Breaking New Ground
FORMER PUBLIC DEFENDER MICHAEL NORIEGA, J.D. ’02
GAINS SEAT ON N.J. SUPREME COURT
Summer
Seton Hall magazine is published by the Division of University Relations.
Interim President
Katia Passerini, Ph.D.
Vice President for University Relations
Matthew Borowick ’89/M.B.A. ’94
Assistant Vice President, Strategic Communications and Brand
Pegeen Hopkins, M.S.J.
Art Director
Ann Antoshak
Copy Editors
Kim de Bourbon
Anthony D’Angelico ’23
News & Notes Editors
Stacy Albanese
Sophia Fredriksson
Anthony D’Angelico ’23
Send your comments and suggestions by mail to: Seton Hall magazine, Division of University Relations, 519 South Orange Avenue, South Orange, NJ 07079; by email to shuwriter@shu. edu; or by phone at 973-378-9834.
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Cover: New Jersey Supreme Court
Justice Michael Noriega, J.D. ’02. Photo by Michael Paras.
Facing page: NIT Championship. Photo courtesy of Seton Hall Athletics. www.shu.edu
18 And Justice for All
Justice Michael Noriega, J.D. ’02, makes history as the first public defender appointed to the New Jersey Supreme Court.
24 Lost to Time
Professor William Connell discovers a significant historical document in an antiques shop on Italy’s Amalfi Coast.
Possibilities
Seton Hall student Kai Hansen leads an effort to combat the opioid crisis by launching a naloxone training program.
Roaming the Hall
Economics professor Paola Suarez Rocabado merges her global outlook with a passion for economic advancement.
Profile
Marissa Muoio ’12/M.A. ’14/Ed.D. ’19 strives to empower her all-female student body through servant leadership, inspired by her time at Seton Hall University.
In honor of her mother’s lifelong dedication to serving others, Lisa LoBue ’93/M.B.A. ’97 presents a gift of her own.
Expanding Global Engagement
Imust begin by expressing how wonderful the past year has been for me as interim president. The opportunity to lead Seton Hall has been a dream come true. I could not have been so successful without the support of everyone at the University, including the regents and trustees, my administrative colleagues, the faculty, students and priest community, and especially you — the worldwide Seton Hall family of alumni and friends.
I share your excitement over the appointment of Monsignor Joseph Reilly ’87, S.T.L., Ph.D., as the University’s 22nd president, and look forward to working with him to elevate the institution we love.
No one knows better than Monsignor Reilly that Seton Hall has had a presence on the world stage since its earliest days. As far back as the 1860s, the University enrolled students from Spain, the Yucatan Peninsula, Cuba, Colombia and other international locations. Welcoming students from around the world and sending our students to study in distant lands has been a continuous thread in Seton Hall’s tapestry of global engagement.
With nations, peoples and cultures growing ever closer, the time is right for our University to further advance its ideas and ideals across the globe. To that end, we have made great strides in recent years to enhance our international presence, sending more students abroad and attracting a diverse international
student body. And we have set exciting and achievable goals for coming years.
Our vision is this: To be known nationwide as offering transformative international experiences for every student, and to be known worldwide for providing students from around the world with a personalized academic experience in a nurturing Catholic community.
We began shortly after the pandemic by relocating the Office of International Programs to new, more prominent quarters in Jubilee Hall to reflect its enhanced stature at the University. To that location we welcomed three new staff members who were charged with facilitating international visitors and study abroad opportunities for American students.
Our efforts are bearing fruit. In 2023, we hosted 232 international students, including 108 undergraduates and 128 graduate students. They hailed from more than 40 countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, China, Nigeria and India. Also that year, 250 Seton Hall students traveled to more than 22 nations, including Italy, Ireland, Japan and Colombia.
And we are just getting started. With each successive year, our intellectual landscape will become more international and our thinking will grow more globalized. Seton Hall students will deepen their positive impact on the world, mirroring the values and aspirations of the University itself.
Our increased staffing and expanded outreach are advancing hand-in-hand with new programs. As just one example, we launched the Rome Connection program in 2023 that enables first-year students to explore the Eternal City while connecting to its rich history and culture. Led by their professors, 60 students visited sites linked to their studies and served the homeless in St. Peter’s Square.
Partnerships with international institutions are also growing. In 2021, Seton Hall joined the International Federation of Catholic Universities (IFCU), an organization of more than 200 Catholic institutions worldwide. Subsequently, we forged agreements with IFCU members in South Korea and Mexico, paving the way for student and faculty exchanges, and joint programs and research.
More recently, we partnered with Universita Cattaneo LIUC in Italy, Catholic University of Lyon in France and Liverpool Hope University in England to collaborate on research and expand opportunities for student exchanges and faculty-led study abroad trips. In addition, Seton Hall is pursuing experiential learning and summer programs with these universities.
Looking to the near future, we have set ambitious goals for our international engagement. By the end of next year, we expect to enroll at least 400 international students and send 375 or more of our students abroad. We will continue to enhance student support mechanisms to ensure our international visitors return home with an overwhelmingly positive impression of Seton Hall.
Student support is a key aspect of our vision for international expansion, as we have begun a program to grow foreign enrollment through student ambassadors. The Mendoza Global Ambassador Program empowers international students to increase our visibility in their countries. As Mendoza Ambassadors, they inform their communities about opportunities at Seton Hall and guide prospective students toward University resources. The program is proving its worth. Ambassadors represent us in more than 20 nations in Asia, South
America, Europe, Africa and the Caribbean, many of which have seen enrollment increases.
The coming years will usher in a new age of international engagement at Seton Hall. Visiting students will elevate our campus culture with their global perspective, help teach our students to welcome difference, and better prepare them to work and live in an increasingly connected world.
Meanwhile, our students who study abroad will experience an enriched Seton Hall education, one that fosters intercultural understanding, exposes them to a global context within their courses of study, and increases their employability after graduation.
No matter where you call home, I welcome your engagement in advancing Seton Hall’s international goals. n
In Brief
l Genevieve Zipp, program director in Health Sciences, Department of Interprofessional Health Sciences and Health Administration, was awarded the 2024 award for service by The Academy of Neurologic Physical Therapy.
l Ruth Segal, department chair and professor within the Department of Occupational Therapy, will co-direct a new five-year training grant of over $1.18 million through the departments of Occupational Therapy and Speech-Language Pathology in the School of Health and Medical Sciences
l Moira Kendra, clinical assistant professor in the College of Nursing, and an interdisciplinary pulmonary team from Atlantic Health System were awarded the Helen Henry Excellence in Interprofessional Care Award.
l Seton Hall’s Africana Studies program welcomed a new director, Stephanie Harris, former executive director of the Amistad Commission for New Jersey’s Department of Education, as well as two new faculty members, Carm Almonor and Nkosi DuBois Anderson
l The debut novel from Nathan Oates, professor in the Department of English, A Flaw in the Design, was optioned for television by the U.K. film company, Carnival Films, best known for Downton Abbey.
l Thomas Rzeznik, associate professor in the Department of History, was honored with the inaugural Robert F. Trisco and Nelson H. Minnich Prize by the American Catholic Historical Association for his role as the co-editor of the journal American Catholic Studies
l Juan Rios, assistant professor in the Department of Social Work, gave a TEDx Talk at Columbia University recounting a memory of displacement from his childhood and how the experience helped him better understand the role of an inclusive community.
l The Foundation of New Jersey State Nurses Association honored Associate Professor Munira Wells at its Don and Diva Gala, for being among a group of nurses who have made an extraordinary contribution to the nursing profession in New Jersey. Wells was nominated for her work as the president of the American Association of Indian Nurses NJ Chapter 2.
l A three-year, $556,000 grant was awarded by the New Jersey Commission on Spinal Cord Research to Michael LaFountaine, associate dean for Academic Affairs and Research in the School of Health and Medical Sciences. His project will investigate whether specific combined genes create greater pain in individuals living with spinal cord injuries than others with a different genetic makeup.
Msgr. Reilly Named New President
Monsignor Joseph Reilly
‘87, S.T.L., Ph.D., will become Seton Hall’s president this summer, bringing to the top job insights gleaned after 40 years of University experience as student, faculty member, administrator and priest.
A native of Mountainside, N.J., Monsignor Reilly attended Seton Hall Prep and graduated from the University in 1987 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. He was ordained to serve the Archdiocese of Newark in 1991 and returned to his alma mater in 2002 as rector of the College Seminary at St. Andrew’s Hall.
“I am both profoundly grateful and exceedingly energized to take up the responsibilities of service as the University’s 22nd president,” Monsignor Reilly said.
“Seton Hall is the place where I have come to know the truth about God, about who I am before God, and about what contribution to society that God is inviting me to make.”
In 2012, he was named rector/dean of the Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology, where he served until 2022, while also serving on the Board of Trustees. After a yearlong sabbatical, he undertook his most recent post as vice provost of Academics and Catholic Identity.
The appointment marks the return of a priestpresident to Seton Hall, a hallmark of the University for 146 years of its 168-year history.
“There is no one better suited to leading the University at this moment — a time when Seton Hall stands at the cusp of extraordinary progress,” said Hank D’Alessandro ’85, chair of the Board of Regents and the Presidential Search Committee.
Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R., archbishop of
Newark, said Monsignor Reilly has impressed him “with his abiding faith, keen intellect and genuine care for the entire University.” The cardinal chairs the Board of Trustees and is president of the Board of Regents.
Monsignor Reilly has played some key roles in Rome. St. John Paul II named him a chaplain to His Holiness in 2005 and Pope Francis appointed him a Missionary of Mercy in 2015. He has served the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops as a member of the Faithful Citizenship Strategy Committee and the Catholic Social Teaching Task Force.
He holds a Bachelor of Sacred Theology (S.T.B.) from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome; a Licentiate in Sacred Theology (S.T.L.) from Pontificio Istituto Teresianum in Rome; and a Ph.D. in Educational Administration from Fordham University.
