Each fall Georgetown hosts a student barbeque on Healy Lawn to kick off the new academic year. This area is now being renovated with more energy-efficient infrastructure, contributing to Georgetown’s long-term commitment to environmental stewardship.
Photo: Phil Humnicky
From the archives
This year marks 100 years since the first recognized Georgetown Homecoming Weekend. Events included a pep rally in Gaston Hall, a Georgetown football victory that shut out Lehigh University 40–0, and a dance afterward at a local hotel. The football program for the Nov. 7 game provides pictures of players, info about coaches, and lyrical guides to “sing and cheer with Georgetown.”
Homecoming game program, 1925
Photo: Georgetown University Archives
“People at Georgetown are always willing to help people, especially other Hoyas, do things for the greater good. Caring for the common good is in the ethos of every company Georgetown helps create.”
—MARINA PAUL (B’16, SCS’17), PICTURED AT LEFT
FEATURES
14 Brewing Success
Five alumni share perspectives on their work to reshape the global coffee industry.
22 Team Spirit
Georgetown Athletics supports student, coach, and staff well-being through chaplaincy.
28 Love Lau
Collected Hoya memories and fan mail celebrate the renovation of the storied Lauinger Library.
DEPARTMENTS
4 Around Campus
12 Ask a Professor
GUAA Corner
News & Notes 42 Alumni Profiles 46 Lives Well Lived
48 Last Word
Cover Photo: Courtesy of Michael Sheridan
President Emeritus DeGioia spent 50 years living, learning, teaching, serving, and leading at Georgetown, beginning with his matriculation as an undergraduate in 1975.
Honoring President Emeritus John J. DeGioia
Throughout his four decades of service—including 23 years as university president—John J. DeGioia (C’79, Ph.D.’95) was deeply engaged in Georgetown’s mission of student formation, academic inquiry, and service to the common good.
In recognition of his service, Georgetown has established the John J. DeGioia Fund to support a series of projects at the heart of our efforts to become the university we are called to be. Learn more about these projects and the DeGioia Fund at g.town/honoring-president-degioia.
Photo: Phil Humnicky
Using technology ‘to improve the world’
Georgetown has launched a new approach for modeling forced displacement out of the Massive Data and Displacement (MaDD) project. By investigating search trends and social media clues, the MaDD project aims to identify indirect indicators of forced migration to help relief agencies and organizations prepare for or prevent humanitarian disasters before they unfold.
The School of Foreign Service’s Institute for the Study of International Migration and the McCourt School of Public Policy’s Massive Data Institute (MDI), in partnership with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, are collaborating to execute MaDD’s multidisciplinary research.
“We are striving to understand forced displacement globally in a timely way to provide useful evidence to governments, states, and agencies who can develop policies and plans around the possibility of [forced mass-migration] happening so that people don’t have to fully leave their homes,” says Katharine Donato, the Donald G. Herzberg Professor of International Migration at Georgetown, who co-leads the program in partnership with fellow professors and Sonneborn Chairs for Interdisciplinary Collaboration Lisa Singh and Ali Arab.
The MaDD project first studied internal displacement in Iraq, showing a strong correlation between Twitter use data, newspaper data, and the International Organization for Migration internal displacement data.
“Our hybrid approach blends conventional and organic data into a modeling framework designed to understand and forecast forced displacement,” says Ali Arab, professor and director of graduate studies for the College of Arts & Sciences’ Department of Mathematics and Statistics.
MaDD researchers now consider indirect indicators of forced migration in timely data from social media, Google trends, newspapers, and other sites to create statistical models, data sets, and new migration theories.
“One of my favorite parts of this project is engaging students,” says Lisa Singh, computer science professor in the College of Arts & Sciences and professor and director of the MDI in the McCourt School of Public Policy. “Having them think about the connection between computer science, data science, and migration has been profoundly fun. It has helped [students] think about how they can use technology to improve the world they live in.”
At Georgetown, more than 20 students and four postdocs have worked with MaDD studying forced mass-migration, gaining hands-on research skills.
The project team understands that using social media posts and other organic data sets has limitations, biases, and ethical concerns. “The only thing we can do well, I think—as academics and researchers—is reflect on what the ethical implications are of what we’re doing and make it harder for those who might use [our data] for purposes that are negative,” says Donato.
“Our research is a great example of how we’re using innovative new computer science to improve our understanding of forced displacement and hopefully improve the lives of those who are being displaced,” says Singh. •
—Racquel Nassor
Professors and students hold a roundtable discussion about modeling forced displacement research at the Massive Data and Displacement project.
Photo: Georgetown University
New hub integrates Georgetown humanities
Last year, Georgetown College of Arts & Sciences celebrated the opening of a new hub for the Georgetown Humanities Initiative, a university-wide project promoting the humanities through interdisciplinary, collaborative, and public-facing activities for faculty and students. The dedicated space in Old North now serves as a home for lectures, discussions, and other community events.
“With the creation of the Georgetown Humanities Initiative we have been able to demonstrate that we are much more than a cluster of juxtaposed disciplines,” said Nicoletta Pireddu, inaugural director of the Georgetown Humanities Initiative. “Now, Georgetown Humanities can finally be not only an intellectual endeavor but also a physical forum for hosting events, exchanging ideas, and promoting community.”
Under Pireddu’s leadership, the initiative developed partnerships with Georgetown’s Medical Humanities Initiative and Earth Commons as well as with the Teagle Foundation.
“Georgetown has a rich history in the liberal arts and promotes a well-rounded ethical graduate who contributes to society,” says Toni Boucher (Parent’98, ’00, ’04), one of the initiative’s founding donors. “As many institutions of higher learning focus on specialization at the expense of liberal arts, Georgetown sets itself apart by developing a student learning environment that has a worldview and sense of responsibility to contribute more broadly for the greater good of all.” •
—Racquel Nassor
(From left to right) Andrew Sobanet, former College of Arts & Sciences interim dean, Nicoletta Pireddu, Georgetown Humanities Initiative inaugural director, and Robert M. Groves, Georgetown University interim president, cut the ribbon at the Humanities Hub opening.
Photo: Rafael Suanes
Students learning to care for others—and themselves
For many students, the pursuit of success can limit the amount of time and energy they have to invest in their wellbeing. National surveys, meanwhile, have found that mental health issues, especially anxiety and depression, are on the rise among today’s students.
Blowing Up Perfection, a five-week course from Georgetown’s Division of Student Affairs, works to respond to the pressures modern learners face by helping them build communities of care that allow them to feel supported and be a source of support for others. The course is funded in part by a gift from the Ortus Foundation, an organization established by Sabrina Kuhl Gracias (B’93, Parent’27) to bolster mental health and suicide prevention efforts for youth and young adults.
Co-led by Eleanor J.B. Daugherty, vice president for student affairs, and Jennifer Woolard, vice dean for faculty affairs and professor in the department of psychology, the course brings together undergraduate and graduate students who feel a calling to lead in their communities. Students learn how research on human behavior during team situations can inform and transform their Georgetown experiences.
Each class features a guest speaker who is an expert in cultivating effective leadership, from Georgetown leaders, such as School of Health Dean Christopher King and Residential Ministry Director Shazetta Thompson-Hill, to Georgetown alumni, including Stéphane Dujarric (SFS’88), spokesperson for the United Nations Secretary-General. Speakers and
LEAVING A LEGACY
students discuss topics related to psychologist Bruce Tuckman’s stages of group development, including how to face tension in group dynamics, engage in meaningful conflict, and lead with vulnerability and purpose.
“In this course, we blow up concepts of perfection and instead look for meaningful connections between students. We also work to advance an authentic understanding of humanity and what it means to serve others and ourselves,” says Daugherty, an advocate with more than two decades of experience working in student life and wellbeing. “Georgetown has a unique position, through this course and other student-centered programs, to cherish and understand adolescence and allow students to embrace their imperfections and the humanity of the people they serve.”
Students say the class has empowered them to build a welcoming and inclusive network and take on academic, professional, and personal challenges.
“Perhaps the greatest lesson that I learned in the course was the role that self-care and sense-of-self play in leadership,” says one student. “The course reminded me of the humanity of people who accomplish great things.”
“This class has taught me so much about not only the leader I want to be, but also the leader and person I am now,” says another student. “I am extremely grateful for this opportunity, and I hope this class continues for years to come.” •
—Kimberly Clarke
This year marks a decade since Dikembe Mutombo (SLL’91, HON’10, Parent’19, ’23, ’24), who passed away in 2024, was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. He once said: “I might have not won a championship but I’m a champion to many people.”
Illustration: iStock
Catch up with David Edelstein, dean of the College of Arts & Sciences
On July 1, David Edelstein began serving as the dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, Georgetown’s oldest school. Since joining Georgetown in 2002 as a faculty member in the Department of Government and SFS, he has also served as the vice provost for education, and the vice dean for faculty affairs in the College.
What’s kept you at Georgetown after 23 years?
It’s still a great place to study the things I’m passionate about while working with wonderful faculty, staff, and students. It’s been a real privilege to teach here through the years.
