Donna Morrison
Former Director of the Career and Professional Development Center
BY Dr. Nicholas Racculia
Bettie Davis
Retired/Adjunct Lecturer in Chemistry
BY Bo Tokarski
“Students first,” sums up Donna Morrison’s life and career at Saint Vincent College. In her thirty-one years in the SVC Career Center, she was always a hub of focused activity and unbridled energy. She counseled and coached students for internships, co-ops, jobs, and her personal favorite, résumé building. She guided students to reach their maximum potential, directing them to the Career Services Office, and identifying, changing, and adding majors, minors, and concentrations. Speaking from personal experience, when any student walked into her office (which always maintained an open-door policy), that student became the most important person in the world to Donna. She greatly enhanced Saint Vincent’s reputation with regional and national businesses, establishing relations with many Fortune 500 companies and other major corporations during her tenure here. Donna built ties with businesses that even today regularly hire Bearcats: KPMG, Grossman Yanak and Ford, Kennametal, PPG, PNC, Heinz, USS, and many, many more.
Students who were fortunate to work with her felt that their career choices and internship pathways were the most important things for Donna. She passionately built individualized action plans for each student, allowing them to access their comparative advantages and develop individualized stories—crucial for interviews and long-term success. Donna helped students focus on the long run, becoming disciplined and realizing their hunger for success. In that, she truly exemplified the Benedictine Hallmark of Discipline. She treated each student as an individual, maintaining the righteous optimism that qualifications, drive, and discipline were what mattered most.
Her accomplishments beyond career planning and campus recruiting include enhancing the growth and visibility of the SVC Career Development Center, chairing the Mid-Atlantic Co-op Conference, serving as the Cooperative Education Association of Pennsylvania president, and serving on the Pittsburgh Technology Council-Education Network Advisory Board. She is currently the webmaster for the Great Allegheny Passage-Westmoreland Yough Trail Chapter and regularly volunteers, along with her husband, Harry, at the Western PA Conservancy.
Donna has demonstrated a lifetime of strong leadership in student affairs, program development, and employer relations. Ultimately, her Students First approach impacted countless Bearcats in incredibly positive ways and built the network of SVC alumni that extends even today to benefit our current students.
The name “Dr. Davis” is as synonymous with the education received at Saint Vincent College as the names of the residence halls in which students live and the academic halls where they attend their classes. Bettie is a perfect representative of the coeducation at Saint Vincent over the last forty years, as she has dedicated over half of that time serving the students of Saint Vincent, chemistry and nonmajors alike. For students in the STEM fields, especially those in the Health Sciences Graduate Program for which she served as director for seven years, Bettie was more than just an incredibly talented lecturer—for many of us, she became an adopted mother, often spending time in her office talking as much about life as the organic chemistry lab we were tasked with writing a report for.
For nonmajors, Bettie’s “Chemistry and Crime” course became a must-take, and students from across campus would be enthralled with learning more about their favorite crime assays as depicted in their favorite crime television shows, learning more about the key aspects of chemistry that underlie the assays performed to solve crimes of arson, drugs, or murder. Her dedication to the advancement of education is evidenced by her continued support for the Collaborative Learning Program (CLP), which became a staple for continued knowledge-development and scientific practice for hundreds of students across the chemistry and biology disciplines, while also providing critical teaching skills to CLP facilitators who could then go on to become successful teaching assistants and/or professors themselves in higher education.
Bettie’s emphasis on mental health, and her openness to speak about her own experience with mental health, became a backdrop of support for so many students who confided in her their own self-doubts and mental health struggles, providing a strong and courageous support to so many to help make it through even the toughest times as a student. Within the Saint Vincent community, there is no one I can think of who more exemplifies the Ten Benedictine Hallmarks upon which the foundation of Bearcat Nation is built. Most of all, it has been and always will be Bettie’s love—love of science, love of students, love of the Saint Vincent campus—that make her the ideal candidate for the 40 Women for 40 Years honor. Her incredible personality, unwavering smile, extensive chemistry and biology knowledge, and kind heart make her unlike any other woman who has helped to shape as many lives as Dr. Bettie Davis has in the STEM courses at Saint Vincent College.