“I cannot wait to engage our community as together we strive to bring new life to the timeless Catholic mission that makes Seton Hall unique among American universities,” Monsignor Reilly said.
Katia Passerini, Ph.D., who has served the University as interim president since July 2023 will return to her role as provost and executive vice president.
New Dean Named at Law School
Ronald Weich, J.D., will become the new dean of the Seton Hall School of Law on July 1, coming to campus from the University of Baltimore School of Law, where he has served as dean since 2012.
While at Baltimore Law, he led a faculty of 45 tenured and tenure-track professors, as well as many adjunct faculty members, teaching fellows, and professors of practice.
Before his academic career, Weich worked for more than 20 years in Washington, D.C., spending four years as assistant attorney general for legislative affairs in the U.S. Justice Department during the Obama administration. He also served as chief counsel for Sens. Edward Kennedy and Harry Reid, and was as a partner in the firm of Zuckerman Spaeder LLP.
Broadcast Reunion
After sharing dozens of games in a television booth, veteran announcers Bob Picozzi ’72 and Doris Burke got together at the University Center in February for an hour-long discussion of basketball and their careers in broadcasting.
More than 100 students, faculty, alumni and visitors turned out to see them, and even more watched the conversation as it was livestreamed.
Burke talked about growing up in Manasquan, N.J., her playing days at Providence, and her more than 30-year broadcasting career with ESPN. Recently she was promoted to a color analyst role on the network’s top NBA broadcasting team, and in June she becomes the first female TV analyst to call the NBA Finals.
“The level of acceptance has changed dramatically,” Burke said. “There are going to be people listening to the NBA Finals who’ll say, ‘She shouldn’t be there.’ That’s already been stated … but open-mindedness to the presence of women [as sports broadcasters] is starting to grow.”
She and Picozzi reminisced on some of their fondest memories working together, when Picozzi was a play-by-
He began his career in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office as an assistant district attorney after graduating from Yale Law School. As an undergraduate, he studied at Columbia University and the London School of Economics.
“Dean Weich believes that law is more than a profession; it is a calling to help one’s neighbors,” said Erik Lillquist, J.D., Seton Hall’s interim provost and executive vice president. “His perspective and wide experience will certainly help advance Seton Hall Law among the nation’s best and most dynamic centers of legal education.”
play college football and basketball announcer for ESPN for 19 years.
During a question-answer period, a student asked Burke how to get ahead in the competitive sports broadcasting field.
“Get behind a microphone and in front of a camera as quickly as possible,” she said. “Repetition is where you build skill and confidence, so don’t bemoan the job you don’t have. No matter how small the job you’re doing is, do it to the best of your ability, and you will be shocked at how incremental changes start to happen.”
Summit Focuses on Student Mental Health
Anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts are at an all-time high among students on college campuses, experts noted as they gathered at Seton Hall in January for the first New Jersey Higher Education Mental Health Summit.
Most of the 500 professionals there for the day-long discussions had jobs that put them in direct contact with students in need of help — staff from offices of student affairs, campus police and safety, residence life, athletics, health services and staff focused on diversity, equity, inclusion and justice.
But when rapper Darryl McDaniels, co-founder of the hip-hop group Run DMC, delivered the keynote speech and shared his own struggles with mental health, the message became clear.
“I want to take away the stigma from the mental health situation, and I believe I can contribute to making that change now after going through what I’ve been through,” said McDaniels, better known by his stage name, DMC. “The greatest thing that I’ve done in my life is that I went to therapy and I was able to sit there and talk about how I felt with everything.”
Speaking to those who work with students daily outside the classroom, McDaniels stressed the importance of keeping in touch on a human level, checking on mental wellbeing and allowing chances for students to convey their true feelings, while offering up psychological support.
“Often we need these opportunities like this to refresh our spirit and to restore our strength so that we can be the pillar of support when the students need us,” said Seton Hall Interim President Katia Passerini, Ph.D.
GREENE HONORED FOR SERVICE TO HISTORY
More than 30 years of service to the New Jersey Historical Commission earned Larry Greene, M.A. ’70, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of History, the commission’s highest honor for contributions to the study of the state’s history.
Greene received the Richard J. Hughes Award on March 5 for his lifetime contributions, as well as his extensive research, teaching and publishing related to the history of African Americans in New Jersey and elsewhere.
Greene directed the University’s Multiculture Program from 1993 to 2006 and chaired the History Department from 1979 to 1993. In addition to teaching classes in American History, the Civil War and Reconstruction and African-American History,
he leads seminars exploring the work of American author James Baldwin and the cultural movement of the Harlem Renaissance.
“What I love most about being a historian,” Greene says, “is discovering new links on how the past has shaped the present — both the successes and failures of human beings.”
He was a member of the historical commission from 1991 until retiring this year; and chaired the group from 2005 to 2008.
“I love teaching about American history, for it allows me to talk about the achievements of the nation and the problems which need to be addressed in order for democracy to continue and evolve.”
THE SETONIAN CELEBRATES 100 YEARS
Student journalists, faculty, alumni and members of the University community gathered to celebrate The Setonian on March 19, exactly 100 years from the date that the first edition of the campus newspaper was published in 1924.
The Setonian Centennial Celebration included a catered dinner and a speech by B.J. Schecter, the paper’s adviser, about the importance of the student newspaper. Emma Thumann, the editor-in-chief, and Serena Davis, the managing editor, also spoke on the history of The Setonian.
Nick Scalera ’63 spoke with Schecter and reminisced about his time as editor-in-chief of The Setonian in the 1960’s, including his hard-hitting news stories and how
far the newspaper has come since he was a student.
Patti Williams ‘74, also in attendance, was recognized and celebrated as the paper’s first female editor-in-chief, an important milestone.
To honor the paper’s anniversary, the Monsignor Noe Field Archives and Special Collections Center at University Libraries is working to digitize the entire archive of Setonian issues, back to the founding issue. The first 25 years — 1924 through 1949 — have been scanned and are now available online.
This fall the Walsh Gallery will dedicate its fall exhibition to The Setonian’s centennial, using old issues from the archives to highlight historic and cultural events on campus and the world over the last 100 years.
WSOU EARNS TOP AWARD
The National Association of Broadcasters honored Seton Hall’s student-run radio station, WSOU 89.5 FM, with its national Marconi Radio College Station of the Year Award last fall, the second Marconi that the station has earned.
The Marconis, known as the “Academy Awards of Radio,” are presented to stations and on-air personalities to recognize excellence in radio broadcasting. Winners are voted on by the Marconi Selection Academy after a committee of broadcasters selects the finalists from nominees around the country.
WSOU won the Marconi Award for “Non-Commercial Radio Station of the Year” in 2016, before the college station category was created.
The station, which is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, has been recognized with more than 70 industry awards, including a Peabody Award, and was named a “Top 5 Radio Station” in the country by Rolling Stone magazine. WSOU was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2018.
The recent recognition was especially fitting as WSOU, founded in 1948, celebrated its 75th anniversary of operation last year, noted Bryan Crable, Ph.D., dean of the College of Human Development, Culture, and Media.
“To have Seton Hall recognized as the home of the college radio station of the year is an honor, and it again testifies to the hard work and dedication of the great minds — and voices — of our students in the college,” said Crable.
Grant to Support ‘Preaching as Hospitality’
A$1.25 million grant will help the Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology establish a “Preaching as Hospitality” program, with the goal of showing students how to become inviting preachers.
“Hospitality — the act of welcoming, including, listening to, and empathizing with others — is of vital importance in today’s world,” said Reverend Monsignor Gerard H. McCarren, S.T.D., rector/dean of the school. “And the greatest example of it we find in the life of Jesus Christ.”
The program is being funded through Lilly Endowment’s Compelling Preaching Initiative, which aims to support preaching that inspires, encourages and guides people in the Christian faith.
The five-year program will include evenings of reflection, prayer and presentations centered on the theme of hospitality in the New Testament, and the application of hospitality to the ministry of preaching. The program also will include an annual University parish mission, revised courses and new elective courses in the Ministry of Preaching and Hospitality.
In years three through five, the program will offer Pauline Preaching Clinics to help participants learn from Saint Paul’s ways of welcoming and sharing the Word of God.
“This grant gives us the wherewithal to create a future where our communities are more hospitable, our hearts more open and our faith more vibrant,” said Katia Passerini, Ph.D., interim president of Seton Hall University.
SHU IN THE NEWS
“The tests are not measuring how much students learned or can learn. They are predominately measuring the family and community capital of the student.”
Christopher Tienken, College of Human Development, Culture and Media, Forbes, discusses states’ big standardized test data.
“By far the most common conversation I’ve had is students coming in to talk to me, just wanting to talk about why it’s happening.”
R. Joseph Huddleston, School of Diplomacy and International Relations, NJ Spotlight News, discusses the public debate on college campuses around the Israel-Hamas war effects.
“We have data that shows that [nurse practitioners and advanced practice nurses] prescribe less than physicians do. And based on what happened during the COVID pandemic, we proved ourselves that we certainly can do this without any type of physician oversight.”
Mary Ellen Roberts, College of Nursing, PBS Think Tank with Steve Adubato, on legislation around the full practice authority bill for nurse practitioners.
“Celebrities have always influenced politics, from … Ronald Reagan to the influence of certain people like Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand and Oprah Winfrey.”
Brandon Valeriano, School of Diplomacy and International Relations, Dazed, on whether Taylor Swift could sway the 2024 presidential election.
“It would be reasonable to believe that the astronomical coaching salaries coupled with TV and advertising revenue has impacted the public’s perception of college athletics.”
Daniel Ladik, Stillman School of Business and chief methodologist of the Seton Hall Sports Poll, The Wall Street Journal
IN PURSUIT OF OPPORTUNITY AND IMPACT
Kai Hansen has enjoyed a wide variety of experiences in his life. Now he’s working to provide a ccess to opportunities for others.
There was no doubt in his mind. Kai Hansen would enroll at Seton Hall. It was a decision he made easily after visiting the University and nearby New York City during his senior year of high school in 2021, setting in motion the next leg of his journey to embrace all the world had to offer.