As I became more invested in the institution, I started taking on more administrative roles so that I could be a part of Georgetown’s growth and development. Playing a role in strategizing the future of this institution has been deeply fulfilling.
What does your research focus on?
I have always been drawn to issues of war and peace. Questions about war and peace are important not just because of their strategic dimension, but also because they have enormous consequences for people’s lives.
My interests evolved from there to a particular passion for great power politics, which is understanding the relations between the most powerful actors in international politics. My most recent work is thinking about the emergence of China as a great power and its implications for international politics.
For somebody who’s interested in the issues I’m interested in, there’s literally nowhere better in the world to be than Georgetown. We are here at the epicenter of U.S. foreign policy but also global international politics.
What drew you to the role of dean?
This role gives me the opportunity to lead an institution I consider home, and I am eager to explore new opportunities for growth while also working on the development of a more robust and meaningful College identity.
The liberal arts, what we do in the College, this is the heart and soul of Georgetown. I am eager to work with our entire community—faculty, students, and staff—to build a College of Arts & Sciences that only further realizes its enormous potential.
How do you unwind?
I’ve always said that I do my best thinking when I’m walking or running or moving in some way. I started by running 5ks and worked my way up to a full Ironman. There’s a lot of strategizing in the triathlon. You’re racing against other people, but, in many ways, you’re racing against yourself, and thinking about how to make your way through the three different disciplines.
It is important to have something other than your work. A more well-rounded person is a healthier person. •
—Cliff Djajapranata and Gabrielle Barone
Edelstein has finished two full Ironman competitions, each consisting of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2-mile run.
Photo: The IRONMAN Group / Finisherpix.com
Photo: Phil Humnicky
Experiential course in Senegal explores public interest solutions
When designing their new immersion course, Senegal: Public Interest Technology, Katherine Chandler and Rajesh Veeraraghavan, associate professors in the School of Foreign Service, wanted to do something different.
“It’s not a typical course where American students go to a different part of the world,” says Veeraraghavan, a core faculty member in the Science, Technology, and International Affairs program. “The course here is more symmetrical, meaning it’s not just us going there; the Senegalese students also come here.”
Georgetown students enrolled in the Senegal course partner with students at Dakar American University of Science and Technology (DAUST) to develop technology solutions for public interest issues like tourism and local rideshare safety.
The course is offered through Georgetown’s Centennial Lab, an experiential program at the School of Foreign Service that focuses on real issues. In addition to Chandler and Veeraraghavan, the Senegal course is led by DAUST President Sidy Ndao.
As part of the Georgetown Dialogues Initiative, the course engages faculty from different academic disciplines.
“Our course is truly interdisciplinary in its organization and function,” says Chandler, who directs Georgetown’s Culture and Politics program. “Building a technology is not just about coding or engineering. It is a social process as well. Students share their expertise and learn from each other in the process.”
In the spring semester, nine Georgetown students teamed up with 10 DAUST students on technology projects that address
community needs in the Senegalese capital. Georgetown students traveled to Dakar over spring break to meet different communities, and in April, the DAUST cohort visited Washington, DC, to gain more insights for their final projects. They also met with experts, including an official from the DC Commission on Climate Change and Resiliency.
One team developed Language Buddy, which translates the Wolof language for tourists in real-time, to improve buyer/ seller interactions and support Senegal’s local economy. Manya Kodali (SFS’25) and Kanmani Duraikkannan (C’26)—along with Mamadou Diallo and Adja Toure from DAUST—earned second place in SFS’s 2025 Global Impact Pitch Competition.
To address rideshare safety for motorcycle taxis in Senegal, another team decided to leverage drivers’ social networks to improve safety with location-sharing between drivers.
Connor Henry (SFS’26) appreciated working with the DAUST students, whose technical expertise complemented his international affairs background. Working together with the help of a postdoctoral fellow, they developed a chatbot to increase rider safety.
“The class opened each side’s eyes to the other’s way of thinking,” says Henry. “We used our prior experiences to discuss how this technology is embedded in the social structure, and how to design new technology that will improve their work lives.” •
—Cliff Djajapranata
For the collaborative course, School of Foreign Service students visited Senegal (photo on left) and students from the Dakar American University of Science and Technology later came to Washington, DC for partnered final presentations (right).
Photos: Courtesy of Dakar American University of Science and Technology (DAUST)
On Demo Day, each Georgetown Ventures team presents their outcomes after providing resources and solutions to their assigned startups for a semester.
‘A
hidden
gem’
for startups
Since 2017, Georgetown Ventures (GV), a student-run, nonprofit startup accelerator program, has helped over 100 founders improve their businesses.
Each semester, students connect with up to 10 startups and work as a cohort to help them overcome challenges. GV provides each startup with creative, technology, and strategy consultants as well as a project manager. On Demo Day, the teams present their outcomes.
Austin Ward (B’27) joined GV in Fall 2024. His first role was working as a strategy consultant for The Pitch Place, a website where freelance journalists and editors can connect more efficiently.
“I was drawn to GV because I like working with people who have an entrepreneurial spirit,” says Ward. “As I got more involved, I also found a community that’s unlike any other club or organization on campus.”
In the spring semester, Ward joined a different startup as a project manager. He worked with Doce, a marketplace app that connects small businesses with customers through unique gifting experiences.
“The founders for Doce noted that the virtual gifting experience can often feel impersonal, so we worked with them on branding,” says Ward. “It’s really great to work with founders who are passionate about bringing their companies to life. Many of the founders in these past two cohorts have been either current undergrad students or have other full-time jobs
ACCESSIBILITY AT GEORGETOWN
so that’s really inspiring. I’ve learned what goes into getting a startup off the ground.”
Carys Winter (B’27) came to Georgetown looking to get involved with startups.
“Georgetown Ventures has been central to my Georgetown journey. It’s especially important to me as a Georgetown McDonough student because I can apply what I’ve been learning in my classes,” says Winter. “I’m a big believer that you learn the most from the people you surround yourself with and I’m thankful to have found such hard-working and interesting people.”
GV exposes students to a variety of startups, some founded by current students and others by professionals in the Washington Metropolitan area. Winter has worked on everything from an EV charging station to a dating app.
Ashwin Jaiprakash, co-founder of Eazy, a start-up that used GV’s services, raves about the program.
“Georgetown Ventures helped us create a new logo and narrow down our messaging,” says Jaiprakash. “I was really impressed by how well-run it is, especially considering that they are students. They were all intelligent and enthusiastic. They helped keep us accountable to our goals and worked with us to drive forward our ideas. This program is a hidden gem in DC.” •
—Nowshin Chowdhury
Accessibility improvements include Epicurean & Co. door automation, brick repaving, updated restrooms, and campus signage with Braille, QR codes, and tactile letters. Further improvements are in progress.
Photo: Courtesy of Georgetown Ventures
Caring Acts
A Georgetown collaboration highlights the transformative power of caregiving and theater as a healing art. Staged to rave reviews in late 2024, The Art of Care play originally grew out of a 2020 course called “Performance and Pandemic” taught by theater professor Derek Goldman, who holds a joint appointment in the School of Foreign Service and is co-founder of the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics.
Developed in partnership with the Medical Humanities Initiative and the School of Health, the play’s stories about care came from intimate conversations with a range of people using the In Your Shoes method of deep listening pioneered by Goldman. As the script took shape, Goldman connected with former student Reginald Douglas (C’09), artistic director of Mosaic Theater Company in Washington, DC. Douglas recognized the power of the project and signed on to present the play.
“The topic of the play embodies both our missions, as well as our vision about how theater can activate a community,” says Douglas.
In the spring of her junior year, health care major Wonnie Kim (H’25) joined the production, combining her interests in theater and health.
“Everything just clicked,” says Kim, who ultimately became assistant director of the play. In addition to her work during rehearsals, Kim helped translate scientific information into the artful language for the script.
School of Health Dean Christopher King calls Kim’s professional aspiration to combine the arts and health a “perfect example” of reconceptualizing what health care looks like.
“We must go beyond the traditional biomedical approach and normalize a bio/psycho/social approach to how we care for populations,” he says.
Today the theater production has grown into a university initiative exploring the role that narrative storytelling can play around care, says Goldman.
“This project is just a small element of a much broader movement of energy around the connection between art and health and social cohesion and well-being. With Georgetown’s values in this area, I love the idea that we can be one kind of hub to amplify this work.” •
—Sara Piccini
Recent
gifts to Called to Be: The Campaign for Georgetown
An enhanced residential experience
A $20 million bequest from William G. Byrnes (B’72, L’81) and Lisa H. Byrnes (SLL’80) supports the development of a state-of-the-art residential village featuring apartment-style living for juniors and seniors. Thanks to the Byrneses, Georgetown is ensuring that our student community thrives.
Supporting an AI faculty expert
A $13.7 million gift from Robert (C’62) and Allison Bertrand (Parents’05) creates a computer science chair focused on research and teaching related to artificial intelligence. Thanks to the Bertrands, Georgetown is shaping the future of teaching, research, and learning.