Amanda Cecconi
Economics Major | C’87
When making a life-changing decision, an individual must be ready to make that choice on their own—Amanda Cecconi made such a decision to join the first class of women at Saint Vincent College, despite spending a freshman year at a different college.
Initially, Amanda began her college career at William and Mary on a Division 1 basketball scholarship. During her freshman year, after a rough season, she sought a community where she felt she might truly belong.
Transferring to SVC her sophomore year, she knew she’d come home. She was an avid member of the SVC community during her undergraduate years, including playing basketball and writing for the school paper, all while challenging herself academically.
Amanda pursued her master’s degree at the University of North Carolina Wilmington before transferring to Wayne State in Detroit, Michigan, after graduating with an Economics degree, getting married, and moving to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. There, she obtained a teaching assistantship and taught marketing to undergraduates, a field she had no prior experience in but would eventually form the basis for her future career. After working for Ford Motor Company and several start-ups, in 2009, she founded Punching Nun Group, a marketing firm focused on the healthcare industry and headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, where she lives with her husband, Pastor Randy Thompson, and where she raised her children, Marinda, Fiona, and Liam.
Today, Amanda remains on the Board of Advisors for the Alex G. McKenna School of Business, Economics, and Government and has recently joined the SVC Board of Directors. During the past few years, she has written a book describing her journey and the struggles she’s overcome called God is Real, the Miracles that Built My Faith.
Amanda values trips home as an opportunity to relax and reconnect with others. She loves jogging through the campus and noting the harmony between the students and Benedictine community. She feels that SVC offers a differentiated experience from most schools—small class sizes, continual interaction with professors who join each student in discovering God-given talent, and, most importantly, the opportunity to invest in spiritual development.
Doreen Blandino
Professor of Modern and
Classical Languages
BY George Fetkovich
The opening of Doreen Blandino’s Saint Vincent College story in the fall of 1986 might have lasted only one chapter.
Arriving from the Buffalo area with a PhD in modern languages, Doreen began her SVC teaching career emboldened with her youthful energy to bring knowledge of French and Spanish to the halls of the SVC campus. But on the first day of classes, she still had not received textbooks for any of the classes that she would be teaching that semester. Furthermore, her desk was void of any office supplies. By the start of the second week of classes, Doreen was equipped and her storied career was set in motion.
The pace was demanding: She had four new class preparations in two languages to develop for both fall and spring semesters, while navigating membership on several committees as a new faculty member. Doreen also quickly realized that there were no other young women to shop or socialize with. She thought perhaps she had made a mistake and should have accepted one of her other offers.
Ironically, as one of the few female professors at the College, she was unaware that the spring of 1987 would signal the first women graduates who’d attended SVC for all four years in school history: completely immersed in providing the students with a quality education and developing her teaching skills, having females in her classrooms felt so natural that women acquiring degrees seemed truly second nature. From that moment forward, Doreen’s SVC pages would begin to fill.
And fill and fill and fill. Since 1994, Doreen has been the chair of the modern languages department, a remarkable run—one of which she is extremely proud. In 2009, she was awarded the Thoburn Excellence in Teaching Award, and she is currently the longest tenured professor—male or female—at Saint Vincent College. While these accomplishments are a testament to Doreen’s skills and devotion to the College, she did not arrive at success in Latrobe at age 26 without the help of some friends.
She was raised by the “men-in-black.” Not black-suited men charged with policing alien activity on earth, but rather those charged with carrying out a life devoted to God and the Benedictine Hallmarks.
The Benedictines were extremely welcoming and helpful in every way. Under their guidance, she grew both academically and spiritually—the monks had become her friends and mentors, along with Professors Vera and Jari Slezak, Alice Kaylor, and her male colleagues who supported her and became her cheerleaders. From the occasional tennis match to sharing a meal, Doreen found mentors and a strong support system built within the Saint Vincent community, sustained by the Benedictines.