He and his family lived in Texas at the time, but Hansen had spent much of his youth — from age 7 through 16 — living in East Africa. His father was a volunteer surgeon missionary at a small hospital in Kijabe, Kenya, a town on the edge of the Great Rift Valley and about 30 miles from Nairobi, the country’s capital city.
Kenya was Hansen’s home throughout a formative part of his life, he says. His experiences there were infused with local culture and global character. He attended an international boarding school with hundreds of students from around the world, but he didn’t live on the campus. He lived with his family in the community.
“There was a simplicity to just being able to walk everywhere and to know everyone and be known,” he says. While he considers himself to be fast-paced these days, he remembers Kijabe for “its grace, the community, the patience — it’s a kind of cultural patience.”
A life exposed to an expanse of different experiences is what Hansen knew and loved; he was eager to go to a college where he would have his choice of opportunities. During his time at Seton Hall, Hansen also has entrenched himself in activities to help others get access to support and resources — including some that can be lifesaving.
One of his first initiatives as Student Government Association president — he was elected in 2023 — was the launch of a public health program that aims to prevent drug-related deaths. Aware of the nation’s opioid crisis, Hansen wanted Seton Hall to be part of the movement to make naloxone nasal spray more widely available because of its ability to rapidly reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.
In collaboration with the Office of the Dean of
Students and other University groups, he started a program to train students to administer naloxone spray.
“Narcan [a brand name of naloxone] is a product that can truly save lives at a very marginal cost,” he says.
“Out of the gate, Kai hit the ground running and accomplished those trainings, which are still going on,” says Winston Roberts, the University’s assistant vice president for student services and the dean of student engagement. “Kai brings a level of maturity to his role as a student leader. He thinks with an empathetic sense.”
Hansen’s career ambitions are also health related. His undergraduate majors are chemistry, philosophy and business administration — yes, three majors — and he’s also a researcher in the campus laboratory of Professor Alexander Fadeev in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
“My interest is in materials science, specifically making medical materials with antimicrobial and antifouling properties for coating medical devices, such as scissors used in surgery, to help reduce contamination and infection occurrences,” Hansen says. Surgical site infections are a major issue in health care, with the highest risks being in developing countries, he says. That’s why he envisions his future career to include helping find solutions in sub-Saharan Africa, where complex resource limitations are painfully impacting human health.
“In regions of the world where they don’t have the cleanest water supply, the ability to sterilize medical equipment for reuse is compromised,” he says. “If I can find ways to decrease the risk of surgery complications by making antibacterial or self-cleaning coatings for medical devices, then that could save lives.”
After Seton Hall, Hansen plans to enter an M.D./Ph.D. graduate program. He acknowledges that his academic and career paths may change, but he’s sure — as sure as he was about Seton Hall — that he wants to make a difference in the world. n
Lori (Varga) Riley, M.A. ‘06, is a freelance writer living in New Jersey.
Photo by Michael Paras
ECONOMICS AS A SOCIAL SCIENCE
Paola Suarez Rocabado, Ph.D., combines her global perspective with a love of economic development.
What makes one country wealthy and another poor? And within those countries, what causes the wealth gaps between genders? These were a few of the questions pondered by Paola A. Suarez, Ph.D., assistant professor of economics in the Stillman School of Business, when considering a major for undergraduate studies at George Mason University.
As an immigrant from Bolivia who arrived to the United States in high school, Suarez’s curiosity was piqued through her own lens of comparison. “The difference in quality of life was enormous,” she explains. “Bolivia is a poor, developing country, but it’s not even close to the poorest. I was curious why, and when I took an economics class in high school, I became interested in economic development.”
Suarez entered George Mason with that curiosity intact and began pursuing a degree in economics. There she began to understand economic disparities and became interested in how that shook out along gender lines. “I found economics to be a powerful tool, and I loved that it’s so very broadly applicable,” she says. “It has helped me understand things about the world that I couldn’t before.”
As Suarez pursued economics through her academic career, she realized how much the field informs social science. To her, economics serves to identify patterns of human behavior in all walks of life. “It doesn’t explain everything,” she says, “but it can be applied in incredibly diverse ways.”
Suarez designed her thesis around the phenomenon of child brides in developing countries where parents exhibit strong preferences for sons. Her research concluded that the frequency of child bride arrangements in developing countries motivated the international community’s campaign to “end child marriage.” However, Suarez learned, although such efforts may improve some outcomes for females — like health and education — they may worsen others. This is particularly true in countries with a strong preference for sons, such as India.
More recently, Suarez has turned her attention to women in the labor market in the United States. “There are different characteristics in the jobs women seek versus men,” she explains. “The distinct investments in education and work experience made by women versus men are tied to the difference in the demand for care-taking activities that women tend to disproportionately face.”
Suarez and a colleague explored the types of jobs women seek in traditional and gig economy jobs. Using the Occupational Information Network database, Suarez found that women seek jobs that allow for greater flexibility. “This might look like jobs with a shorter workweek, for example, or jobs that offer autonomy in completing required tasks,” she says. “But when traditional jobs pose constraints, especially when women are the main childcare provider, they are more likely to seek out independent contract work.” n
Amanda Loudin is a Maryland-based freelance writer.
As an immigrant from Bolivia who arrived to the United States in high school, Suarez’s curiosity was piqued through her own lens of comparison.
Photo by Michael Paras
FEMININE SPIRIT
A career in support of a Catholic all-girl educational experience
Marissa Muoio ’12/M.A. ’14/Ed.D. ’19 never pictured herself at an all-girls high school. She loved sports, and most of her friends were boys. But the strong softball team at Mount St. Dominic Academy, a girls school in Caldwell, enticed her to at least check things out.
By the end of her initial visit, Muoio was convinced: “This is the place for me.”
And she remains a part of the all-girls experience today. As head of the upper school at Stuart Country Day School of the Sacred Heart in Princeton, Muoio is now on the other side of the desk, working to ensure that current and future generations can have an all-girls Catholic school education like the one she did.
“I think the power of an all-girls space is really helping students find their voice,” she says, “and that’s still so needed in this world.” Whether it’s speaking up in class or trying out a new sport for the first time, Muoio believes her students are more likely to take risks big and small when they’re among only other girls.
It also means that every leadership post — heading up the mock trial team, running model United Nations, serving on student government — is held by a girl. “And in the classroom, every single hand raised and called on is a girl, every conversation is led by a girl,” she adds.
Stuart’s status as a Sacred Heart school allows it to infuse another layer of impact, too, according to Muoio.
“Serving girls, we see the rates of anxiety and depression and the pressures that they’re facing,” she says. “Having the spiritual component to lean on — I’ve seen it make a real difference in the lives of students.”
Her own Catholic schooling experience started long before she enrolled at Mount St. Dominic — “I’ve been educated in Catholic schools since I was 3 years old,” she says — and it extended to her university education at Seton Hall.
She came in through the six-year speech pathology program, but ultimately stuck with a bachelor’s degree in elementary and special education. A walk-on for the girls’ softball team, Muoio grew close to Matt Geibel and Amanda DiDonato in the Office of Academic Support Services for Student-Athletes. As her graduation date neared, they encouraged her to apply for a graduate assistantship position in their office.
She spent the next two years in that post, tutoring student-athletes and simultaneously earning a master’s in library media studies. She continued straight into the doctor of education program for K-12 administration while also working at Mount St. Dominic Academy as a library media specialist and then dean of academics. “I had incredible mentors at Seton Hall and I truly loved going to class,” she says.
In her post at Stuart, Muoio often finds herself drawing on the principles of servant-leadership that
she absorbed during her decade at Seton Hall. When anyone approaches her with a problem, whether it’s a faculty member, a student or a family, her first instinct is to ask herself, “How can I serve this person best?”
Seton Hall’s motto, Hazard Zet Forward (whatever the peril, ever forward), continues to inspire her as well. “No leader has a smooth path,” she says. “You have to be willing to make changes and difficult decisions. Having the courage to do that is an important piece of leadership, and that’s something that I got from Seton Hall.”
Though she lists academic excellence as a top priority, Muoio says it’s vital to her that Stuart girls also learn the value of serving others. She drives the school’s Meals on Wheels route once a month, taking students into the community to deliver food. “It’s really powerful,” she says. “I think one of our greatest priorities is making sure that kids see outside of themselves and into what their impact can be on the world.”
Four years into her role at Stuart, and after more than a decade working in high schools, Muoio says education is truly “the best career you can have.”
“You will never have greater joy than you do on a day-to-day basis,” she says. “I love what I do.” n
Molly Petrilla is a freelance writer based in New Jersey.
Photo by Michael Paras
AN UNSTOPPABLE CYCLE OF Giving
How Lisa LoBue ’93/M.B.A. ’97 honored her mother’s spirit of giving with a gift of her own
All her life, Carolyn Kryda LoBue, R.N. knew she wanted to be a nurse. At age 21, she earned a nursing diploma at Bayonne Hospital School of Nursing, and then went on to serve the hospital as an emergency room nurse for 50 years.
In the ER, she saw patients of all ages, including children with severe injuries and illnesses. She attended patients with burns, heart attacks, strokes and addiction problems. She was on the first line of defense during the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s. And while every now and then there was a happy story, like a baby being born, for the most part her job was demanding, exasperating and sometimes dangerous.
Yet she thrived on the challenge, and worked until she was 71, retiring just two years before passing away from cancer in 2020.
Now, in memory of her selfless spirit, her daughter, Lisa LoBue ’93/M.B.A. ’97, a graduate of the Stillman School of Business, is leaving a portion of her estate to create the Carolyn Kryda LoBue R.N. Memorial Endowed Scholarship for Nursing. The endowed scholarship will, in perpetuity, enable countless students to prepare for careers in nursing.
In the face of a growing nursing shortage in the U.S., the LoBue Scholarship someday will help Seton Hall nursing students like Emily Guerrero, Class of 2024.