New name, new opportunities for nursing school
In recognition of a $25 million gift commitment from the Berkley Family Foundation, Georgetown renamed its nursing school the Georgetown University Berkley School of Nursing. The transformative gift expands enrollment, financial aid offerings, and student resources. Thanks to the Berkleys, Georgetown is advancing the health and security of people and the planet.
Ensuring future leaders have access to summer internships
Shakila Guevara Stahl (B’15) and her husband, Dr. Stephen Stahl, established the Stahl Summer Scholars Program Fund to ensure future leaders have the financial resources to access summer experiential learning opportunities. Thanks to the Stahls, Georgetown is building a stronger, more ethical society.
A scene from The Art of Care, performed at the Hoya-led Mosaic Theater Company in Washington, DC
Photo: Chris Banks
A better way to use pesticides
This story is a part of Georgetown’s “Ask a Professor” series, in which faculty break down complex issues and contribute to trending conversations, from the latest pop culture topics to research breakthroughs and critical global events. Jesse Meiller, teaching professor in the Earth Commons Institute, spent seven years working in the Environmental Protection Agency as an environmental toxicologist.
How do pesticides typically function?
The way that pesticides work is they usually affect an organism so that it can’t survive by not being able to find food, reproduce, or grow. So you’re affecting the population of whatever that pest is, whether it’s weeds or insects that are eating a crop.
How do most farmers use pesticides?
Many conventional farms prophylactically use pesticides before there’s a problem, but they’re doing it on a large scale to cover all their bases instead of being targeted in their use of pesticides. Many of these pesticides are broad-spectrum pesticides, which are the kind that kill many different types of organisms. So you apply those and you’re killing not just the bugs that are eating your crop, but you’re potentially also killing the pollinators that are helping to pollinate your crops.
How can pesticides cause harm to the environment?
Many of the chemicals used in synthetic pesticides persist in the environment and also in the bodies of organisms, which specifically is known as bioaccumulation. The organisms that are exposed to them hold onto those pesticides so that when something else eats that organism, they pass on that burden of pesticides to whatever eats it.
Additionally, the rain that falls on land where herbicides and insecticides are applied can cause soil and pesticides to run off into local waterways. Organisms that live in those waterways—including fish, invertebrates, even larval stages of insects—can be exposed to these pesticides.
That’s what was happening with bald eagles and other birds of prey when DDT [an insecticide the EPA has banned for most uses] was being used. Pesticides were
Photo: iStock
moving up the food chain to these high levels, and it was affecting the abilities of these birds to build eggshells that were strong enough to withstand their weight. So their populations plummeted, and we almost lost our national bird because of the use of a pesticide.
Are there other solutions that minimize pesticide use altogether?
Integrated pest management (IPM) is an ecologically based way to deal with pests. IPM’s goal is to maintain agricultural production while still dealing with pests and decreasing pesticide use.
IPM requires having a thorough understanding of the crop, the pest, and the surrounding environment.
What alternative strategies does IPM offer to deal with pests?
Some controls including the appropriate use of fertilizers can ensure the soil is as fertile as possible, giving the crop a more competitive edge over weeds. Other controls like spacing the plants to be more dense can shade the ground and make emerging weeds less competitive and less likely to germinate in the soil.
The timing of planting crops is really important. For example, planting corn in early May might prevent corn borer pests from feeding on the corn ears because the corn can be in a later stage of development and better able to withstand the insects when they peak in the summertime.
Planting different crops on one plot of land can also be effective. Heteroculture is where you plant a variety of
“Sustainable farming promotes the biodiversity of the surrounding ecosystems. Since pesticides can harm organisms that are not pests... it is best to avoid the use of pesticides whenever possible.”
—JESSE MEILLER
crops together which can result in the disruption of pest cycles.
Are there types of pesticides that are not as harmful?
Narrow-spectrum pesticides are more targeted to a specific type of pest or a group of pests. You can avoid some of those environmental problems of harming other organisms that are unintentionally affected by broad-spectrum pesticides.
But to use them, you have to know about the pest’s lifecycle and when it reproduces. For example, if you have a narrow-spectrum pesticide that acts on an organism’s ability to molt or move from one stage of life to another, you need to understand what those stages are so you can use the pesticide at a time that is going to be the most effective.
Using narrow-spectrum pesticides also requires more careful application and sometimes additional protective gear.
How do these more sustainable practices contribute to a greener and healthier planet?
Sustainable farming promotes the biodiversity of the surrounding ecosystems. Since pesticides can harm organisms that are not pests, including pollinators, birds, fish, native plants and many others, it is best to avoid the use of pesticides whenever possible. This will also allow ecosystems to retain their resiliency in the face of climate change and other stressors that they face due to human impacts. Fertile soil, clean water and productive food systems support our environment and our health. •
—Cliff
Djajapranata
Photo: Courtesy of Jesse Meiller
BY LAUREN WOLKOFF DESIGN BY ETHAN JEON
For millions around the world, the morning cup of coffee is a simple, if necessary, ritual to start their day. But for a group of Georgetown alumni, that daily brew represents something far more—it’s a calling that has defined their careers and driven their commitment to social justice.
From Central America to Chicago, these Hoyas are working to reshape an industry, making it more just, more sustainable, and more connected to the communities where the beans originate.
The scale of this challenge is immense. The global coffee industry generates over $100 billion annually—supporting nearly 2.2 million U.S. jobs and adding more than $343 billion to the U.S. economy every year—yet many of the 12 million families who grow coffee worldwide struggle to earn a living wage.
These alumni have made it their mission to change this reality, working at different points along the supply chain to improve both coffee quality and the lives of those who produce it—guided by principles instilled through their Georgetown education.
Despite their diverse career paths, the alumni share two common threads: a connection to the Hilltop and the belief that coffee can be a force for good in the world.
on building a different coffee business model
Martín Mayorga’s path to building his successful coffee company Mayorga Coffee began long before he arrived at the Hilltop in 1994. Born in Guatemala to a Nicaraguan father and Peruvian mother, he was raised in Nicaragua until his family fled during the revolution, spending time in Peru, Costa Rica, and Miami before settling in Washington, DC. These early experiences would later fuel his entrepreneurial vision.
At Georgetown, where he followed in his older brothers’ footsteps to study international business and finance, Mayorga launched his first venture—selling cigars as an undergraduate.
But a few classes short of graduating, he made the decision to return to Nicaragua, driven by a strong desire to address the deep inequities he saw in the country of his youth.
“I did nothing special to be born in the house where I was born. If I’d been born even 100 feet away, I’d be the kid picking up sticks to make a dollar a day, and not the kid who had the opportunities I had,” he says.
Witnessing agricultural supply chain inequities firsthand in Nicaragua’s tobacco valleys, Mayorga became frustrated by the conditions the farmers faced.
“There are people who dedicate their entire lives to growing coffee, and nobody knows or cares. They are not valued, their work is invisible.”
By 2000, after selling his cigar brand to JR Cigars, Mayorga committed wholeheartedly to improving conditions for coffee growers, determined to forge a different path as the “anti-industry guy.” Rather than following traditional industry practices, he built his company around direct relationships with small organic family farms and equitable trade practices, maintaining staff in six Latin American countries and paying producers premium prices.
His approach extends to company culture—about 90% of his staff are Latine, and the company provides benefits such as financial education and first-time homebuyer programs. Though his profit margins are smaller, he’s focused on building a business at scale where more people can prosper.
His advice to aspiring entrepreneurs is direct.
“The truth is I can’t really teach entrepreneurship, because the hustle is almost crazy—you’ve got to believe in what you are doing to the point that you are willing to lose everything. It’s that kind of grit and tenacity. You have to want it to your core.”
Today, Mayorga Coffee processes millions of pounds annually for retailers like Costco, Whole Foods, and Amazon while maintaining organic certification and direct trade relationships. Headquartered in Rockville, Maryland, Mayorga has expanded into quinoa, chia seeds, and black beans, but has resisted selling his company to larger buyers.
“The first thing any big company that buys me out is going to do is slash what they pay producers, and this goes against everything we stand for,” he says.
Instead, he’s focused on building something lasting that reflects his values and heritage.
“I want to leave behind something that creates impact— something that will continue beyond me, and that can be a vehicle for people in Latin America to have hope,” he says.
on going from a year of transition to a 36-year mission
Kevin Marinacci could never have foreseen that one year of service would lead to a lifetime devoted to coffee communities. After earning a degree in American Studies, and without a clear post-graduation plan, Marinacci joined the Georgetown Student Volunteers in Latin America program, led by legendary theology professor Otto Hentz, S.J.
In Nicaragua, Marinacci worked alongside Rev. Rafael María Fabretto, a revered Italian missionary known throughout the country for strengthening education in poor rural communities. Just months after Marinacci’s arrival in Nicaragua’s coffee-growing highlands in 1990, Fabretto passed away unexpectedly, leaving a significant void.
Marinacci called his parents in Illinois to share his thinking: “I said, ’I think I need to stay another year to help in this period of transition.’”
That was 36 years ago. What followed was a life neither Marinacci nor his parents could have anticipated. He
friends and collaborators
made Nicaragua his home, met his wife, and started a family while building the Fabretto Children’s Foundation from the ground up as chief executive officer. Marinacci’s father, who was originally opposed to his son’s decision to stay in Nicaragua, became deeply involved with the foundation.