And that foundation allowed her to bring new initiatives outside of the classroom to SVC. In 1988, Doreen started the first study abroad program with a trip to Cuernavaca, Mexico, initiating a program that today affords SVC students the opportunity to travel all over the world. Along with Dawn Edmiston, she helped pioneer the Mr. SVC Pageant, the proceeds of which supplied food to underprivileged children in Guatemala.
Yet in Doreen’s eyes her greatest accomplishment is the commitment to inclusion of all women in the SVC community. Her diminutive stature masks her dynamo nature; her energy and enthusiasm are apparent to all who encounter her. Since the beginning, she has particularly made a point of welcoming women faculty, administrators, students, and staff into her orbit, allowing and encouraging them to invest in the SVC community. She leads by example, as she is a frequent spectator at College sporting events (rarely missing a men’s or women’s basketball game), lectures, student musicals, and theatre productions or gallery shows. In 2008, she started the Women of SVC Social, an opportunity for women of all departments and offices of the College to get together after hours to enjoy and share in their work and life stories. Today, that social event is a culmination of Women’s Week in March on the SVC campus.
Doreen Blandino’s inspiring character adds so much to SVC’s long narrative, and those who know and work with her, and study under her, are glad that she still has many chapters to contribute to a future bestseller.
Carrie DiRisio
Finance Major | C’12
As a finance major at Saint Vincent, Carrie DiRisio was often one of the only women in her classes, but she found great support and mentorship from her professors. Actively involved in clubs and sports as well as academics, Carrie credits SVC with helping
her build a strong foundation in leadership, community outreach,
and Benedictine values.
These traits helped Carrie achieve remarkable accomplishments. She has served as the Diaper Bank Chair for the Junior League of Pittsburgh, supported Federated Hermes’ Women in Investing resource group as their inaugural community chair, and traditionally published a young adult fiction novel.
For Carrie, though, the most impactful volunteer work she’s done began in the Rooney Hall laundry room. There, Carrie noticed the plethora of abandoned hoodies and sweatpants. Upon receiving permission to donate unclaimed items, she contacted One Spirit, a group serving the Lakota people of Pine Ridge Reservation, who were in dire need of such items for their teen shelter. Since then, Carrie remains a supporter of, and advocate for, the non-profit. Recently, Carrie was able to leverage her social media skills to aid the nonprofit in ensuring over 750 children’s Christmas wishes were met.
Carrie now holds the position of LMS training and development manager for Guardian Protection.
She’s proud to say that the Benedictine values she learned at Saint Vincent are an excellent fit with the servant leadership philosophy of her workplace, and she strives to pay forward the mentorship and education she received while at SVC.
Alé Simmons
Communication and Psychology Major | C’10
Alé Simmons graduated from Saint Vincent in 2010 with a dual degree in communication and psychology. During her time on campus, she was an active member of the community, which included being president of her class, a member of SGA, an Orientation Committee member, and an admission ambassador in addition to being in Lambda Pi Eta and Psi Chi. Alé also started the college’s “Bearcat on the Street” video marketing campaign.
As the senior business development manager for Clark Hill, an international law firm with offices throughout the US, Mexico, and Ireland, Alé leads efforts for the firm’s litigation practice as well as several industry teams. She’s a skilled and savvy business development leader who works with attorneys to build their practices through authentic connections and industry knowledge by encouraging and navigating the strategic development of valuable relationships in the legal marketplace. With more than a decade of experience in legal marketing and business development, Alé excels at creating pragmatic, yet creative, strategies for distinctive business plans for both individual attorneys and focused groups.
Outside of work, she is a member-at-large of the Legal Marketing Association Northeast Regional Board in addition to regularly volunteering for charitable organizations in the Pittsburgh area. She also serves as the current president of the Saint Vincent College Alumni Council and helps create pathways forward for alumni around the nation to remain involved with their alma mater. Alé has made a huge splash in her time since graduating from Saint Vincent and will surely continue making an impact for years to come.
Kim (Stevens) Feigel
Accounting Major | C’07
While attending SVC, Kim Feigel, an accounting major, demonstrated her leadership abilities by serving as both president of the Student Government Association and as a class senator. Additionally, she played an active role in several student groups affiliated with the SGA, such as the Bearcat Light Brigade, which assists in decorating the campus for Christmas, and the Bearcat Bucket Brigade, a spring cleanup initiative.