“I really wanted to have a close impact with people I worked with and serve people around me,” Guerrero said of her career choice. “This really aligns with Seton Hall’s mission, so that’s why I chose Seton Hall. I’m a first-generation college student and the first in my family to go into health care. So, my graduation is really going to mean a lot to me and my family.”
But Guerrero wouldn’t have been able to pursue her education if she hadn’t been granted a four-year scholarship. “I have the support not only of my family, but also the scholarship donors. It relieves so much stress from both me and my family.”
It was stories like this that Lisa LoBue considered when contemplating where her estate could make the most impact. “In my mind, I always thought Seton Hall and Rutgers are the two traditional universities in New Jersey that have nursing programs. I wanted to support one of them, but particularly Seton Hall, since I’m an alumna.”
LoBue herself benefited from a Seton Hall academic scholarship that covered half her tuition. “My mom paid for the other half, as well as my room and board, so I actually graduated debt-free, which is a gift by itself.”
After the Office of Career Services helped her secure an internship, she worked for 25 years at the corporation which began as AT&T and became Lucent Technologies, Alcatel and then Nokia. When told that her position was moving to Texas, she left to accept a position at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, working in their CFO group. But despite her long career in the world of business, when considering a philanthropic gift, she chose to support the field of nursing.
“Even though I worked very hard and worked a lot of hours, what my mother was doing as a nurse was completely different. It’s more peoplefocused. She was supporting people when they’re most in need, I was looking to really honor my mom’s memory.”
She recalls that two years after retirement, her mother was still active helping others, volunteering at a soup kitchen, a charity that provides eyeglasses to the needy and an organization that coordinates organ donations.
“I admired the fact that my mom was working in the capacity she was late in her career,” her daughter says. “And, when she retired, she was still giving back to three organizations. She was a giver.” n
Zamoyta is Seton Hall’s director of advancement and campaign communications.
Photo courtesy of Lisa LoBue
Ruth
And Justice for All
With his appointment to the New Jersey Supreme Court, Justice Michael Noriega, J.D. ’02 became the first public defender to join the state’s top court.
On the day last summer when he was sworn in as the newest justice on the New Jersey Supreme Court, Michael Noriega, J.D.’02 took a few moments alone, before anyone had gathered for the ceremony, to survey the silent, empty courtroom where he would be serving. It is a hushed, austere, windowless chamber on the top floor of the Richard J Hughes Justice Complex in Trenton, and at the top of the state’s judicial system — the place where legal questions come to receive their final judgment.
Noriega had been there twice before, arguing cases before the court, but his two decades as a lawyer had left him more familiar with clamorous courtrooms where robberies, assaults, drug offenses, homicides and other felonies file through in wholesale lots. He spent his first five years after Seton Hall University’s School of Law with the state Office of the Public Defender in Essex County, handling as many as 150 cases at a time, and taking more than 30 to jury trials. He continued defense
work in private practice and developed a specialty in immigration law.
Now he was about to become the first former public defender to serve on the state Supreme Court. When he was nominated by Gov. Phil Murphy, the governor said he wanted someone “who didn’t just learn how our judicial system works in a textbook but had the real-world experience of fighting for their clients and giving them the representation they are entitled to under the law.”
“Public defenders see firsthand how the law impacts ordinary people,” Murphy said. “A public defender does not get to choose their clients. More often than not, they represent individuals from our most marginalized communities in their greatest moment of need.”
Noriega sailed through his confirmation hearings, approved by a unanimous vote in the state Senate, the sweet realization of the future his father had predicted for him back in law school. He had moved back home to Union City after earning his undergraduate degree from Rutgers, commandeering as his study a room with a sliding window that opened onto the dining area. He pasted on it a Seton Hall logo with the scales of justice. The courtroom, his father took to calling it; “Judge,” he took to calling his son.
“And that was just what he called me for the rest of his life,” Noriega said of his father, a Peruvian immigrant, who died in 2011. “In his mind, a judge was the ultimate level of a legal career. He believed that it
“...And I’ve had to catch myself a time or two, while intensely focusing on the oral arguments, when I look around and see the other justices engaged in a dialogue with the attorneys and sort of lose myself in the moment, amazed by where I am.”
was a logical progression; you became a lawyer and eventually, a judge.”
On that day alone in the courtroom, Noriega measured the distance he had come. “I stood at my chair for a couple of minutes, looked out and couldn’t believe my good fortune that this would be my seat,” he said. “It was surreal, and I don’t know that it will ever stop being that way. And I’ve had to catch myself a time or two, while intensely focusing on the oral arguments, when I look around and see the other justices engaged in a dialogue with the attorneys and sort of lose myself in the moment, amazed by where I am.”
His father proved right about his son’s career trajectory, but not about the nomenclature. As the U.S. Supreme Court is the final arbiter of federal law, so is the New Jersey Supreme Court the final arbiter of state law, and the jurists who sit on those courts are not called judges. Michael Noriega was sworn in that day as Justice Noriega.
wanted to be a lawyer, as a Rutgers sophomore majoring in American Studies. Among the reasons he chose Seton Hall for law school was its vigorous moot court program.
“I assumed that my classmates wanted to be in a courtroom as much as I did,” he said. “I was shocked by how many people were not, that the majority of them wanted to be transactional. They were happy about the possibility of being at a desk, dealing with paper, contracts and such, and not having to stand in front of anyone to say anything.”
Whereas Noriega always had something to say, even as a boy growing up with two brothers in a small apartment. “It was an ongoing joke that people had been saying since I was little, that I just would not stop talking,” he said.
Noriega had less occasion for reflection on his first day in court in his first job as a public defender. A note was waiting on his desk when he arrived at his Newark office that first morning.
“Meet me at the courthouse,” it said. “I have your files.” He raced to the Essex County Veterans Courthouse and found his colleague in a ninth-floor courtroom with 16 case files. “And 10 minutes later, I was in the back in the holding cell speaking to a client before going on the record for the first time,” he said. “Baptism by fire to the nth degree.”
It was a probation violation case, and his argument on behalf of the client he had just met didn’t fly. “It was devastating, because minutes later they took him out in handcuffs and he was going into jail for a while,” Noriega said. “I felt like a tremendous failure my first time out.”
But failure or not, he was in a courtroom, which is where he wanted to be from the moment he decided he
His parents met in medical school in Peru and were doctors working at a military hospital — his father a cardiologist, his mother an obstetrician — when they decided to follow the urgings of his mother’s two brothers, who had already settled in New Jersey. “My dad was moonlighting as a cab driver and it was tough making ends meet in Peru,” said Noriega. “It seemed like a much more promising endeavor here.”
One of his uncles had a job delivering computer parts for IBM, and to help stay awake on long drives he enlisted as his wingman his loquacious young nephew. “He would ask me to make sure to read a book beforehand so that I could explain it to him,” Noriega said. “So the first one I picked was The Stand, by Stephen King, which was the biggest book I could find, about 1,000 pages, and I did my best to recount the entire book for him from beginning to end.”
Noriega’s father worked in a cardiologist’s office, his mother as a nurse, and as a boy he watched their determined, and ultimately frustrated, efforts to become licensed to practice as physicians in the U.S. “I think that there were times when they almost abandoned being here,” he said. “But ultimately, they gave up everything, including their careers and families for us. They saw what the schools were like, they saw how we were doing
and how we were growing. And they saw it as a better fit for us.”
His parents bought a small business — travel agency, tax preparation, insurance — and the building that housed it from some friends and moved into the apartment upstairs. The boys went to Catholic school, Holy Rosary Academy and then, for Michael, Saint Peter’s Prep. He met his wife — Melissa, a school psychologist — at Rutgers and he can still impress their four daughters by saying the “Our Father” in Latin.
He clerked for a judge, interned for the public defender in Bergen County and had applied to a dozen county prosecutors when a friend from the defenders’ office steered him toward an interview. The same day he accepted a job as a public defender he got letters from four county prosecutors offering interviews.
“I still believe that I could have started my career on the state side and it would have been just as rewarding,” he said. “The most exhilarating thing that a lawyer can do, in my opinion, is to stand up and argue on someone’s behalf, on either side — being the one responsible for those arguments and being a tool through which the victim, the state or the defendant can make their case known. Working with somebody to prepare for a trial provides insight into their humanity — watching them make decisions about the rest of their lives, regardless of the charges.”
After five years with the Office of the Public Defender, Noriega opened a private practice in Newark, sharing an office with a friend he met at law school, Remi Spencer, J.D. 02, who, after serving as assistant prosecutor in Union County, had also started her own practice. “Long overdue, for the court and for the state,” said Spencer, now a prominent criminal defense attorney and president of the law school’s alumni council, about Noriega’s appointment. “Public defenders and criminal lawyers bring a different perspective to the bench, and it’s a necessary one, because so much of what that court does is going to impact the way criminal trials are handled. And so to have someone who did that, who is so good at that, it’s just remarkable.”
Noriega taught appellate advocacy at Seton Hall Law, a required second-year class, for eight years as he built his practice, until he became a partner at the firm of Jon Bramnick, a Republican state senator. “He’s so engaging, so warm, so supportive, his students absolutely loved him,” said Lara Pennington, who taught another section of the class at the same time and now directs the appellate advocacy program at the school. “He’s got the perfect demeanor for somebody who metes out justice.”
There are no holding cells in the state Supreme Court, no anxious defendants, no stemwinding jury summations, no histrionic objections, no burly court officers to corral unruly families, none of the pathos and drama and tedium of the trial courts. There are just papers and words. A few days each month, Noriega and the six other justices file into the courtroom to hear what are called “arguments” — lawyers from both sides of a case trying to persuade them to uphold a decision the lower courts had made, or to overturn it.
“It’s not really an argument, I think that’s a misnomer,” said Pennington, who teaches law students how to write the kind of briefs the court reads and present the kind of oral arguments it hears. “It’s an intellectual conversation, and it’s an opportunity to explain and to answer judges’ questions and to address things that might be a little bit fuzzy.”