Though Marinacci returned to the U.S. briefly to complete an MBA, Nicaragua remained his base as he worked to sustain and grow Fabretto’s legacy into a thriving educational organization employing more than 200 people.
However, political upheaval in Nicaragua would eventually disrupt the organization, forcing the foundation’s closure in 2022, and prompting Marinacci’s family’s move to Guatemala. The foundation now operates in Guatemala and Honduras, continuing its mission in rural communities, many in coffee-producing areas.
Because of the foundation’s efforts in these coffeegrowing regions, Marinacci has witnessed firsthand a critical challenge facing the industry: coffee farmers are aging without a new generation ready to take up farming. The foundation responds with innovative curricula geared toward young people—teaching life sciences through composting and mathematics through garden management. Students learn to geo-reference farms using technology—skills increasingly vital as European Union legislation requires proof that coffee doesn’t come from deforested areas.
“If we can engage young people by incorporating technology or marketing, and by them being able to tell their story in their own way, the prospect then becomes more attractive,” Marinacci explains. “Their small farm of a couple of acres could be very profitable, but young people have to want to do this.”
His confidence stems from witnessing education’s lasting power across generations.
“Education is something you can never take away from somebody. There are generations of folks who have been educated and trained over the years through the foundation, and I’m optimistic that people who have access to quality education and opportunity will forge ahead,” he adds.
Photo: Fabretto Children’s Foundation
Longtime
Martín Mayorga (B’97) (left) and Kevin Marinacci (C’89) at a coffee harvest in Nicaragua.
on finding a calling in a Nicaraguan coffee town
After graduating with a degree in international politics, Michael Sheridan found himself working grueling and unsatisfying hours at a New York City law firm while volunteering in his limited spare time distributing food to homeless encampments. In letters to his former professor Hentz, Sheridan relayed how much he enjoyed his volunteer efforts—and disliked his 80 hours weekly of paid legal work.
Hentz invited Sheridan to walk a different path, encouraging him to move to Nicaragua to join the Georgetown Student Volunteers in Latin America program.
“That really was the inflection point that put me on this path,” Sheridan says. “Within a few weeks of being in Nicaragua, I knew I was in the right place.”
Sheridan spent his time volunteering in an orphanage run by the Fabretto Foundation in San José de Cusmapa, a coffee-producing town just a few miles from the Honduran border.
Through his work in Cusmapa and travels throughout the country, Sheridan saw both the physical beauty and harsh realities of coffee production. On one visit to a large estate, he was struck by the inequities and often hazardous labor conditions—migrant workers sleeping in converted stables, dealing with respiratory illnesses and machete wounds.
Michael Sheridan (SFS’94), CEO of the Coffee Quality Institute, got his start in the industry as a Georgetown volunteer in the coffee-producing town of San José de Cusmapa, Nicaragua.
The early experience in Nicaragua was a touchstone for Sheridan over the years.
“It was my first brush with the supply side of coffee,” he says. “That’s resonated with me ever since in my work with growers at origin.”
After leaving Cusmapa, Sheridan was a newspaper reporter in Latin America for a few years before returning to the U.S. for graduate school. Yet his connection to coffee—and the farmers, communities, and landscapes that sustain it—proved enduring. He went on to work for more than two decades at Catholic Relief Services, leading coffee projects throughout Latin America.
It was during this time that he reconnected with Marinacci—the two had overlapped in Nicaragua years earlier through the Fabretto Foundation. Together they secured funding to support a link between the Cinco de Junio cooperative with Counter Culture Coffee, a partnership that continues more than 15 years later.
In 2016, Sheridan shifted to the buyer’s side of the equation, joining Chicago-based Intelligentsia Coffee as sourcing director. There he worked with growers across Africa and the Americas on direct-trade partnerships “with an eye to how to create more value for the people who produce the coffee, and how to reduce their risk and increase their reward,” he says.
Today, he is CEO of the Coffee Quality Institute, which aims to improve coffee quality and the lives of coffee producers. Sheridan says the nonprofit’s mission feels particularly urgent as climate change, political unrest, and economic shocks expose deep fissures in the global coffee system.
“We have a cultural love affair when it comes to coffee— it’s such an important part of our lives and our routine,” he says. “But the future of coffee is not inevitable. We have a system in which the biggest risks are borne by the people who are least equipped to bear them, and this is not tenable.”
Looking back, Sheridan credits his initial “false path” in Manhattan for reconnecting him with Hentz, taking him to Cusmapa, and setting the direction for his entire career.
“What started almost as an accident then became very much by design. Now I can’t imagine what else I would do,” he says.
Photo: Intelligentsia Coffee
on the healing power of soil
When Gally Mayer moved from Manhattan to Costa Rica 15 years ago with her husband and children, the family was seeking a deeper connection to nature and community.
Several years later, Mayer began searching for quality Costa Rican coffee for Tutto Il Giorno, the New York-based Italian restaurant group she and her husband co-own with partners. What she discovered instead was a coffee industry facing serious challenges—and an opportunity to be part of the solution.
Today, she’s the co-founder of Buena Vida Specialty Coffee, working to transform how Costa Rican coffee is grown and traded.
Born in Argentina and raised in Israel from age four, Mayer arrived at Georgetown’s business school uncertain about her career direction. A transformative course with Rabbi Harold White taught her that “you can be whatever religion you want to be—just be a good person with a strong value system.”
This lesson would guide her for years to come. After graduating with a degree in international business and finance, Mayer spent nearly a decade on Wall Street and in banking—but always felt pulled toward more missiondriven endeavors, inspired by her father’s generous and altruistic spirit.
This instinct soon found its focus. When she began looking into the coffee industry in Costa Rica, what she found shocked her.
“Eighty percent of farmers live on the poverty line, 95% of soil is degraded from agrochemicals, and people drink coffee without understanding where it comes from,” she says. “Farming coffee doesn’t provide prosperity for most, and much of the time products labeled ’fair trade’ are anything but fair.”
For Mayer, this wasn’t just a business problem—it was a call to action that connected directly to her values. Five years ago, she co-founded Buena Vida as an organic coffee company. Over the past three years, it has evolved into something more ambitious: a comprehensive regenerative agriculture initiative that goes beyond avoiding chemicals to actively healing damaged land.
Unlike traditional organic farming, regenerative agriculture emphasizes rebuilding soil health, promoting biodiversity, and creating self-sustaining ecosystems.
Methods include gentle soil management, crop rotation, maintaining plant cover year-round, and growing coffee alongside trees to naturally improve soil health and help farms withstand drought and disease.
“Soil health is one of the most accelerated paths to a healthy planet and farmer prosperity,” Mayer says. “Without healthy soil, you cannot have healthy plants. Without healthy plants, you cannot have healthy food. Without healthy food, you cannot have healthy humans. The soil is what heals us.”
The urgency is real: Costa Rica has lost nearly half its coffee farms in the past decade, and according to the Interamerican Development Bank, global coffee production could be cut in half by 2050 due to climate change and other factors.
Mayer’s commitment to values-driven business has come full circle through her role on the board of the Baratta Center for Global Business Education at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business.
She encourages students and alumni to “find your passion that drives you to make the world a better place, whatever that may be.” And most of all, she says, stay close to your mentors and supporters.
“Find the people with value systems you admire who will hold your feet to the fire when push comes to shove. That’s where the magic is.”
Gally Mayer (B’92), co-founder of Buena Vida Specialty Coffee, combines her Georgetown business education with sustainable coffee practices to support a healthy planet and farmer prosperity.
Photo: Courtesy of Gally Mayer
on moving from the Peace Corps to coffee diplomacy
When Al Liu graduated from Georgetown with a degree in Science, Technology and International Affairs, a career in business wasn’t exactly what he had envisioned for himself—he was drawn more toward global environmental policy and diplomacy. Three decades later, he has discovered that commerce can drive meaningful international impact—though not in the way he originally expected.
Liu’s introduction to coffee began during his senior year at Georgetown, when he served as one of the first shift managers at The Corp’s brand-new Uncommon Grounds coffee cart in the Leavey Center.
Following graduation and graduate school at Tufts University, where he earned a master’s in urban and environmental policy, and a brief stint at the World Wildlife Fund in DC, he joined the Peace Corps in Bolivia to help develop a regional ecotourism infrastructure. The Jesuit values he learned attending Marquette University High
him a desire to help the less fortunate, he says, making the Peace Corps a natural fit.
The experience proved transformative, unknowingly connecting him to the region that would later define his career.
“My time in the Peace Corps, specifically in Bolivia, put me on a path that I never would have imagined for myself,” Liu says. “Not only did I learn a new language, but I gained the incredible experience of living and working in a coffee-growing country.”
Back home in Milwaukee, Liu took what he thought would be a temporary job at Alterra Coffee Roasters (now Colectivo Coffee), planning to use it as a bridge before returning to Washington to pursue international development. But as he became more immersed in the global nature of the coffee business—connecting farmers in remote regions to consumers thousands of miles away— he recalibrated his plans.
