman earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in psychiatric nursing at the University of California-Los Angeles. Her academic and professional journey took her across the country—from North Dakota to Appalachia in West Virginia, and finally to Boston.
In her retirement, Dr. Hartman was a dedicated member of the Super Sleuths, an international and interdisciplinary group focused on solving cold cases involving missing and murdered victims. Her forensic work with victims of abuse and trauma led to her appearance in the 2024 Hulu hit docuseries “Mastermind,” where her insights and commentary were invaluable.
Dr. Hartman’s legacy in psychiatric nursing is profound, according to colleagues, who described her as an inspiration during the formative years of the field, and her work continues to influence the care of children and families.
—Anne Burgess,
Connell School of Nursing
Clough Center to Host Event on United States Constitution September 10
The Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy will sponsor “What the Constitution Means to Us” for the third year, on September 10 from 5-7 p.m. in Gasson 100. Inspired by Heidi Schreck’s award-winning play, and timed to coincide with Constitution and Citizenship Day, this event provides the Boston College community with an opportunity to reflect on America’s founding document. In addition to showcasing contributions
Quote/Unquote
“Personally, I say goodbye to a pastor, supporter and role model. I look forward to working with Archbishop-elect Richard G. Henning, who I know, has a strong pastoral heart, a passion for ministerial formation, and many years of experience serving Hispanic Catholics.”
Clough School of Theology and Ministry Prof. Hosffman Ospino, on the retirement of Boston Archbishop Cardinal Sean O’Malley, O.F.M. Cap. (Crux, “Catholic Leaders Praise Cardinal O’Malley on His Retirement”)
Jobs
The following are among the recent positions posted by the Department of Human Resources. For more information on employment opportunities at Boston College, see www.bc.edu/jobs or scan the QR code at right.
Associate Director, New Business Development & Member Engagement, Center for Corporate Citizenship
Programs Administrator, Office of Strategic Initiatives and External Relations, Lynch School of Education and Human Development
Associate Director for Research, RPCA
“Influencers are valued for who they are, that’s their market product. When they lose their authenticity, they don’t have as much to fall back upon. Because what they’ve been selling to their followers and what they’ve been selling on behalf of brands is, ‘This is who I am. This is the real me.’”
Professor of Communication Michael Serazio (Vox, “Is It Possible to Be Fully Authentic?”)
Temporary Office Pool
Dining Management Intern
Senior Laboratory Technician
Assistant Director, Marketing & Digital Engagement
Administrative & Fiscal Assistant, Pine Manor Institute
Campus Minister for Liturgical Arts
from select students and faculty, this year’s celebration will feature special guest A.J. Jacobs, New York Times-bestselling author, who will share insights and anecdotes from his recent book, The Year of Living Constitutionally, in conversation with Boston College Founders Professor of Law Mary Sarah Bilder.
For registration and more information, see bc.edu/cloughcenter.
The fall exhibition at the McMullen Museum of Art at Boston College examines the dynamic forces of relocation, resettling, and assimilation that influence 17 contemporary African artists, and informs the discourse on identity construction within the African diaspora.
“States of Becoming,” curated by Fitsum Shebeshe and produced by Independent Curators International (ICI), will be on view from September 9 to December 8. The McMullen is the first New England venue to host the exhibition, which presents 28 works across mediums—including painting, photography, sculpture, installation, and video—that express the different ways in which identity is remade and reimagined.
[University community members will receive an email invitation from the McMullen to attend a virtual lecture by Shebeshe on September 7, at 11 a.m.]
The notable artists featured in “States of Becoming,” who either relocated to the United States from 12 African countries and one in the Caribbean or are first-generation born, have lived and worked here within the last three decades: Chukwudumebi Gabriel Amadi-Emina, Kearra Amaya Gopee, Kibrom Araya, Nadia Ayari, Vamba Bility, Elshafei Dafalla, Masimba Hwati, Chido Johnson, Miatta Kawinzi, Dora King, Helina Metaferia, Nontsikelelo Mutiti, Yvonne Osei, Kern Samuel, Amare Selfu, Tariku Shiferaw, and Yacine Tilala Fall.