Noriega is now on the receiving end of the kind of appeals he used to write and present and teach himself. “There were always fires to put out, everywhere and in every direction,” he said about life before the bench. “Now it’s more focused work, less fire.”
More than 1,000 petitions reach the Supreme Court each year, some carrying thousands of pages of trial transcripts for the justices to review as they weigh which cases to accept; fewer than 100 make it to a courtroom hearing. One day in February, the case before the court
was about a former teacher charged with sexual assault of a student.
The trial had been halted because of a dispute over the admissibility of the videotaped statement from the student, taken when she was 8. She was 15 when the case finally came to trial and said she could no longer recall three of the four incidents she had initially recounted to investigators. The trial judge ruled that her video statements about those three incidents could not be used as evidence; the appellate court disagreed and ruled that it could. Now it was the Supreme Court’s turn.
The case hinged on a constitutional issue: Would using the full video as evidence violate the defendant’s right “to be confronted with the witnesses against him,” as guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment?
Noriega had come to the court from the defense bar, and the first opinion he wrote was a dissent. The court ruled in that case that a warrantless search by police of a bag left behind by a fleeing suspect was permissible; Noriega disagreed. “A defendant’s criminal behavior is not an automatic license to short circuit the Constitution,” he wrote. But in his first question from the bench in this case, directed at the defense attorney who was arguing that the video would introduce evidence that could not be properly rebutted, he sounded more like the prosecutor he once thought he would become.
“There is no opportunity to impeach her as to these allegations,” the defense lawyer said.
“You’re not entitled under the Constitution to impeach witnesses,” Noriega said. “You’re simply entitled to a fair cross examination.”
Then the attorney for the state stood to argue that the video should be admitted, and the question he got from Noriega came from the other direction. “She specifically did not recall those three incidents, she didn’t recall the incidents happening, she didn’t recall even speaking to the detective about them,” Noriega said about the girl. “Shouldn’t that be troubling to the state to present those aspects of the case as evidence?”
Noriega taught appellate advocacy at Seton Hall Law, a required secondyear class, for eight years as he built his practice, until he became a partner at the firm of Jon Bramnick, a Republican state senator.
Supreme Court decisions aren’t rendered in the courtroom — they are issued in opinions many weeks later — and after an hour and a quarter on the fate of the video, the justices filed out through the door behind the bench. Another case, bringing them another set of legal knots to untangle, awaited after lunch.
“That’s what good judges and justices do, probe both sides to make sure that they have fully answered the questions that they have about both perspectives,” Lara Pennington said, reflecting on Noriega’s abilities.
“To each recollection she fails to have you can ask the question, ‘Are you making this up?’ and you’ll get an answer, so where is the denial of an opportunity to fully have every question answered?” he asked the defense attorney.
“But that also is just in keeping with who he is as very fair minded, as somebody who wants to find the right answer to the legal question—to the extent that a justice is capable of doing.” n
Kevin Coyne is a freelance writer based in New Jersey.
LOST to TIME
Professor William Connell uncovers an important historical document in an antiques shop on the Amalfi Coast of Italy.
ON JUNE 21, 2018, William Connell walked into an antiques shop in Amalfi, a picturesque Italian port on the northern shore of the Gulf of Salerno.
Connell, a professor of history and the La Motta Endowed Chair in Italian Studies at Seton Hall, had come to Italy to discuss The Routledge History of Italian Americans, a recently published book he had conceived and co-edited, at the annual literary festival in Salerno. While in Salerno, Connell boarded a ferry to Amalfi, where he toured the medieval cathedral in the Piazza del Duomo. Back at the ferry terminal, he learned there would be a wait for the boat that would return him to Salerno, so he ducked into a nearby antiques shop, looking for books to help bolster Seton Hall’s Valente Italian Library.
Connell had already cultivated a distinguished career as a historian and researcher with an interest in the Italian Renaissance. He had written a book on the Renaissance political philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli and published a translation of Machiavelli’s iconic The Prince. He received a $200,000 Andrew Carnegie fellowship grant that funded three years of research for, among other projects, a study of migrant labor practices in Renaissance Florence.
His new book had been an ambitious project, involving 40 writers and culminating in a 692-page tome. It earned him a U.S.-Italian Fulbright Commission 75th Anniversary Prize, for which he was feted last year in a ceremony in Rome.
Inside the antiques shop in Amalfi, Connell came upon four manuscripts — three written in Italian, one in Latin — two of them, he quickly discerned, from the 16th century. “There were these four old manuscripts, bound, so they looked like books,” Connell recalls, “but when I opened them up, they were handwritten manuscripts.”
It’s worth noting that Connell had walked into the shop bearing all the scholarly skills and subject matter mastery honed over a career in which he’d spent countless hours poring over centuries-old texts, some of them written in medieval Latin, with scribbled notations or abbreviations, in archives and libraries across the Italian peninsula. “So I have paleographic expertise, I guess one could say,” he notes. And though he did not have the time in the shop to read
the texts at length — the ferry, after all, was on its way — Connell was confident they were worthy of their sale price of 500 euros each, the rough equivalent of $2,000 for all four. He brought the manuscripts home.
Back in South Orange, Connell embarked on the painstaking task of identifying the authors, translating the texts and, to ensure they had not been stolen or forged, verifying their provenance. It was not long before one of the texts stood out for the extraordinary nature of its content. Written in 1541, titled Della Republica Ecclesiastica (Of the Ecclesiastical Republic), and dedicated to Niccolò Ridolfi, an exiled Florentine cardinal, the manuscript bore only its author’s initials — M.D.G. The text contained a well-researched history of the Catholic Church, but with a surprise ending.
The final chapter was titled “Come si possa emendare la Chiesa Romana” (How the Roman Church can be amended). The author was proposing a radical realignment in the hierarchy that would reduce papal powers and introduce a more republican constitution to Church affairs. This was necessary, the author argued, because a series of tyrannical popes had exercised rampant abuses of power.
The author recommended that sitting cardinals, not the pope, appoint new cardinals. New bishops would be elected by the clergy, in consultation with the laity in each diocese. And the bishops, the author made clear, should be resident in their dioceses. During the Renaissance, Connell says, it was not unusual for bishops and cardinals to rule over multiple dioceses, even, in some cases, ones that were overseas. According to the reform proposed in Della Republica Ecclesiastica, bishops would be confined to a single diocese.
Reading the text, Connell’s eyes widened. He recognized the thorough manner in which the author had recounted Church history through the centuries, and the author’s concluding manifesto struck him as entirely novel.
“The idea of making it a republic,” Connell says of the author’s conclusion, “turning the pope into a figurehead, like the doge of Venice, having the Church run by the College of Cardinals as a senate, was something that I had never encountered in my studies of Italian history,
studies of Church history, and so forth. So right away that triggered the interest.”
But who was the author?
Connell was aware of a prominent 16th-century writer — a friend of Machiavelli, in fact — who was a brilliant scholar, a professor of Greek, a leading thinker of the Italian Renaissance, and a Florentine exiled by the Medici regime who later resettled in Rome. He had written two books on the proper governance of the republics of Florence and Venice, published in 1538 and 1540, respectively. His name was Donato Giannotti.
A former professor of Connell’s had published a book on Giannotti’s correspondence in Latin, a book Connell happened to own, and in its pages he came across a letter that Giannotti had written to Cardinal Ridolfi in 1541. Giannotti told Ridolfi he was close to completing a book dedicated to the cardinal, and he identified the book by its title: Della Republica Ecclesiastica. The author’s identity, Connell says, “was nailed down by that letter.” As for the M in the initials on the manuscript, Connell says it stood for Messer, a courtesy title, reserved for Renaissance-era elites, that translates to “My Lord.”
Connell now knew he possessed a significant historical document, for he understood Della Republica Ecclesiastica to be the first modern history of the Catholic Church to be written by a layperson.
MONSIGNOR THOMAS GUARINO , a professor emeritus of systematic theology at Seton Hall, describes Connell’s research into Della Republica Ecclesiastica as “a terrific piece of scholarship” that “gives great honor to the University.” Last fall, in a joint presentation, Guarino compared the positions taken by Giannotti in the 16th century with the reform efforts of the Roman Catholic Church in the 20th and 21st centuries, in particular the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s. Of Connell, Guarino says: “I have enormous respect for his scholarship.”
What struck Connell most profoundly about Giannotti’s approach to Church reform was its nearly total disregard for religious doctrine and its focus instead on the best practices for governing the Church.
“When things were governed in this way,” Giannotti wrote, “ecclesiastical ranks would be given to honored people, and consequently their governments would be good, so that throughout the world priests would be loved and honored, and not as they are today hated and vilified.” He continued: “And if the government were to proceed in the way mentioned, the wealth of the Church would not be odious, because it would not be converted into the private conveniences of the pontiffs.”
Connell knew Giannotti to be an advocate for the distribution of authority — his earlier history of Venice had lauded the decentralized system of government in place while the city rose as an economic power. No doubt Giannotti’s own experience in Florence, where he was vilified under the tyranny of the Medicis, colored his views on autocracy.
“So he doesn’t try to justify his reform on the basis of Scripture,” Connell says. “He justifies his proposed reform on what he thinks will work best. And he sees a republican government working well in Venice, which he knew. And he’s studied all of the examples, from ancient Greece and ancient Rome, of republics and what things worked and didn’t work in those histories.”
Giannotti was both a Church insider and outsider. He served in non-clerical positions under his patron, Cardinal Ridolfi, and despite his criticism of papal abuses, he was very much a defender of the Catholic Church, particularly in the wake of the Protestant Reformation earlier in the 16th century.
“In fact,” Connell says, “the author cares about the Church functioning and surviving as an entity, rather than really worrying about questions of doctrine — that is, how people are saved. And he doesn’t think the Church should suffer division, or become a victim to abstract disputes, like the one with Martin Luther.
“In his history of the Church, Giannotti leaves aside accounts of miracles and the lives of saints. He wants the Church to be well governed. I remember thinking that this could be imagined as something like the critical report a consultant for McKinsey and Company might have written.”
