Seton Hill Honors Distinguished Alumnae
Rosanne Caretti Gjostein has lived by Dorothy Height’s words, “Without community service, we would not have a strong quality of life. It’s important to the person who serves as well as the recipient. It’s the way in which we ourselves grow and develop.” After earning her Bachelor of Arts in Education at Seton Hill, Rosanne devoted much of her life to community service. As her two children grew, so did Rosanne’s volunteer involvement in their activities, and in her work with the Children’s Hospital of Michigan (CHM). Her strong connection with CHM began when she became a member of Tea and Crumpets, a benefit that she later chaired. She also helped to launch the Festival of Trees, now an annual fundraising event for the hospital, and became chair of the event as well as president of the International Festival of Trees. Elected to the Hospital’s Board of Trustees, Rosanne serves as Trustee Chair of the Development Committee and is active on the Research and Medical Affairs committees. Other volunteer efforts include chairing the Henry Ford Estate Dinner Dance Committee as well as organizing the annual Ritz Carlton-Dearborn Event and serving as past president of the Women’s National Farm and Garden Association. Rosanne is also a member of the Child’s Hope Committee and the Volunteer Council and Women’s Association of the Dearborn Symphony. The National Society of Fundraising Executives recognized Rosanne by naming her Volunteer of the Year for the University of Michigan – Dearborn. She received the Association of Fundraising Professionals award as Children’s Hospital of Michigan Volunteer of the Year and the Child’s Hope Award.
Mary Sue Hyatt, a native of Ruffs Dale, Pa., earned her Bachelor of Music degree from Seton Hill in 1970. Hyatt brings to the concert stage a well-seasoned American and European career after having sung in major cities such as New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Cleveland, Washington, D.C., Phoenix, Toronto, London, Belfast, Munich, Lucerne, Rome, Venice, Tessaloniki, Guadalajara, Paris, and Florence. The mezzo soprano has also performed as soloist and presented master classes in Shanghai, Beijing and Tianjin during the Kent Camerata’s China Tour of 2002. Hyatt studied voice with Sister Helen Muha and Margaret Garrity at Seton Hill, and with Joyce Zastrow at Western Michigan University. She is also a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music with formal training under Max Rudolf, Dino Yannopoulos, Giulio Gari, and Maria Callas. Hyatt held the title and rank of Professor at Kent State University and served her last two years as Interim Director of the Hugh A. Glauser School of Music. She has been recognized for her “outstanding contributions to international culture” by receiving the Kent State University International Award in the field of International Communication and Cross-Cultural Achievements for teaching and performing. In the course of her career, Hyatt has performed in over twenty operas, including Madame Butterfly, Don Giovanni, Carmen, Dido and Aeneas, Hansel und Gretel, and Cavalleria Rusticana. Her CD releases include: “Song Upon Song” (TimeGrabber, 1997), “Dvorak duets and songs; an American premier of Vivaldi’s La Fida” Ninfa (Analog Café Studio, 2000), and “A Musical Painting Comes to Life” (Crystal CD841, 2001), where she is a featured soloist. Now retired from Kent State, Mary Sue performs today for special occasions as one of a three-member ensemble, Desert Divas, and as a member of the Kent Camerata, an international touring American vocal/instrumental ensemble.