“The McMullen Museum and Boston College’s African and African Diaspora Studies Program [AADS] are pleased to present the recent work of 17 outstanding artists, all of whom have been members of the African diaspora in the United States,” said Professor of Art History Nancy Netzer, Inaugural Robert L. and Judith T. Winston Director of the McMullen Museum of Art.
“Although practicing in a wide variety of mediums, these artists are united in the important questions their works probe about the role of relocation in reimagining hybrid identities and a sense of belonging. Such questions are fundamental to the liberal arts education at Boston College and, especially, to the pedagogy and research of our faculty in African and African Diaspora Studies. We look forward to engaging the community in productive dialogue sparked by these inspired works of art.”
“States of Becoming” is arranged in three groups: artists whose relocation prompted aesthetic transformations by incorporating hybrid elements into their work; those who share their experiences from their country of origin within their current communities; and those who build bridges connecting the African diaspora to the United States in their practice. The exhibition aims to contribute to conversa-
tions on identity construction in the face of relocation and resettling, exemplifying how diaspora artists navigate the interplay between ancestral African heritages and prevailing American cultural paradigms.
“The African and African Diaspora Studies Program was particularly drawn to the way the exhibition showcases core elements of our program,” said Professor of History and AADS Director Lorelle Semley. “Like our courses, these works reveal the global nature of the African diaspora. The tension between transformation and belonging emerges because the African diaspora is ‘everywhere’ yet often erased.
“The artists approach this phenomenon by engaging across multiple subjects including history, sociology, politics, visual and performing arts, literature, etc. Similarly, African diaspora studies puts different disciplines into dialogue, often through the creative use of materials and methods. We certainly hope that students make those deeper connections between African diaspora studies courses and the themes of the exhibition. However, we think it is more important for our students and the broader BC community to take the time to experience this artwork, with their hearts and their minds.”
Shebeshe, who moved from Ethiopia to Baltimore in 2016, describes “States of Becoming” as born out of his own process of relocating to the U.S. “This exhibition allows for further understanding of not only my own experiences, but those of the artists. By analyzing both the unique aspects and commonalities together with Boston College’s global and local communities, we can reimagine together how we think about how identity is continually shaped and reshaped.”
Through relocation, according to Shebeshe, he gained firsthand knowledge of the weight of cultural assimilation and encountered a range of existential questions that shaped his relationship to institutions and culture. He also realized he was viewed as belonging to a minority and developed a newfound awareness of the profound impact Ethiopia’s traditional and conservative
culture had on his sense of individuality.
He found kinship among cultural practitioners from the African diaspora who shared his experience, and united these artists in “States of Becoming.” Although their individual artistic methodologies and experiences vary, each seeks to reconceptualize a hybrid culture formed from real and imagined genealogies: cultural, racial, national, and geographical belonging. “States of Becoming” explores the artists’ process of identifying, redefining, and becoming themselves in both local and global contexts, opening up perspectives into multiple states both geographic and emotional in a constant flux of social and cultural adaptations.
Lead funding for the exhibition is provided by the Hartfield Foundation to support ICI’s commitment to new curatorial voices that will shape the future of the field and ICI’s Curatorial Intensive Alumni as they move through their careers. “States
of Becoming” is made possible with the generous support of ICI’s Board of Trustees and International Forum. Crozier Fine Arts is the Preferred Art Logistics Partner.
The McMullen Museum presentation has been organized in collaboration with faculty from BC’s African and African Diaspora Studies Program. Additional funding has been provided by Boston College, the Patrons of the McMullen Museum, and Robert ’63 and Ann Marie Reardon P’91.
In-person and virtual public programming is planned for the general public and museum Members. For more information, and to sign up for those events that require advance registration, see mcmullenmuseum.bc.edu/about/events.html. More events will be added leading up to this exhibition; the McMullen website includes a link to the McMullen mailing list for updates.
Above, “Artifact” by Kearra Amaya Gopee; right, “Rückspiegel 2” by Masimba Hwati