While in the employ of Cardinal Ridolfi, Connell says,
Connell now knew he possessed a significant historical document, for he understood Della Republica Ecclesiastica to be the first modern history of the Catholic Church to be written by a layperson.
Giannotti wrote “ironically” about having to eat his meals “at the ringing of the bell.” At one point, Giannotti is given a prebend — regular income drawn from Church revenue.
“And he writes to a friend that he’s glad he won’t be called Reverend or have to dress like a priest in accepting the prebend. But he certainly values the Catholic Church. He’s strongly on its side against the Protestants. And he wants it to succeed.”
Giannotti wrote that the book was written at the behest of Ridolfi, and Connell surmises that because it espoused sweeping reforms that would have been fiercely opposed by powerful Church authorities, and because it was never published, the book would have been circulated among only a trusted few.
At the conclave of 1549-50, Giannotti served as Ridolfi’s conclavista — his secretary, or campaign manager — who would go from cell to cell passing messages to the cardinals who were assembled to elect a new pope. Ridolfi, in fact, was a favored candidate for the papacy, which leads Connell to conclude that few people, and certainly no one in a position of authority within the Church, knew of the book he had directed Giannotti to write less than a
decade earlier.“ If it had become known that the cardinal had asked such a book to be written, proposing to turn the Church into a republic, he would have had a difficult time of it,” Connell says.
At that very conclave, just as Ridolfi appeared to be on the verge of ascending to the papacy, he suddenly took ill. Within days, he was dead. Poisoning was suspected, and later confirmed by an autopsy, a turn of events still debated by Church historians half a millennia later.
IN MAY 2023, nearly five years after Connell had walked into the antiques shop in Amalfi, Della Republica Ecclesiastica was published. The 480-page book includes an 85-page introduction by Connell.
“[T]here is an undeniable nobility in the attempt of Giannotti to apply historical criticism in a rigorous way to the Church,” Connell writes, “not for erudition’s sake, nor to promote a set of doctrinal beliefs, but to improve an institution he hoped would become and remain a bulwark against tyranny.” n
Christopher Hann is a freelance writer and editor in New Jersey.
3 on 3
In a stellar college basketball career that included stops at Duke, Virginia Tech and Seton Hall, Azana Baines has used plenty of one-on-one skills during five-on-five contests. At practice and in pickup games, she worked hard in two-on-two battles. But last summer, Baines expanded her game by playing in competitive three-on-three tournaments that took her around the world.
Baines played on the women’s USA 3X3 U23 Nations Leagues team and excelled in a sport that will be featured in the Summer Olympics this year for only the second time.
“I didn’t even know that three-on-three was a thing,” Baines says. “But … it opened my eyes to a different style of basketball and gave me a bunch of different experiences that I never would’ve gotten without it.”
These aren’t the leisurely three-on-three games folks play at the YMCA. Fast-paced and intense, the games go by quickly — they last 10 minutes on the clock, or end when a team reaches 21 points. When Baines and her Seton Hall teammates traveled to a tournament in Colorado Springs, Colo., “We were like, sheesh, this game is quick because there are no breaks other than you calling timeout or dead-ball situations. That was the only breather that you got. So it definitely was an adjustment. And being in Colorado, the air is different there, so that didn’t help either.”
She adapted just fine. In Chile, Baines and her team captured first place in the U23 Nations League Americas conference, while in Mongolia her club finished fourth at the Nations League Final. But the results were almost secondary to the overall experience, which also featured treks to Canada and Hungary. While playing dozens of
games, she bonded with other Division I players, endured the longest plane ride of her life and savored experiences in different countries and cultures.
Once the summer ended and Baines was back with her teammates — including Kae Satterfield, who played with Team Puerto Rico — the change in her game was evident to Pirates coach Tony Bozzella ’89. “She’s come back with a sense of confidence, a sense of understanding. Obviously she’s gotten better skill-wise, defensively. … She made the point to us: in three-on-three, you’re out on an island, there’s not a lot of help in defense. You’ve got to guard the kid yourself, otherwise you’re going to look like an idiot.”
A star at New Jersey’s Gloucester Catholic, Baines was recruited by Seton Hall but said: “[I] wasn’t really a fan of being that close to home my first years of college. … But over the years of being away from my family for so long, I felt like it was time for me to come back as close as possible.”
After averaging 8.1 points in her first Seton Hall season, Baines put up big numbers throughout the 2023-24 campaign. She popped in 25 points against Rutgers and added 24 two games later against East Carolina. In a December upset victory over No. 23 UNLV, she hit 8-of-11 shots from the field for 23 points and collected 21 points against conference foe Villanova.
Some of the credit for her offensive success goes back to her three-on-three exploits. “Her three-point shooting — way better. Way better,” Bozzella says. “Her jump shooting has really improved, and it had to be because in that three-on-three tournament you’re playing against a lot of teams that have bigger, stronger women.”
From Baines’s perspective, “The one-on-one aspect of it made me more confident with the ball in my hands
and being able to make different moves, different reads. The game was so fast, it helped me make quicker decisions, so that’s something that really helped when the season started.”
When her college career ends, Baines hopes to make it in the WNBA but she also has “really high
aspirations to go overseas” and play. She would be well-prepared for the travel, thanks to last year’s globe-trotting adventures. And the same goes for her game. n
Shawn Fury is an author based in New York City.
Photo courtesy of Seton Hall Athletics
Scores of Magic
As Natalie Tavana tallied clutch goal after clutch goal last season for the women’s soccer team, Seton Hall’s social media accounts gave her a nickname befitting someone who conjured up scores whenever the Pirates needed them.
“The Magician gets number 9,” read the team’s Twitter feed when Tavana scored against St. John’s in a September victory.
“I think what they meant was some of my goals were incredibly unique,” Tavana says with a laugh. “I took my chances and some of the goals, I was like, that’s not going in. And it ended up going in, which was crazy. I’m also kind of creative in the attack. I try to bring as much as I can to jumble up the defense.”
Her stats also came from dedication and hard work. All told, Tavana scored a conference-best 12 goals and notched two assists for 26 points, earning BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Year honors. More importantly, her exploits spearheaded the finest Seton Hall season in a decade.
the lone goal in the win over St. John’s; the lone Pirates goal in a tie against Xavier; the lone SHU goal in a tie against No. 12 Georgetown; and finally, one of the goals in a 22 tie against Butler, a game that saw The Magician make a patented appearance.
“I have to shout out my Butler goal,” Tavana says. “I was facing the wrong way of the goal … and I was able to wrap my hips around it and hit it with my non-dominant foot, my left foot.”
Her stats also came from dedication and hard work.
All told, Tavana scored a conference-best 12 goals and notched two assists for 26 points, earning BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Year honors.
Seton Hall coach Josh Osit says of his star, “She’s got tremendous power with both feet, and she’s got a quick release. So if she has any space, it’s very difficult to get in front of her to block a shot.”
Growing up, Tavana played against older kids and always believed she “had to show my skills and prove to everyone, yeah, I’m young but I can be as good as you can be. … I had to think of different ways to score and perfect my technique.”
After notching three goals during her sophomore season, Tavana opened her 2023 campaign with a goal in a 2–1 victory over Central Connecticut State, followed by a three-goal performance against Binghamton as she became the first Pirate to record a hat trick since 2006. Tavana added two more against Le Moyne and then came up big in the biggest of BIG EAST games. The rundown:
Tavana praises teammates as effortlessly as she nets goals, noting how their work makes it easier for her to collect highlight-reel clips. “She’s a really smart kid and she has worked really hard as an individual to receive a lot of accolades she got this year,” Osit says. “But she also knows there’s no way she would’ve experienced the individual success that she had without her teammates. … I think there was a lot of mutual respect with Nat and her teammates because our work ethic as a program just grew so much.”
Past Seton Hall players also appreciated Tavana’s season, specifically the legendary Kelly Smith, who scored 76 goals during her career and made a video call to inform Tavana that she’d won the BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Year honors, the first Pirate to earn the award since Smith in 1999.
Now, as Tavana prepares for the 2024 season, she has her eyes set on more success for her team, which ended 2023 with a loss against Connecticut that kept the Pirates out of the conference playoffs. “I’m very excited to see the future of Seton Hall because we’re going to be a different program and everyone’s going to be looking at us differently next year,” Tavana says. “So I’m hungry to get out there for more.”
Good news for Seton Hall. Bad news for BIG EAST foes. n
Shawn Fury is an author based in New York City.
alumni
60s
Robert J. Tarte ’65/J.D. ’69 was awarded the Monsignor Joseph Granato Italian Culture Medal from Seton Hall University Alberto Institute for Italian Studies.
70s
Thomas J. DeConna ’75 published a novel titled Accustomed to the Dark, a social commentary set in New Jersey in the early 1960s, wrapped inside a coming-of-age story. Bruce L. Atkins, J.D. ’77 of Deutsch Atkins & Kleinfeldt, P.C. was named in the New Jersey Law Journal Best of Survey for 2023, as the firm was voted in the top three in Best Labor & Employment category. Daniel J. Bernier ’79 was awarded the Sarah P. Fiske Legacy & Leadership Award for Lifetime Achievement in historic preservation at Preservation New Jersey’s annual awards dinner in November.
80s
Valerie I. LaBoy ’80/M.B.A. ’82 opened a real estate brokerage called Tortuga Sands Realty, serving southwest Florida. Darrell W. Gunter ’81 wrote an article on artificial intelligence published in Research Information. Stephen Jarman ’81 is embarking on a third career, starting an organic farm agri-tourism site after serving 22 years in the U.S. Army and 18 years as operations manager for military police activities. Margaret (O’Connell) Nielsen ’82 and Jeffry F. Nielsen, J.D. ’90 celebrated 38 years of marriage in June 2023 by hiking to the summit of Mount Washington in New Hampshire. Jeffry serenaded Margaret with a slightly out-of-key version of the Motown hit “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.” Jack M. Ciattarelli ’84/ M.B.A. ’86 spoke with students in Associate Professor Matthew Hale’s Political Leadership course. Vincent L. Grassia, Jr. ’86/M.P.A. ’88 was named senior manager at Attain Partners and appointed interim senior director of operations and finance at Seattle Children’s Therapeutics.