Over the following years, Liu built extensive experience across the industry. He became involved in the specialty coffee movement, serving on the Specialty Coffee Association of America board from 2008 to 2012. As a trader with Seattle-based Atlas Coffee Importers, he worked with fair trade cooperatives in remote coffee-growing regions across Latin America and Southeast Asia. These roles increasingly revealed that the coffee trade required similar diplomatic skills to what he’d dreamed of at Georgetown.
His work has required navigating complex political situations, from operating in Indonesia’s post-conflict Aceh province—where a decades-long separatist movement had left highland coffee communities caught between opposing forces—to facilitating dialogue between stakeholders with vastly different power dynamics across the global coffee value chain.
“Coffee doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It’s inextricably tied to the history, the government, and the economy of these origin countries,” Liu says.
This realization led him to his current role as director of Let’s Talk Coffee, an initiative of the specialty coffee importer Sustainable Harvest that brings together industry leaders to tackle challenges ranging from market volatility to supply chain equity. Through this role, Liu has found that his SFS education prepared him well for navigating the complexities of global coffee trade.
Photo: Courtesy of Al Liu
Al Liu (SFS’95), shown here picking ripe coffee cherries in southwestern Honduras, got his start in coffee by managing the Uncommon Grounds cart in Leavey Center.
Coffee as a way to expand the greater good
For these five alumni, coffee is not merely a commodity to be traded. It is a bridge between cultures, a potential pathway to prosperity for rural communities, and a reminder that our most routine choices as consumers can have profound human consequences.
Working in the industry can be a way to live out the Jesuit principles that shaped their Georgetown education—a commitment to being people for others.
As Marinacci reflects on his Jesuit formation, which began in high school at the Loyola Academy in
Wilmette, Illinois: “My high school experience was defining in terms of thinking of service and contemplation and action, and that was reinforced throughout my time at Georgetown.”
These alumni have intentionally shaped their career paths, demonstrating how the coffee business can be a way to expand the greater good when guided by purpose and connection.
As Mayorga puts it: “For me, coffee is almost spiritual— it’s my connection to where I’m from. I personally know the people who grow it and I know the communities it comes from.” •
Photo: Photographer Name
Michael Sheridan (SFS’94) with farm workers sorting freshly picked coffee cherry at Malacara Farm on the northern slope of El Salvador’s Ilamatepec Volcano. This additional quality control step removes underripe and damaged fruit, ensuring only peak-ripeness cherry reaches the mill for processing.
Photo: Courtesy of Michael Sheridan
Team
BY
Photo: John Finestein
Chaplaincy brings spiritual dimension to student-athlete well-being
SARA PICCINI | DESIGN BY SHIKHA SAVDAS
Tony Mazurkiewicz, Georgetown’s inaugural athletics chaplain, helps student-athletes deal with some of the pressures they face.
During Senior Week in May, Connor Brennan (C’25) celebrated the end of his collegiate athletic career at a special banquet, along with teammates from the men’s swimming and diving program. “We did an exercise where we had to write to future athletes, offering them advice,” Brennan says. “I wrote, ‘Go talk to Chaplain Tony. He’ll change your life.’”
“Chaplain Tony” is Tony Mazurkiewicz, Georgetown’s inaugural athletics chaplain. “He’s the best listener I’ve ever met,” Brennan says. “He’s willing to talk to anyone about anything, embrace new perspectives, and encourage interreligious dialogue. He really personifies what Georgetown stands for.”
The athletics chaplaincy, established in 2019 through the generous support of Georgetown benefactors Nancy and Arthur (C’54) Calcagnini, is a key element in Georgetown’s holistic approach to ensuring the well-being of student-athletes. The position was endowed in 2023 by Jeff (B’66) and Nancy Moreland.
The athletics chaplain complements resources in leadership training, sports performance and medicine, mental health, academics, and nutrition. “For the chaplaincy to be able to work alongside those folks is an absolute gift,” Mazurkiewicz says.
“That’s something really special about the position—we’re not tucked off in the corner. It’s embedded in the overall ecosystem of the resources that are available to everyone in Athletics.”
‘Two full-time jobs’ Student-athletes at Georgetown, competing in NCAA Division I, face a unique set of pressures. “It’s like having two full-time jobs, balancing the demands of a very academically rigorous university with all of the time that goes into their sports participation,” says Erica Force, a psychologist who serves as the Amato Family Head of Athletic Counseling Services.
“Trying to manage that schedule can cause athletes to feel overwhelmed. Just managing sleep can become challenging if they’re staying up late to get homework done, then have an early morning practice,” Force continues. “And in their sport, they want to perform well. That can add to feeling stressed.”
The culture of Hoya Athletics reflects Georgetown’s tradition of cura personalis, with coaches and staff focused on the holistic needs of each individual student. “They’re very much willing to let you be a student-athlete,” Brennan says. “My coach really prioritized that. I was pre-med, and he offered me a morning practice schedule if I had to make a lab.”
“So much of their lives is about filling up other people’s cups. I wanted to create a space for them to focus on themselves, so they can be better at taking care of others.” Tony Mazurkiewicz
Under the leadership of Lee Reed, Francis X. Rienzo Director of Intercollegiate Athletics, the program has significantly expanded its resources devoted to student well-being. Georgetown Athletics was the first intercollegiate athletic department in the Big East Conference to hire a dedicated mental health professional for student-athletes (Force), a position endowed in 2022 by Joseph (B’84) and Lisa Amato (Parents’13, ’17, ’19). A gift from Ambassador David Welch (SFS’75) and Gretchen Welch enabled the hiring of a second mental health professional, psychologist DeVonna Jacobs.
“Our programming and efforts are really well-supported by our leadership and alumni,” Force says. “We are so grateful that we have those partnerships.”
Spiritual accompaniment
Mazurkiewicz, who captained the Yale football team during his senior year in college, has a deep understanding of the difficult balancing act that student-athletes perform on a daily basis. Prior to joining Georgetown’s Athletics program, he had worked with the Hoya football team as director of Georgetown’s John Main Center for Christian Contemplation. He joined Georgetown in that role in 2017, bringing two decades of ministerial and educational leadership experience.
When he began the athletics chaplaincy position, Mazurkiewicz explains, Athletics Director Lee Reed asked him to work with coaches and staff first, recognizing their role as a linchpin in fostering student-athlete well-being. The pressures on coaches are enormous: in a 2022 NCAA study, 40% reported feeling mentally exhausted nearly every day.
“So much of their lives is about filling up other people’s cups,” Mazurkiewicz says. “We wanted to create a space for them to focus on themselves, so they can be better at taking care of others.
“The word for me is accompaniment,” he continues. “I walk alongside coaches and staff who want to talk about their spiritual lives.”
Early on, Mazurkiewicz developed innovative programming for coaches and staff, such as monthly Busy Hoya retreats—later offered to students as well—involving 20-30 minutes each day over five days of meditation, reflection, or prayer.
“Then I noticed that some folks weren’t sure what the word ‘chaplain’ meant, maybe thinking, ‘I don’t know if that’s the space I want to be in.’” Augmenting his Master of Divinity degree, Mazurkiewicz decided to pursue a Certificate in Leadership Coaching from Georgetown’s School of Continuing Studies to further support coaches and staff.
“He’s there to meet you as you are,” says Kendall Mulligan, head coach of the Women’s Rowing Program, who participated in one-on-one leadership coaching with Mazurkiewicz. “He’s not there to place judgment or try to push you in a certain direction. He’s there to assist you in finding the way to work through life’s challenges, but also successes, and in the process grow to be the best version of yourself.”
‘Be where your feet are’
For Brennan, who was interested in growing in his Christian faith, the Athletics Chaplaincy provided a perfect opportunity to seek spiritual guidance.
“I got involved in a leadership position with the Georgetown University Christian Athletes in my junior year,” Brennan says. “As a result, I started working pretty closely with Tony.” (Brennan notes that the student-led organization was co-founded in the 1970s by basketball coach John R. Thompson Jr. and President Emeritus John J. DeGioia during his undergraduate years.)
“During Ramadan, Tony invited our leadership group to join in the celebration of Eid-al-Fitr, the breaking of the fast. He really encouraged us to embrace other faiths and take opportunities to learn more about them.”
Brennan also began working individually with Mazurkiewicz. “I was doing well in school, but because of that I was stressed a lot of the time, as many of us are. Tony became my lifeline towards the end of my time here.” Among other activities, Brennan participated in the Busy Hoya retreat program. “It’s an awesome time of reflection. I felt like my faith really grew.”
Mazurkiewicz has developed a wide variety of other programming to meet the individual needs of studentathletes, whatever their spiritual background and beliefs.
“One example is Tony working with us on meditation and mindful awareness,” Mulligan says. “Meditation
really resonates with our team in particular—they like to say rowing is 10 percent physical and 90 percent mental.” She notes the combined pressures of academics, athletics, and “life in general” as young adults.
“We’ve found there are mornings where the students might be in the boat but they’re already worrying about their 9:30 chem test,” Mulligan continues. “How are they going to be successful in either venue if they’re constantly split? The meditation work that Tony does slows them down so they take the time to be where their feet are.”