Kim also spearheaded a campaign to repair the deteriorating sidewalks in Melvin Platz. She reached out to then-President James Towey, who recognized the issue and ensured that the sidewalks were restored.
After graduating as a President’s Award recipient, Kim began her professional journey at the national accounting firm Ernst and Young. Within two years, she obtained her CPA certification. She went on to work for Carnegie Mellon University and Phillips Respironics before joining forces with her husband, Matthew (C’08), to acquire and manage a dental practice. Kim manages the practice remotely while fulfilling her role as a stay-at-home mother to their four children: Jacob, Maddy, Ava, and Olivia.
Kim and Matt share a deep love for Saint Vincent and are dedicated to raising their children in the Benedictine lifestyle. They actively participate with their children’s school, Blessed Francis Seelos Academy in Wexford, where Kim serves as an assistant soccer and track coach. They are also members of St. Alphonsus Catholic Church of Wexford.
Loretta Scalzitti
Accounting Major | C’83
BY Jim Bendel
Employed at a large corporation in Westmoreland County in the early eighties and having advanced to the position of staff accountant, Loretta sensed that she had reached the highest position possible at that time; being a woman in a corporate environment had its professional limitations. Absent an appropriate college degree, there was little or no expectation of further advancement. But there was a restlessness within Loretta to begin the journey to secure a degree, and she knew exactly where to take the initial step.
A lifelong parishioner at a church serviced by the priests from the Benedictine Community at Saint Vincent Archabbey, Loretta made that move by enrolling in the Continuing Education program at Saint Vincent College. The challenge was awesome and immediately accepted by her. Taking courses two nights a week, she spent two other evenings studying for those classes. And, she always took her seat in the front of the classroom. With no prior history in higher education and family obligations, those initial courses were somewhat daunting but very satisfying to her. Loretta knew that the completion of her studies would not impact her professional career, but there was a more significant reason that was leading her to attend college. She had a restless hunger for knowledge, but the academic environment had to be supported by a strong ethical base. Having witnessed in Jeannette the presence of the priests from Saint Vincent, she was ready to begin the journey. Saint Vincent College would be her “second home” in the evening for the next several years. To supplement the courses at Saint Vincent, as needed, Loretta took classes at Pitt at Greensburg and Seton Hill College. One course that had a significant impact on her was conducted by Sister Lois Sculco and Jerome Oetgen. She likewise has fond memories of the support given to her by Sister Susan Jenny and Father Earl Henry, O.S.B.
Shortly after completing her degree in 1983, Loretta began the new phase in her life that allowed her to share those values instilled in her by the Benedictines in her early life and then reinforced by the faculty members during her collegiate career. Loretta is very proud of sharing those values through her many interests: hospice, Meals on Wheels, Saint Vincent Alumni Council, Jeannette Library, local parish work, and just by being the best friend of so many individuals in her life. We are so thankful for Loretta being the first woman graduate of Saint Vincent College. Her personal values, commitment to community, appreciation for what is important in life—all of them set the bar high for students who follow her.
Sister Roberta Campbell
Former Dean of Students
Should you ask the Bearcat Community who one of the most influential women Saint Vincent College has seen in the last forty years, many would chime in with Sister Roberta Campbell’s name.
When a position for director in SVC’s Campus Ministry opened, Sister Roberta jumped at the opportunity, not knowing that she would spend the next six years on the campus, slowly changing it from the inside out for the better. Sister Roberta kept herself busy while with the College, eventually taking up roles as both a dorm moderator for Aurelius Hall and assistant dean of students alongside the dean at the time, Father Myron Kirsch, O.S.B.
Sister Roberta considers herself very lucky—even though it was a large consumption of time, she really enjoyed all three positions.
Refusing to be idle and wishing to bring people together, Sister Roberta took charge in creating opportunities that would benefit everyone,
shifting her focus onto both the SVC community and that of the overarching diocese. She aided in the creation of the first Sports Friendship Day, formed a collaboration with Seton Hill to perform the “Carrying the Cross” between both campuses, and even pushed students to volunteer in numerous settings. She aimed to create community wherever she could, and SVC affirmed that notion tenfold by allowing her to form events that both brought students together and pushed them out into the world.