Great Minds. Great Hearts. Enduring Legacies.
SETON HALL Famous PEOPLE of
Famous People of Seton Hall is a digital storytelling series dedicated to highlighting familiar faces within the campus community and among alumni. This series gives a glimpse into their lives and stories. Launched in 2020 through the Office of Alumni Engagement and Philanthropy, Famous People of Seton Hall allows readers to hear from many of the amazing individuals in our community who have walked through our University halls and have made an impact. They share their unique experiences, ideas and visions — reporting on their journeys while honoring their time and service at Seton Hall. Join us in celebrating diverse voices, various walks of life and enduring legacies that expand upon the Seton Hall experience.
You’ll read about individuals like:
Father Colin Kay, M.Div. ’04, Vice President, Mission and Ministry
“One of my most important guiding lights is that high road of faith, choosing to believe that we are all here on purpose, God’s purpose, to learn from one another, to teach one another, to ask questions together and to find our way to the true, and the good, and the beautiful.”
Brenda Knight, Secretary to the Dean, College of Arts and Sciences
“The fulfillment of working with all students is something I would never, ever, ever give up.”
Rezin “Mo” Morrison, Front Gate Security Guard
“Every time I wake up. God has given me the opportunity to be better than what I was yesterday. I have life in me, and that deserves to be celebrated.”
To learn more about Famous People of Seton Hall, and read about familiar faces within our campus community, visit www.shu.edu/famouspeople or scan the QR code. Questions? Email alumni@shu.edu.
A pesto with purpose
PROFILE
Sometimes life gives you lemons. In the case of Carina Castagna, B.A. ’21/M.P.A. ’22, life gave her basil, a father’s love and a business idea.
Castagna began her journey at Seton Hall with a steadfast strength that never let up; when she was deferred admission to the University, she did not take no for an answer. She wrote Seton Hall a letter expressing her love for the school and asked the University to reconsider. The letter, coupled with admission into the Educational Opportunity Program (EOP), paved her way into Seton Hall, and Castagna began her first-generation college career.
After Castagna graduated with her bachelor’s degree, she started work on a dual-degree master’s program. And it was then, with a year left to obtaining her degree, that her father passed away. She and her mother were devastated by the unexpected loss.
Her educational life was changing as well. She received an email about the Pirate LaunchPad Accelerator Program, a program begun by the Stillman School of Business Center of Innovation and Entrepreneurship to help students develop business startup ideas with an intensive online course.
It was then Castagna found a jar of pesto her father — known to family and friends as “Pesto Joe” — had made, hidden away in the freezer. She knew then her vision for a new business: Pesto Joe, a company based on the
memory of her father, who would make his pesto fresh each summer with a secret recipe, ever since she was a little girl.
It took copious amounts of trials to get the recipe just right. Her kitchen was filled with mounds of fresh basil from the garden, the specific measuring cups she had seen her father use, and endless pages of notes. Finally, she got the recipe right, and with funding from the Accelerator Program, was able to get her business moving.
Castagna sells her pesto online and at farmers markets in Kinnelon, West Milford and Boonton and in local wholesale stores, and plans to expand this season.
In November, she and the company were featured in a “Spotlight New Jersey” segment on News 12. And the pesto now comes in three flavors: Traditional, Garlic Lovers (also known as “Joe’s Way”), and a spicy Fra Diavolo.
While she created the business to honor her father, she finds the venture’s meaning bigger than her family. The motto “Smile wherever you go” is on each label and is part of the company logo.
“I want other families to slow life down, to spend time and cook meals together,” Castagna says. “It’s important a family breaks bread and spends quality time together, because you never know when your last meal together is.”
| ANTHONY D’ANGELICO
Photo courtesy of Carina Castagna
alumni
90s
John “Jay” Montemayor ’90 was named director of the Federal TRIO Grant at the University of South Carolina Upstate. He will oversee the grant that assists first-generation and lower income college students. Lori A. Trotte ’91 and her husband celebrated 25 years of marriage at the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception in 2023. Gregory A. Shanaphy, J.D. ’94 joined the Montclair State University Foundation Board. Regina P. (Ciardiello) Jankowski ’96/M.A. ’05 was named editor of Long Island Business News in October 2023. Michelle A. Benedek-Barone, J.D. ’99/M.B.A. ’11 joined the law firm Hartmann Doherty Rosa Berman & Bulbulia as partner, where she will work in the Matrimonial & Family Department. Nicole A. (Ultimo) Olaya ’99 was promoted to first senior vice president, chief credit officer of Columbia Bank in Fair Lawn, N.J.
00s
Aaron J. Pickus, M.B.A ’08 and his wife published a children’s book titled The Little Matzah Ball Who Wanted to be a Meatball, which was dedicated to their first child, Harrison, who was born in October 2023.
10s
Jake D. Koehler ’17 was honored with the Bank of America Global “Delivering One Company Award” for his volunteer efforts and serving the community where he lives in North Carolina. Heidi M. (Boon) Mitchell, M.A. ’11 with the Winderweedle law firm in Florida was selected for inclusion in the 2024 edition of “The Best Lawyers in America.”
In Memoriam
Martin A. Malague ’48
Victor J. Kemper ’50
Reginald J. Lee ’52
Elena M. Marvel ’52/M.A.E. ’69
John F. Stefanick ’53
Edward J. Walter ’55
Joseph A. Bonsignore ’56
Edward J. Cryer ’57
Eugene A. Duffy ’57
Rocco L. Russo ’57
Mary H. Bennett ’58
Charles A. Brady Jr. ’58
Emil A. DelBaglivo ’58/J.D. ’62
Father John J. Klingler ’58
Dr. Raymond J. Kyriakos ’58
Dr. Daniel E. McIntyre ’58
Harold Rothstein, M.A.E. ’58
George E. Stitcher Jr. ’58
Charles P. Wickham ’58
Vincent P. Blazovic ’59/M.B.A. ’65
Dr. Aaron G. Nierenberg ’59
Dr. Anthony P. Caggiano Jr. ’60
Anthony J. DiGilio ’60
Raymond J. Koharian ’60
Joseph R. Zack ’60
Margery T. Clancy ’62
Dr. Billy R. Nordyke ’62
Dr. Robert A. Dix ’63
John F. Gallino ’63
James L. Hollar ’63
Walter F. Trabold ’63
James P. Hughes ’64
Phyllis J. Kaplan, M.A.E. ’64
Joseph W. Fallon ’65/M.B.A. ’69
John J. Kennedy Sr. ’65
Richard J. Lorenzo ’67
Rudolph V. Marzano ’69
Melvin E. Mounts, J.D. ’69
William L. Coyne, M.A.E. ’70
Donald Daborn ’70
William J. Rush ’70
Paul J. Forti ’71
John J. Madis ’71
Rebecca Rosen-Horn ’71
Father Richard J. Carrington ’72/ M.D.M. ’75
Frank L. Crimmins lll. ’72
Thomas M. Redmond Jr. ’72
Edward C. Dobrovolski, J.D. ’73
William Haake, M.B.A. ’73
John H. McMorrow ’73
Richard W. Bonner Sr., M.A.E. ’74
Kenneth Doll, M.B.A. ’74
John T. Matthias, M.A. ’74
Joseph X. Meehan Jr., M.B.A. ’74
Roger F. Rew ’74
Gilbert A. Zimmerman Jr. ’74/J.D. ’78
Georgia A. Dragoo ’75
Joseph Zelauskas, M.B.A. ’75
Barbara T. Reagor ’76/Ph.D. ’82
Sally Rooney ’76
Eric Bruning ’78
Thomas A. Intili Jr. ’78
Dr. Harvey M. Peck, J.D. ’78
Geraldine Peten, M.A.E. ’79
Darrell Nunn ’79
Kathleen G. Comini ’80
Dale A. Diamond, J.D. ’82
Salvatore T. Freda Jr. ’82
George Sherman Jr., M.B.A. ’82
Anthony Riccobono ’83
Carolyn Zelauskas ’83
Robert Florian, M.A.E. ’84
Christine T. (Potenta) Heuser ’84
Thomas M. Hughes ’86
Robert G. O’Brien, M.A.E. ’90
Lawrence J. Neugebauer, Ed.D. ’91
David C. Stanziale, J.D. ’91
Derek A. Evans ’92
Marc E. D’Angiolillo, J.D. ’94
Vincent McNany ’94/M.B.A. ’01
Christopher P. Albano ’98
Lara Hoffman ’98
Shannon L. Keim, J.D. ’00
Benjamin R. Tessler, J.D. ’00
John T. Cafagna, M.A.E. ’01
Jeremy A. Farrell, J.D. ’07
Jessica Kuhnen, M.A. ’10
Peter G. Koc ’11
Friends and University Community Members:
Joseph G. Debari
Brenda Dunlop
Myron Feldman
Kevin E. Golding
Philip M. Kayal
Dr. Frank P. Maglio
Virginia Martuza
Virginia Mary “Ginny” Meehan
Edward W. Miller Sr.
Father Bernard N. Mohan
Maurice Szykman
Maryanne Trump Barry
Joseph Wojak
Paul Zeliff
Ministry of Love S
tudents and alumni know the words in the Seton Hall University seal: Hazard Zet Forward
Jennifer Nelson ’03/M.A.’08, founder of a global prayer card ministry, is the definition of the motto: Whatever the peril, ever forward.
Nelson attended Seton Hall during a tumultuous time — she is a survivor of the 2000 Boland Hall fire that killed three students and injured others. While religion was always an important part of Nelson’s life, she struggled with her faith after this trauma. But Derek Nelson, the student who would become her husband, helped, and Jennifer clung to the University’s campus ministry and the wisdom of Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton.