Working with the Office of Mission & Ministry, Mazurkiewicz also holds regular retreats at the Calcagnini Contemplative Center in the Shenandoah region of Virginia.
“Our students love it,” Mulligan says. “Along with spiritual development, there’s also that cultural piece—what is the heart and soul of your team? For me as a coach, I really take advantage of that, because I believe that culture, not individuals,
wins championships, especially in a sport like rowing. There are nine of you coming across the line together, so you have to commit as a group.”
‘It’s okay not to be okay’ As Mulligan notes, the variety of resources available in the Athletics Department enables each student-athlete to pursue support in a way that resonates best with them.
“Student-athletes can be shy about going for mental health support,” she says. “Tony is that perfect bridge that may eventually lead them to seeing a clinical psychologist.”
“There is still stigma attached to mental health everywhere,” Force says. “In athletics, it can be even harder, because the culture of sports is to be tough and work through pain. We work to normalize that it’s okay not to be okay, that we all need help sometime.” Force often uses Olympic athletes Simone Biles and Michael Phelps as examples of athletes who are open about mental health issues.
Cooper Field is home to field hockey, football, and men’s and women’s lacrosse.
Photo:Lisa Helfert
Photo: Phil Humnicky
“We offer guided meditations about what needs were met during their participation... and how they can lean into those to ground themselves after they finish their sport.” Tony Mazurkiewicz
Mazurkiewicz looks at the statue of John R. Thompson Jr. every day as he works with student-athletes. He makes equity an important part of his work.
Photo: Lisa Helfert
“The culture of sports is to be tough and work through pain. We work to normalize that it’s okay not to be okay, that we all need help sometime.” Erica Force
“Coming in to ask for support doesn’t get in the way of you being in the starting lineup or getting playing time,” she says. “What sometimes gets in the way is when you don’t ask for help and the problem gets worse.”
Force and her team have introduced a number of innovations to further enhance student well-being. “Through support from Athletics, we were able to pilot free subscriptions for the Calm app available to all student-athletes. This coming year, we hope to introduce virtual peer-to-peer mentor support.”
‘Tinkering in the Spirit’
Every day, Mazurkiewicz walks by the statue of Hall of Fame basketball coach John R. Thompson Jr. in the athletic center that bears his name. For him, it serves as a reminder of the work that remains to be done to address issues of equity within Georgetown Athletics and the university as a whole.
“Whether it be working for racial justice or advocating for other issues of equity, our Catholic and Jesuit identities, especially our institution’s original sin of anti-Black racism rooted in the GU272, compels us to try and do our part,” he says, referring to the 272 children, women, and men enslaved by the Maryland Jesuits and sold in 1838 to plantations in Louisiana.
Mazurkiewicz calls attention to the video, “I Can’t Breathe,” made by the Black Student-Athlete Coalition (BSAC) in 2020. The BSAC formed in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd as a way to amplify the voices of Black athletes and find community during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the video, young people testify to their campus experiences and end with a call to Georgetown administrators, faculty, and fellow students to take action, such as having formal, structured conversations about race and inequality in America.
Mazurkiewicz has made equity an important piece of a workshop offered for students on the topic of life beyond Georgetown athletics. “We offer guided
meditations about what needs were met during their participation in sports and beyond, and how they can lean into those to ground themselves after they finish their sport. We invite them to think in an intentional way about how equity issues—whether it be race, gender, orientation, etc.—will be part of their lives as they’re discerning what might be next.”
For Georgetown coaches, faculty, and staff, Mazurkiewicz sponsors a spiritual equity advocacy program called Tinkering in the Spirit. Participants explore ideas about equity in practice and how to live in a more inclusive way.
“We offer three-hour workshops—dynamic, engaging, collaborative, spirit-filled opportunities for people who want to lean into issues of equity while engaging their spirituality,” he explains. “It taps into our Ignatian tradition and connects people in what can often be a siloed institution.”
‘The holistic person’ These changes have enabled Georgetown to better fulfill its mission of caring for its student-athletes in mind, body, and spirit.
“I don’t know of any other athletic department that has someone quite like Tony,” Mulligan says.
“He’s an amazing human; he gives himself so completely to supporting those he serves.
“I think there are a lot of schools that choose to have athlete-students versus student-athletes,” she continues. “At Georgetown they’re definitely student-athletes with that throughline of the holistic person, which I think is really special.
Brennan found that to be true during his four years at the university. “I came to Georgetown expecting an exceptional education and chance to compete, and I got both without question,” he says. “But what emerged most was the growth in my faith, compassion, and understanding of others. That is something to be incredibly grateful for.” •
Photo: Jane Varner Malhotra
BY JANE VARNER MALHOTRA DESIGN BY ALINA RUPPEL
To celebrate the renewal of Lauinger Library, the iconic campus landmark turning 55 this year, we called upon you, the Georgetown family, to share your favorite memories of Lau—and of course you came through!
Stories about Lauinger are like the myriad chips of granite embedded in its concrete walls. Too many to count but collected together give the surface a texture and patina. A building you can feel. If you lean against it, it will leave an impression.
But first, a little history.
The backstory
Before 1970, the primary library on campus was Riggs, located in the south tower of Healy Hall. Built in 1891 with cast iron shelves as a fire deterrent, the space accommodated 105,000 volumes when it opened, more than double the size of the university’s collection at the time. By the 1950s, the number had grown to more than 200,000. University accreditation inspections from that era echoed student and staff concerns that the library had become inadequate to serve the needs of the community. The shelves were packed and overflow books filled the attics of Healy.
“Communications from stacks to reading rooms is poor, accessibility to the stacks limited, seating capacity excessively low, spaces for technical processes small and poorly laid out, lighting is very poor” read the disparaging evaluation from the Middle States inspectors in 1951.
Designs and locations for a new library emerged in the ensuing decade, but things got serious in 1964 when the president’s office established a Library Planning Committee. In 1965 the university hired architect John Carl Warnecke, known for his design of the John F. Kennedy gravesite in Arlington Memorial Cemetery, a library for the Naval Academy in Annapolis, and his work to redesign Lafayette Square by the White House, incorporating new buildings while preserving the old. This sensibility is what Georgetown sought— something modern and noteworthy that also echoed the surrounding historic architecture.
Various District commissions initially rejected Warnecke’s ultramodern Brutalist (raw concrete) design, mostly out of concern that the library’s location along the bluffs of the Potomac River would obstruct the Georgetown skyline. Sketches of the new building nodded to Healy Hall, with both offering deep gray stone exteriors and striking vertical elements. Eventually, the plans were approved after modifications were made to lower the height of the top floor.
The build
Construction on the $6 million project began in 1967. At the groundbreaking, President Gerard Campbell, S.J. said that in addition to the library being a resource for students and faculty, “for our alumni and friends, for that wider community in which Georgetown resides, it will mean a sharing in our intellectual resources, which our physical limitations have hitherto made difficult.”
Doors opened to the Joseph Mark Lauinger Memorial Library in April 1970. The building was named for the Class of 1967 alumnus killed earlier that year in Vietnam, whose grandfather and father were also alumni.
The massive new facility brought a significant improvement to research and study on the Hilltop. While Riggs Memorial Library and its annexes in Healy and Maguire Halls offered 57,000 square feet of space, Lauinger offered more than triple that at 175,000 square feet, with seating for 1,500 and capacity for one million volumes.
In addition to expanded areas for audio/visual equipment, photo duplication, special collections, and typing rooms, for the first time the library offered group study spaces, a map and print area, data processing space, and enclosed smoking rooms on every floor. Students and faculty found quiet and comfortable carrels and lounges throughout the building, many offering inspiring views of the Potomac River and the Washington area skyline.
Special collections and archives were housed on the fifth floor, along with a reading room for blind students with Braille writers and tape recorders. Because the library was built on a slope, the main entrance on the campus side was located on the third floor. Immediately to the right was the Pierce Reading Room for reserves—course materials for students to take turns reading, on site, in short increments. Originally the room was designed to remain open 24 hours during exam periods even when the rest of the library closed.
Beneath it all on the bottom floor was a parking garage.
The evolution
Eventually the parking was converted to interior space, and the university bookstore opened on the lowest level of Lauinger in 1973 (moving to the Leavey Center in 1988). In 1974 the extensive collection of Catholic books and theological materials from Jesuit seminary Woodstock College in Maryland became the renowned Woodstock Theological Library at Georgetown. Three years later, the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus placed their archives in special collections at Georgetown, offering a trove of records for scholarly study which document Catholic history in the United States, including the ownership and sale of enslaved persons by the Province.
The site had previously been a baseball diamond, a track, and tennis courts.
Construction of the massive library took three years.
Georgetown University Archives
As the legend goes, in 1975 friends of Jerry Pallotta (B’75) asked if he could pick them up from the library. Going above and beyond, he drove his VW Beetle carefully through the open front doors and into the Pierce Reading Room, crowded with students delighted by the unforgettable spectacle.
Georgetown University Archives
You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.