Sister Vivien Linkhauer, who is embarking on her second five-year term as the Provincial Superior and President of the United States Province of the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill, has also had a distinguished career as a Professor of French and an administrator at Seton Hill University. Following her graduation from Seton Hill with a Bachelor of Arts degree in French, Sister Vivien, received her master’s and doctoral degrees in French from Tufts University. Teaching assignments in schools in Pittsburgh and Tucson preceded her 20 year tenure at Seton Hill, where she taught French and served as academic dean and associate dean for Graduate Studies. During this period Sister Vivien established exchange programs with Nanjing University in China and Nanzan Junior College in Nagoya, Japan. Other accomplishments included promoting the revision of the core curriculum to include more attention to global concerns, directing the Honors Program, and chairing the Steering Committee of the Middle States Institutional Self-Study. Sister Vivien left Seton Hill University in response to a leadership call from her community to serve as First Councilor and Assistant Major Superior of the Sisters of Charity. Her responsibilities included the supervision of the formation program of the Congregation, the oversight of the History Project, and the liaison with the Korean Region of the Congregation, as well as service as Secretary in the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, Region IV, and the Tri-Diocesan Sisters Leadership Conference. A member of the Mercy Jeannette Hospital Board of Trustees, the Pittsburgh Mercy Health System Board of Directors, Catholic Health East’s Sponsor Board, the Seton Hill University Board of Trustees, the Board of the DePaul School for Hearing and Speech, the Board of Elizabeth Seton Center, and the Board of St. Anne Home, Sister Vivien pursues her interests in the French School of Spirituality and the Advisory Committee of the Elizabeth Ann Seton Writing Project.
Anita Lavin Manoli, retired teacher of Spanish, is a role model for energetic community service. She has generously shared her time, talent, and resources with many local organizations, including Seton Hill University, from which she graduated in 1952 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish. Anita, who began her education in 1948 with the Class of 1952, took a hiatus that included positions at KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pa. and Kennametal in Latrobe, Pa., marriage, and the birth of four of her five children. She returned to Seton Hill and received her degree in 1968, 20 years after she began. After working as a social worker for one year, she accepted a position teaching Spanish for the Derry Area School District. In addition, Anita taught Spanish at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa. and Westmoreland County Community College in the evenings and during the summers while pursuing her M.A. in Hispanic Languages and Literature from the University of Pittsburgh, which she earned in 1977. She retired from her position in Derry as Spanish teacher and Chair of Foreign Languages in 1993 and completed her teaching career following an appointment as an adjunct professor of Spanish at Seton Hill. At this point in her life, Anita directed her energies toward her volunteer efforts. A docent at the Westmoreland Museum of Art in Greensburg, Pa., she is also a member of the Museum’s Women’s Committee and a volunteer in the gift shop. She serves on the Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra’s Hat Luncheon Committee and Annual Fund Campaign and is an interpreter in Spanish and Italian for the Latrobe Area Hospital. Chair of the Latrobe Industrial Development Authority, Anita is also a member and past president of the Latrobe Civic Club, and a member of the Westmoreland County Democratic Committee. For her alma mater she has been a phonathon participant, a capital campaign volunteer, and, with her husband, Charles, created the Anita Lavin Manoli ’52 Endowment Scholarship Fund. She is also a member of the Seton Hill University Heritage Society. In recognition of her volunteer work, Anita received the Westmoreland Museum of Art Volunteer of the Year Award and was the recipient of the Great Teacher Award at Saint Vincent College. She is a member of Alpha Mu Gamma, National Honorary Foreign Language Fraternity and Pi Mu Gamma, National Honorary Social Studies Fraternity.
Cheryl Maurana, senior associate dean and professor, Medical College of Wisconsin, received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from Seton Hill in 1972. She is the first woman to be appointed senior associate dean for Public and Community Health, and is one of three women to serve on the thirty-member Executive Committee, for the Medical College of Wisconsin. After receiving her Ph.D. in Health Services Research, Sociology from Purdue University, Cheryl completed a four-year U.S. Public Health Services Fellowship in health services research and joined the faculty at Purdue, where she directed the Social Research Institute. She was then appointed associate dean for Community Health at Wright State University School of Medicine, where she founded the University’s Center for Healthy Communities, which has been selected one of twenty national models by the U.S. Public Health Service’s Health Resources and Services Administration. When Cheryl joined the Medical College of Wisconsin, she founded the College’s Center for Healthy Communities. Cheryl provides leadership for implementing the college’s vision for public and community health, and has provided leadership for the College’s partnerships with over 300 statewide organizations to promote a healthier public. She has created a new Center for Science, Health, and Society and has been a key leader in the creation of Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin. Under Cheryl’s leadership as professor of Population Health, the College recently received the Association of American Medical Colleges National Award for Outstanding Community Service. Cheryl has headed the development of a new doctoral degree in public and community health, the first of its kind in Wisconsin and one of two in the nation. Cheryl’s awards are numerous and include the President’s Award for Excellence for Outstanding Collaboration, the School of Medicine Award for Excellence in Medical Education (both from Wright State), the Community-Campus Partnerships for Health Leadership Award, and the Association Partnership of the Year Award, Medical College of Wisconsin.