Nelson recalls: “Seton Hall really focused on the concept of servant leadership. Life isn’t about money, power, pleasure; at Seton Hall, I was taught how you love and serve others, how you love and serve God by treating others with dignity, respect and compassion.”
Later on, Nelson received what she understood to be a call from God, a whisper heard during a meeting: “Go to theology school.” It was an easy choice. Nelson met with Associate Dean Dianne Traflet to discuss the potential of earning a master’s degree in theology at Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology (ICSST).
But there were other troubles brewing. Nelson learned her odds of having children after the age of 24 were slim. Newly married and 22 years old, she believed time was running out. Traflet offered Nelson two things: inspiration and a pamphlet about Saint Gianna Beretta Molla, a pediatric physician, wife, mother and modern-day saint. Nelson began her connection with Saint Gianna upon starting graduate school. Shortly after, she gave birth to her first child, named Gianna.
The baby’s first six months were worrisome; Jennifer and Derek feared their daughter was having seizures. After being asked to pray for the Nelson family, Monsignor Gerard McCarren, now rector/dean of ICSST, began prayers on a plane from Italy. A man next to him joined in; he happened to have relics from Saint Gianna. Monsignor McCarren brought home the relics, and when Nelson held them for the first time, these words came to her: “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Relics.” And so her ministry began.
After a few years of loaning out the relics to women who were having childbearing issues, a relic disappeared from Nelson’s small collection. She reached out to Saint Gianna’s surviving daughter, who was inspired by Nelson’s work, and was kind enough to send 15 more relics Nelson’s way.
Nelson’s ministry now stretches over seven continents through a network of 28 other women, whom Nelson calls “sisters.” They each have their own territory, sending out holy cards touched by the relics to mothers who are in need of blessings.
“It’s a gift to me from God,” Nelson says. “God is writing a love letter to the world and I just have to forward his emails.” | ANTHONY D’ANGELICO
Pirate Babies
1. Julia (Rondinella) Vitale ’13 and Mark Vitale ’14/M.A. ’16 welcomed a boy, Wells Anthony, on May 22, 2023.
2. Jennifer (Elovitz) Barden ’15 and Michael Barden ’14 welcomed a girl, Olivia, in May 2023.
3. Erin (Bell) Fondacaro ’12 and Jack Fondacaro ’12 welcomed a girl, Lily Therese Fondacaro, on September 14, 2023.
4. John Sertic, M.B.A. ’13 and Anna Sertic welcomed a boy, Marko.
5. Dr. Charles Farmer ’12 and Delores Sarfo-Darko Farmer ’13 welcomed their daughter, Emory, in April 2023.
6. Kalie (Marshall) Gilbert ’13 and Brian Gilbert ’18 welcomed a girl, Skylar Jane Gilbert, on July 20, 2023.
7. Kristina Antico ’00 and Carlos Gordo welcomed a boy, Giancarlo Gabriel Gordo, on August 9, 2023.
8. Elizaveta (Sidorova) Healey ’19/M.B.A. ’21 welcomed a girl, Tatiana Janina, on January 29, 2023.
9. Norah (Hatch) ’11/M.A. ’16 and Zachary Cziryak ’11 welcomed a girl, Oona Jane Cziryak, on January 12, 2024. Oona joins big brother Rory Patrick Cziryak.
10. Caroline (Egnatuk) Pecoraro ’13 and Joseph Pecoraro ’13 welcomed a boy, Lorenzo Joseph, on July 10, 2023.
11. Natalie Wedge ’11 welcomed a boy, Oliver James Sisler, on March 23, 2023.
12. Nicole (Battaglia) LaCapria ’11/Ph.D. ’22 and Michael LaCapria welcomed a girl, Luciana Josephine LaCapria.
13. Victoria (Ryan) Ruzicka ’03 welcomed a boy, Ethan.
14. Kathryn M. (Doherty) Viggiano ’13 and Mark J. Viggiano ’13 welcomed a girl, Zoe, on September 2, 2023.
Tag us in your Wedding, Baby or Pirate Pride photos @ setonhallalumni or email us at alumni@shu.edu
Tying the knot
1. Imani (Wills) Parilla ’15 to Andre Parilla ’15/M.A. ’17/M.B.A. ’17 on January 28, 2022, in New Rochelle, N.Y.
2. Samantha Dyer ’20 to Jesse Southard ’20 in September 2023, in North Haven Island, Maine.
3. Joseph Carbone ’21 to Tabitha LaRocca ’21/M.A. ’22 on August 13, 2023, surrounded by many fellow Pirates.
4. Vina (Tailor) Reddy ’17 to Vinod Reddy ’15 on October 1, 2022.
5. Laura Abel ’19 to Lior Grubert ’19 on July 4, 2023, in Israel.
6. Alyssa (Warren) Leon ’14 to Micah Leon, in January 2023, surrounded by many fellow Pirates.
7. Joseph Burkhard ’93 to Andrea Ippolito on August 4, 2023, surrounded by many Pirates and men’s soccer alumni including Hall of Fame men’s soccer coach Manny Schellscheidt and his family. Tag us in your Wedding, Baby or Pirate Pride photos @ setonhallalumni or email us at alumni@shu.edu
Pirate Pride
1. Corey Gallo ’88 and Donna Gallo ’89 at Seton Hall Alumni Night with the Yankees.
2. Catherine Daniels ’83/M.A. ’96, Cathleen Corbett ’83/M.A. ’95, Heather Clark ’83, and Ann Hunt ’83 traveled to Ireland in June 2023 to celebrate 40 years of friendship.
3. Tracy Monari ’86/M.A.E. ’87, Kristine Dunbar ’89, and Louis Monari, M.B.A. ’80 went to Las Vegas for the Raiders vs. Jets football game.
4. Jacqueline M. DeBenedetto ’12/M.A.E. ’15/Ph.D. ’23 showed off her future Pirates (classes of 42,44,45) as she graduated with her doctorate.
5. Cooper James and Cody Gray, children of James Fenimore, M.S.T. ’04/Ed.S. ’16 and Daill Fenimore ’05, at the Wyckoff Christmas Tree Farm in Belvidere, N.J.
6. Henry Frost, son of Jack Frost, J.D. ’05 and Christine Frost ’02/J.D. ’05, showed off his Halloween costume at the Seton HallMarquette game.
7. Joanne Toole ’82 and George Toole ’81/M.A.E. ’84 celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary in Europe and displayed their Pirate Pride in front of the Cathedral of Saint Paul in Malta.
8. Edward Klink ’89 and daughter Elizabeth Klink (named after Elizabeth Ann Seton) went on a trip to Plymouth, England.
9. Maite Magarinos ’97 and Michael Magarinos ’96 in Tolmin, Slovenia.
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Have you been promoted? Earned an advanced degree? Been honored for professional or personal achievements? Recently married? Added a baby Pirate to the ranks? We want to know.
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Department of Alumni Engagement and Philanthropy
Marianna (Eboli) Torrence ’17 to Mitchel Torrence ’16, on June 23, 2023, in Brazil.
Baseball, By the Numbers
Data analytics play a critical role in an ever-increasing segment of people’s lives, and baseball is no exception.
Brought to the public’s attention through Michael Lewis’s 2003 bestselling book, Moneyball, later made into a movie starring Brad Pitt, baseball analytics have been a part of Seton Hall since the late 1980s. For John Saccoman, professor of mathematics and computer science, his interest in both statistics and playing baseball converged in the 1970s with a regular game of Strat-O-Matic, a dice baseball game he took up with his cousin that they still play online to this day. The interest sustained Saccoman for nearly 50 years; he’s taught classes on it and co-authored three books on the subject with Michael Huber and Father Gabriel Costa, an innovator in the field in his own right. Seton Hall editor Pegeen Hopkins spoke with Saccoman recently to learn more.
What is sabermetrics, or baseball analytics?
“Sabermetrics” was coined by Bill James, a well-known baseball analytics person. SABR is the acronym for the Society for American Baseball Research. James’s definition is very simple: the search for objective truth and knowledge about baseball.
Baseball analytics is an all-encompassing term that takes into account sabermetrics, but also performance metrics such as spin rate, launch angle for hitting and speed as the ball comes off the bat, for example.
How did Seton Hall get involved in sabermetrics?
In 1988, Father Gabe Costa offered a one-credit course in sabermetrics, the first known credit-bearing course in America on baseball statistics. I was a guest speaker for that class and we team taught it for a while.
What is the field’s appeal?
Baseball analytics can appeal to both the baseball fan and the mathematician. If you know about baseball, you know that if you score a run, it means somebody had to hit the ball so you could advance and score. Analytics, as a mathematical model, tries to divorce performance
from context and say, “How many runs would you expect someone to produce for his or her team?” And then, a certain number of runs translates to a certain number of wins for which the player is responsible. As with any mathematical model, the more data you have, the more accurate your model can become.
Virtually every Major League Baseball team now has a well-staffed analytics department that produces a report before every game for the manager. It can be used to suggest an optimal batting order or what pitcher to use.
What do people dislike about baseball analytics?
There’s a backlash because it’s different. Statistics should be used within reason, one part of the whole evaluation process.
Now that analytics are widely used, are the advantages that teams had when using stats to manage diminished?
Except everybody’s got their own spin on it. I started a project that a student, Karl Hendela ’19, did an honors thesis on with a statistic called Wins-Above-Replacement (WAR). WAR allows you to compare players differently: pitchers with other kinds of players or people from different eras. But there’s no agreed upon formula for WAR. With a batting average, everybody knows what the formula is. With WAR, Baseball Reference (a statistics website) has its own standard, FanGraphs (another website) has its own, using different formulas. What we’ve been doing is to devise our way that closely aligns with the others. We called it SHU-WAR.
What do you hope students or others interested in analytics will take away from it?
You don’t necessarily have to love baseball, but it helps. These things are extendable to other fields, as well. n
EVERY PIR AT E NEEDS A PLAN
Photo courtesy of Seton Hall Athletics