Latin inscription in foyer above entranceway, John 8:32
Joseph E. Jeffs (C’49), Georgetown’s librarian from 1960 to 1990, sets Lau’s cornerstone. Georgetown University Archives
Poem written by Anne-Isabelle de Bokay (C’20), Marina Gelardin (C’20) and Antonia Simon (C’20)
Enclosed smoking lounges on every floor made up 15% of the seating space when the
new library opened. Georgetown University Archives
Georgetown University Archives
A major milestone for the library was reached in 1985 with the introduction of a digital card catalog system named George. Within two years, librarians stopped filing new paper cards and in 1993 the old analog system was dismantled and the paper recycled. Contents of the 2,304 drawers weighed 10,500 pounds.
In the early 2000s the Gelardin New Media Center opened, offering digital media equipment for the new millennium, and services to students and faculty including support for stateof-the-art video and audio production, and digitization of all kinds of scholarly material.
In 2002 Lauinger went wireless, offering laptop users the opportunity to access online resources from anywhere in the library—no more need to plug into data jacks. Library staff discouraged people from overloading the network, however, with data-heavy uses like uploading large files or streaming video. DigitalGeorgetown opened in 2004 as an online repository of the university’s extensive and expanding digital collections.
Amid all the technological advances, other improvements were unfolding, too. In 2003 The Corp opened the second floor coffee shop Midnight Mug, fueling many late night study groups and creating a constant buzz in the space. In 2007 the library introduced Club Lau, a wildly popular annual DJ dance party to kick off the school year, held in the Pierce Reading Room.
In 2015, Booth Special Collections opened in its completely renovated 5th floor space, offering an environmentally controlled storage area, a classroom, and an enhanced reading room and exhibition space, aiming not only to preserve the university’s treasures but to make them accessible for learning.
And in 2016, the MakerHub opened on the first floor, offering members of the university community free space, training, and equipment to craft and create, using everything from sewing machines and bookbinding supplies to laser cutters and 3D printers. Students have designed and built innovative custom lab equipment, wearable health technology, and musical instruments, to name a few.
Small private rooms with typewriters were located on the 2nd and 4th floors. Georgetown University Archives
Jane Varner Malhotra
Georgetown University Archives
The future
With the ongoing support of philanthropy, the library continues to support the university in the formation of scholars committed to advancing knowledge for the common good.
A major focus is expanding access to the library’s vast collections, now comprising more than 4 million items including print and electronic books and journals, databases, artworks, video and audio recordings, maps, manuscripts and more. This critical work includes digitization, sharing, and preservation of scholarly materials.
Another invaluable asset since its founding is the library’s highly skilled information specialists, who help guide students and faculty through the ever changing and increasingly complex landscape of scholarly research, analysis, and knowledge creation. Comfortable navigating fragile old manuscripts, generative artificial intelligence, or data visualization, the library staff holds the distant past, current pursuits, and the evolving future in their sphere of care.
This year phased physical renovations of Lauinger began with a project to enlarge and improve the Pierce Reading Room, adding small collaboration rooms, a Digital Lab featuring a large-format video wall, and new floor-to-waffled ceiling windows opening up to sweeping views of the Potomac River. Enhancements ahead include more open, light-infused spaces with the addition of clear UV windows, more open seating areas as well as rooms for remote collaboration, a refreshed entry area, and an expanded MakerHub.
Lauinger will continue to be a space for memories. For late nights and early mornings. For quiet naps. For wrestling with ideas. For the pursuit of knowledge, formation, discovery, collaboration, creativity. For picture-perfect sunset skies through the tower frames.
A storied place. •
According to the Washington Evening Star, just after midnight on March 6, 1974, two students “buzzed” Lauinger Library with a naked motorcycle ride through a crowded Pierce Reading Room, part of the streaking fad at the time, to “lighten the heavy academic load, the atmosphere” explained the unidentified driver.
In 2011 multimedia specialist Stephen Fernie won the library staff gingerbread house contest with his spectacular Gingerbread Lauinger.
Star power fuels GEMA
Earlier this year Andrew Morrison (C’15) was nominated for an Oscar for best picture for his work as a producer on The Brutalist, which received 10 Academy Award nominations overall. He credits Georgetown—particularly the Georgetown Entertainment & Media Alliance (GEMA), an alliance group of the Georgetown University Alumni Association—with helping him get his start in show business.
“My first job was interning for comedian Mike Birbiglia (C’00) my freshman summer at Georgetown and my first ‘big break’ was actually while I was still a student. I helped make a short film called He Took His Skin Off For Me that ended up playing at a bunch of festivals around the world and then broke out online,” shares Morrison.
Hoyas helping Hoyas
Back in 2003, GEMA launched an externship to help students and alumni learn about the industry. The program enables Georgetown seniors and graduate students to visit Los Angeles or New York during spring break to meet with alumni from a variety of fields in entertainment and media.
“When I did the externship, I was very interested in new forms of storytelling,” explains Morrison. “The first VR headsets were coming out, people were experimenting with 360 video and AR, and companies like Atavist were publishing longform mixed media stories. I asked my externship planning person to set up meetings with those companies instead of the original list he proposed. It reinforced for me
GEMA member Andrew Morrison (C’15) speaks at Main Campus Reunion a few weeks after his film, The Brutalist, won three Oscars and was nominated for several more, including Best Picture.
Photo: Phil Humnicky
that experiences are what you make of them. It’s your job to shape opportunities to your needs.
“By showing me how corporate so much of the media landscape is, my externship helped me feel confident in pursuing a more independent and artistic part of this industry,” adds Morrison.
“I also met with a few producers, and that was the first time I started to understand what a producer really did. They were incredibly encouraging of me and how I was thinking about what I wanted to do. I left feeling empowered and confident that I would figure this out. For a college kid, that was immensely valuable.”
GEMA was formed in 2002. It is open to all Georgetown students and alumni who are involved or interested in the industry.
Over 270 students have participated in GEMA’s externship program since it began in 2003, moving on to roles across the media landscape, including Lionsgate, Front Office Sports, NBC Universal, the National Basketball Association, the National Basketball League, Blue Marble Pictures, Monumental Sports & Entertainment and others.
“By showing me how corporate so much of the media landscape is, my externship helped me feel confident in pursuing a more independent and artistic part of this industry.”
—ANDREW MORRISON
ANNOUNCEMENTS
The 2025 Georgetown Entrepreneurship Summit will take place on November 6 in Washington, DC. The summit will bring together alumni, students, entrepreneurs, investors, changemakers, and innovators committed to advancing common good entrepreneurship. Learn more at g.town/ EntrepreneurshipSummit.
Georgetown has launched Apollonian News, a quarterly digital publication, in partnership with the Dental Alumni Board.
All alumni are encouraged to join Hoya Gateway to connect with students who are looking for career advice and professional development opportunities.
Join a Georgetown University alumni book club to make new friends with similar interests! There’s an alumnae book club, plus one focused on lifelong learning and another focused on professional development.
Georgetown Magazine will fill the new Class Notes page with selected notes submitted to magazine@georgetown.edu and pictures tagged on socials. Share your Hoya moments!
Host your next event at Reed Residence! The residence can be used for intimate seated dinners, or accommodate larger receptions of up to 75 people. Learn more on the GUAA website.
May 2025 GEMA event in London
Photo: Courtesy of GEMA
Attendees enjoyed conversations with one another and special guests such as Michael Callahan (SFS’97, SCS’12), Georgetown University’s head sailing coach.
Summer Soirées
Each summer, many East Coast Hoyas gather to toast their alma mater at one of GUAA’s Summer Soirées. This year’s events took place in Annapolis, Maryland; Newport, Rhode Island; Nantucket, Massachusetts; and Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.
“Georgetown’s mission of formation, understanding, education, and research is more critical today than ever. In a world craving nuance, patience, and kindness, our alumni are prepared to meet this moment. Rather than retrenching into comfortable spaces, our students and graduates follow in the esteemed Jesuit tradition of being at the edges and the intersections of society.
We seek out other points of view and engage across differences, having been educated in a community designed from its founding as open to people of all faiths willing to listen and learn in support of a then-new Republic. We aspire to care for each other and for others we have never met because we recognize our common humanity and realize that our destiny is shared.”
—GUAA President Fitz O. Lufkin IV (C’11, G’12), speaking at John Carroll Weekend 2025 in Philadelphia
Photos: Lisa Helfert
Photo: Phil Humnicky
JOHN CARROLL WEEKEND 2026 IN PUERTO RICO
Sun-kissed beaches. Bomba and salsa music. Centuries-old forts and plazas. Join the Georgetown community from April 16 to 19, 2026, to experience this beautiful island through unique excursions, stimulating programs, and fun social gatherings.
Visit jcw.georgetown.edu for more information.
5 things to do in Tokyo
Georgetown University Alumni Association—in cooperation with the Georgetown Alumni Club of Japan, Georgetown University, and other key partners—will be hosting an International Alumni Summit in Tokyo from Nov. 21–23, 2025.
Like the recent summits in Madrid and Singapore, this event will include engaging conversations and unique opportunities to explore the city.