Although Sister Roberta now works with the Benedictine Sisters of Pittsburgh as the co-founder and director of leadership and life coach training for women in faith-based ministries, SVC left as large of an impact on her as she did the College; it affirmed in her the values that she always carries with her: always being the best you can be, but also be more for others, an idea that had been instilled in her from her youth and the Benedictine community. In the long run, her hope is that those values have continued with the students, in their own way, to perpetuate them in the way they do best.
With the time and dedication that Sister Roberta put into SVC and its community, the College is still holding onto the values that she instilled in the students and the campus over thirty years ago. Her drive for change and community shaped the college into what we see today, and without her, many of the memorable aspects of the school wouldn’t exist. We are grateful to have had such a wonderful woman act as an influence on the college at a time of great change, and we thank her for the values she shared with us.
Colleen Ruefle
History Major | C’88
BY Mandi Morinelli
Colleen Ruefle entered Saint Vincent College in its early stages of co-education, having been a member of only the second combined class. She holds the distinction of being the first-ever female recipient of the President’s Award.
While attending SVC, Colleen pursued a history major with an education minor. She was a member of the volleyball team, led by Sue Hozak, with whom she maintains a friendship to this day. She was inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame in 2008 and still holds the third-highest percentage of serve accuracy for a single season in team history.
Colleen actively contributed to the SVC community as a prefect and as a member of the Student Government Association and Activities Programming Board. In addition, she held the role of box office manager for the Summer Theatre, where she had the opportunity to work closely with her mentor and dear friend, Father Tom Devereux, O.S.B.
Her profound admiration for Fr. Tom is evident through the naming of her eldest son, Thomas, in his tribute. She consistently lends her support to the Father Tom Devereux Theatre Fund by making regular donations, and on her visits to the campus, she never fails to pay a heartfelt visit to his grave, leaving behind flowers as a token of her respect.
Motivated by her time at Saint Vincent, Colleen went on to pursue a Master of Arts degree in student affairs in higher education from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, allowing her to shape her career in this field and reach her current position as vice president for student life, dean of students, and Title IX coordinator for La Roche University in McCandless.
She was named a Saint Vincent College Alumni of Distinction in 2013 and currently serves as a consultant on the planning committee for the Dunlap Family Athletic and Recreation Center.
Colleen and her husband, Jim Shields, have been happily married for twenty-six years. Together, they are the proud parents of four children: Julia; Thomas; Annie, C’23; and Liam.
Contributors
Noah Aftanas, C’21, Athletic Communications Assistant
Jim Bendel, C’60, Director of Planned Giving
Jim Berger, C’04, Director of Athletic Communications
Dr. Doreen Blandino, Professor of Modern & Classical Languages
Aubrey Cintron, C’19, G’21, Director of Alumni Relations
Courtney Cecere, Contributing Writer
David Collins, C 24, English Major
Dr. Rob DePasquale, Professor of Business Administration
George Fetkovich, C’80, Art Director
Gretchen Flock, Director of the Wellness Center and Personal Counselor
Madison Whitfield, Assistant Director of Annual Giving
Brother Norman Hipps, P’61, C’66, S’69, Professor of Mathematics
Dr. Steve Jodis, Dean of the Herbert W. Boyer School of Natural Sciences, Mathematics, and Computing
Madison Kozera, C 24, English Major
Emma Lee, Associate Director of the Fred Rogers Institute
Dr. Sara Lindey, Professor of English and English Department Chair
Dr. Jeffrie Mallory, C’06, G’13, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
Dr. Dennis McDaniel, C’79, Professor of English
Mandi Moranelli, C’99, Contributing Writer
Dr. Nicholas Racculia, C’00, Professor of Finance
Father Paul Taylor, O.S.B., C’87, S’92, President
Bo Tokarski, C’15, Contributing Writer
Mallory Truckenmiller-Saylor, C’19, Director of the Writing Center, Assistant Professor of English, Assistant Editor for Eulalia Books