Barbara McDermott, prominent criminal defense attorney in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has chosen her field of law due to her belief that all members of society benefit when the least powerful are treated fairly and compassionately. She believes that the criminal justice system prosecutes the guilty party far more often than it sends an innocent person to jail, and strives as a defense attorney to limit any miscarriages of justice. She has focused on capital cases because of her belief in the sanctity of all human life, and prides herself on the fact that none of her clients has ever received the death penalty. Barbara graduated from Seton Hill in 1977 with a Bachelor of Arts degree and continued her education at Georgetown University’s Law Center. She began her law career with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. After working as a Special Deputy Attorney General to prosecute violators of the Commonwealth’s hazardous waste law, she joined the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, where she spent six years prosecuting thousands of felony cases and numerous homicides. Following 10 years of clerkships with two different judges of the Court of Common Pleas, Barbara began her criminal defense work, which she continues today. Eager to share her knowledge of the legal system, she mentors young attorneys, works with the National Institute of Trial Advocacy in teaching trial skills to law students, and lectures at Widener School of Law’s Intensive Trial Advocacy and the National Institute of Trial Advocacy while providing legal services for community organizations such as the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape. Very active in her community, Barbara serves as the president of the Prisoner’s Family Welfare Association, an organization that provides short term financial relief for families of individuals incarcerated in the Philadelphia prison system; represents her parish, St. Vincent DePaul, on the Urban Resource Development Corporation, whose mission it is to improve and stabilize the neighborhoods of northwest Philadelphia; and is a member of the Neighborhood Interfaith Movement’s Congregation and Community Council. She has also served on the Seton Hill University Alumni Corporation Board.
Mary Anne Spellman McGrath, generous benefactor to Seton Hill along with her husband Jack, received a scholarship through the Sisters of Charity that enabled her to attend Seton Hill, from which she graduated in 1959 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish. A graduate of Sacred Heart High School in Pittsburgh, which was staffed by the Sisters of Charity, she was ever mindful of her gratitude for the grant “That made all the difference in the world for me.” Mary Anne taught in a junior high school in Oxon Hill, Maryland. Her subsequent marriage to Jack spanned four decades and was blessed with two daughters and a son. Diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis at age 30, Mary Anne bravely battled the affliction for 40 years. Recently, Mary Anne and Jack established an endowed scholarship for Seton Hill University, a gift to provide opportunity to students with potential greater than resources.The gift was made with Mary Anne’s characteristic humility, grace, and gratitude: “I am happy to give back”. On March 20, 2007, just days after she was selected to receive Seton Hill’s Distinguished Alumni Leadership Award, Mary Anne lost her valiant battle to the illness that cast a shadow over her life for so many years. Her spirit and generosity will live on at Seton Hill and in the lives of the young men and women who are given a chance to excel, thanks to her kindness. Mary Anne’s husband, Jack, and daughter, Meghan McIntyre, accepted her award.
Patricia Mullen, has combined her scientific knowledge and her entrepreneurial skills to establish a successful soap manufacturing company, Lenco Soap Company, in Warren, Rhode Island. Pat received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Chemistry from Seton Hill in 1957. Following a brief stint in the workforce where she assisted in developing a copying system for Charles Bruning Company, Pat received a graduate scholarship to Mt. Holyoke College and earned an M.A. in Chemistry. She then joined American Cyanamid, where she applied her graduate experience in vacuum ultraviolet spectroscopy to become a member of a team headed by Dr. Robert Hirt, one of the leading spectroscopists in the country. The team researched the development of protective tiles for spacecrafts and produced artificial light sticks for the U.S. Navy. Other responsibilities at American Cyanamid, which included research on ultraviolet absorbers and reflective coatings, preceded Pat’s selection to work on a project for Lederle Laboratories that involved the production of tetracycline. A transfer to American Cyanamid’s Breck and Shulton division provided Pat with experience as a group leader in Hair Care, where she remained until her move to Naarden International as manager of the Fragrance Applications Laboratory. Following the sale of Naarden, Pat founded Lenco Soap. Author of several publications on the structure of various organic compounds, and the owner of several patents, Pat’s avocation has been showing dogs in obedience training. Despite some health problems, she has forged ahead in her gym training and has won medals in Senior Olympics shot put, discus, and javelin events. In June 2007 she will compete in the 2007 National Senior Olympics in Louisville, KY. An official resident of Columbia, Tennessee, Pat commutes to Warren, Rhode Island to lead her business.
Cheryl Napsha, an innovative librarian who has been recognized for her unique library programming, took a circuitous route to reach her career goal. An English major at Seton Hill, from which she graduated in 1977 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English, Napsha earned her Master of Library Science from the University of Pittsburgh. Cheryl served as Assistant to the University Librarian and head of the library’s business office while at the University of Illinois in Chicago. During her nine year tenure at the Adams Memorial Library in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, she doubled the circulation, tripled the collection size, increased the size of the staff from 7 to 28, and launched new programs - including one that attracted attention from the Wall Street Journal: a non-traditional full-service library branch located inside a supermarket. During this period she became a fellow in the Snowbird Institute, an international program for emerging library leaders, and in the Pennsylvania Rural Leadership Program. Directorships at the Williams Library in Ohio and at Sewickley Academy in Pittsburgh, her alma mater, preceded her appointment as Director of the Bethel Park Library. In addition to managing a major renovation there, she launched more innovative programs, including one in which caregivers and infants visit a local nursing home for story time. In 2006, the library began volunteering services and time to the Homeless Children’s Educational Fund. With the help of a state grant, resource libraries were established in all 18 homeless shelters in Allegheny County. In May, Cheryl relocated to Westland, Michigan where she accepted the directorship of the William G. Faust Public Library in Westland.
When Irene O’Brien Nunn, recognized portrait artist and art teacher, graduated from Seton Hill in 1967 with a Bachelor of Arts in Art/Studio Arts, she knew that art would be the centerpiece of her life. Her career began as an art teacher in the Philadelphia Public Schools where her students received city and state awards, the highlight of which was their Salute to the States exhibit during the Bicentennial Celebration. Featured at First Continental Bank in Philadelphia, the 50 panel montage represented the economic and cultural contributions of all 50 states. At this time she also began to accept commissioned portrait work. Following her marriage to Wally Nunn and the adoption of their daughter, Irene left teaching and became a full time mother and volunteer. Her interest in adoption led her to a position on the board of the National Adoption Center for which she served on committees, planned major fundraisers, and coordinated arts and crafts projects. She was elected to the Upper Darby School Board and, with her husband, initiated a Sponsor a Scholar Program that matched qualified students with area employers who provided financial and educational support for their aspirations. Irene’s interest in foreign and domestic policy led to her involvement with the National Forum Foundation. For this organization she coordinated programs in the Philadelphia area that brought together opposing social critics and journalists for panel discussions on welfare, education, and foreign policy. Her interest in art undiminished, Irene returned to teaching at her daughter’s school while continuing her commissioned portrait and landscape work and conducting workshops from her studio in the Manayunk section of Philadelphia. Her awards and recognitions include The Neuman Saunders Award for Excellence, The Delaware County Community College Annual Exhibit, and the American College Summer Juried Exhibit.