Whether you’re attending the summit or visiting on your own, the Georgetown Alumni Club of Japan recommends the following can’t-miss activities:
Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden —This large park with meandering paths is a tranquil escape from the busy city center. In autumn, don’t miss Momijiyama (“maple mountain”) on the park’s eastern side.
Senso-Ji Temple —In the oldest Buddhist temple in the city, visitors first enter through the Kaminarimon (“thunder gate”). Pick up some souvenirs, such as a yukata (casual kimono), at a nearby shopping street called Nakamise.
Ueno—Visit Tokyo’s top three art and history museums as well as Tokyo’s best zoo and park that is well known for its cherry blossom bloom. This year’s 9th annual Ueno Artist Project at the Metropolitan Museum of Art features many interesting types of embroidery.
Harajuku & Meiji Shrine—Start your visit at Tokyo’s most iconic Shinto shrine, nestled in a forested area that feels worlds away from the city. Then venture over to Takeshita Street in Harajuku, a vibrant hub of youth fashion, quirky shops, and sweet treats.
Shibuya Crossing the world’s busiest pedestrian crossing, especially at night when the neon lights are on full display. Venture up to the top of Shibuya Scramble Square for a picturesque view of the city (book in advance!)
View of the Senso-Ji Temple, one of the iconic sites in Tokyo
Photo: iStock
Georgetown Paw Center
Georgetown Law’s Student Animal Legal Defense Fund (The Paw Center), founded by Ben Sheynkman (L’26), aims to improve the lives of animals— a vulnerable population that can’t advocate for themselves. Students support animal welfare groups and practitioners of animal law at the intersection of law and philanthropy.
GU SIGNS CLUB
Founded in 2013, Georgetown University’s American Sign Language and Deaf Culture Club, or GU Signs for short, helps students learn about ASL and DC’s Deaf community. Club-sponsored events, including museum tours, movie nights, and food outings, highlight Deaf culture and allow students to practice ASL outside of a traditional classroom space.
Photo: Courtesy of Georgetown Paw Center
Photo:iStock
two decades of monthly calls and annual reunions to reminisce over old memories and to create new ones.
Katherine Butler-Dines (SFS’17) and Rahul Desai (B’16) moved to Cincinnati in 2023—in one year, they became president and vice president of their local alumni club, acquired a company, and were married by the mayor.
In May 2024, Lana Nauphal (C’19) released her traditional folk debut LP, Wildland. The wistful music follows the relationship and heartbreak that inspired her to write the album.
In January 2024, Allison Lin (SFS’01), co-founder and COO of Like Air Snacks, pitched her family-run health snack business on an episode of Shark Tank. She was joined by her two brothers (left to right), co-founder Steven Atieh and CFO Kevin Atieh (B’11)
Read more Class Notes online, and consider submitting your own! The archive is searchable by name, school, year, and subject.
Photo: Nicholas Gore Photography
Photo: Courtesy of Lana Nauphal
Photo: ABC Television
This summer, John Huyette (C’05), David Littlejohn (C’05), Erik Iverson (SFS’05), Jonathan Flyer (C’05), and Jeff Civillico (C’05) celebrated
Photo: Courtesy of Jeff Civillico
From Hoya to Superhera
In 2024, Marina Paul (B’16, SCS’17) set out on a mission to create apparel that accommodates female athletes with diverse body types. In 2025, her company Superhera won the Georgetown Entrepreneurship Alliance Alumni Pitch Competition, earning a $100,000 investment prize from the Georgetown Angel Investor Network.
Paul came to Georgetown from Southern California and fell in love with the Hilltop and the spirit of the Georgetown University Women’s Soccer team. She went on to become the first-ever three-time captain and led the team to the Final Four of the NCAA tournament.
However, she struggled behind the scenes with depression, eating disorders, and injuries. She was determined to provide a solution for other athletes with similar challenges.
In 2021, Paul wrote a book: Becoming a Superhero: Awaken Your Superpowers and Inspire the Magic in Others.
“Professor Eric Koester told me, ‘when you write this book, it’ll be the inflection point to change your life,’” says Paul. “The book became the backbone of Superhera. It gave me the mission that I wanted to give female athletes… something to make them more comfortable to perform at their best.”
Inspired to solve clothing problems she faced as an athlete, Paul created a sportswear fit technology aimed at meeting the
unique needs of each player. Her mission? To change the way the sportswear industry sizes female athletes, with the vision of giving every female athlete the freedom to perform.
“I also became obsessed with entrepreneurship at Georgetown because we had access to so many resources,” says Paul. “People at Georgetown are always willing to help people, especially other Hoyas, do things for the greater good. Caring for the common good is in the ethos of every company Georgetown helps create.”
She says that 2025 was transformative for her business, as she built up funding and decided to pitch at the competition— wearing her Georgetown soccer uniform.
The company’s name was inspired in part by retired gymnastics coach Valorie Kondos Field, who always said, “some athletes are champions and some are superheroes.”
“When I asked her the difference, she told me ‘champions do everything great athletes do—they show up, they win, they work hard. Superheroes use their unique superpowers to elevate everybody else up beyond what any of them thought they could imagine,’” says Paul. “I realized that’s exactly what female athletes do. That’s why I named my company Superhera and created products that don’t restrict their performance.” •
—Nowshin Chowdhury
Marina Paul (B’16, SCS’17), former Georgetown Women’s Soccer team captain was inspired by her experience to create apparel that accommodates female athletes with diverse body types. In May, her company Superhera launched predictive technology that maps each athlete to their best-fitting size.
Photo: Rafael Suanes
Alumnus mentors Hoyas pursuing medical school
Suliman El-Amin (M’15) and Johanny Lopez Dominguez (SFS’16) walked the Hilltop as students at the same time but didn’t cross paths until much later. El-Amin learned how to navigate the medical school application process through the Georgetown Experimental Medical Studies program, then went on to mentor other students. When Lopez Dominguez wanted to apply to medical schools, a friend connected her to El-Amin.
“Georgetown gave me a feeling of belonging that I wanted others to have,” says El-Amin. “On Match Day, I had a conversation with the late Michael Adams, a beloved professor who I finally met in person. He told me ‘you’ll always be a son of Georgetown.’ Later I found out he had cancer and that was his last Match Day. It was one of the many times I felt I belonged at Georgetown and was part of the school’s great legacy.”
“I look forward to a career where I help cure skin cancers, using the diplomacy skills learned at Georgetown to help set my patients at ease.”
—JOHANNY LOPEZ DOMINGUEZ
To date, El-Amin has mentored five Hoyas seeking careers in medicine, including Lopez Dominguez. El-Amin responded to her initial email outreach with 20 questions about her journey and experiences.
“Little did I know those questions were preparing me for my applications,” says Lopez Dominguez. “He also gave me a six-week deadline to take the MCAT. That was absolutely terrifying, but I listened to him. He had a vision for me.”
El-Amin also helped Lopez Dominguez through the traumatic loss of her father, who was murdered.
“She was strong and pushed through,” says El-Amin. “She was accepted into Mayo Clinic, Harvard, and other elite medical schools. She ultimately chose Mayo Clinic because that’s where I did my residency, and she had a support system.”
El-Amin and his wife attended Lopez Dominguez’s graduation to support her. She is now a dermatology resident at Stanford University.
“I am passionate about dermatologic surgery,” says Lopez Dominguez. “I look forward to a career where I help cure skin cancers, using the diplomacy skills learned at Georgetown to help set my patients at ease. I am so grateful to Suliman and other incredible mentors I’ve had over the years.”
El-Amin continues to mentor students through the application process and their early careers.
“I always say that the moment you decide to pick up the MCAT book, that’s when your training begins. It’s way before med school,” says El-Amin. “Every little step moves you forward and setbacks are part of it. Once I convinced Johanny and others of that, it changed their thought process.” •
—Nowshin Chowdhury
Tramaine El-Amin and her husband Suliman El-Amin (M’15), and Johanny Lopez Dominguez (SFS’16) and her husband Leo Lopez, celebrate Johanny’s graduation from Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine in 2022.
Photos: Courtesy of Suliman El-Amin
Podcast tracks French railway’s complicity in Holocaust
In 1942, Leo Bretholz leaped from a French state-owned train transporting him toward Auschwitz, a daring escape that allowed him to survive the Holocaust and eventually settle in the United States. But tens of thousands of others were taken toward their deaths on those trains, leading Raphael Prober (SFS’00, L’03), in partnership with Matthew Slutsky and Tablet Studios, to develop the podcast “Covering Their Tracks,” documenting a multi-generational pursuit of justice for Holocaust survivors deported from France toward the death camps.
The five-part podcast follows the decade Prober and his colleagues at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld spent working pro bono on a legal case against the Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Français (SNCF), France’s national state-owned railway company that transported Jews toward concentration camps during the Holocaust.
“A lot of my family perished in the Holocaust so this has always been very personal, but once I met the survivors we were representing, I became even more committed,” says Prober.
SNCF “never paid reparations or fully addressed their complicity,” Prober explains.
Of the 76,000 people deported toward Auschwitz on SNCF trains, approximately 2,000 survived the death camps. Although France had reparations programs for French citizens, those programs did not extend to non-citizens.
“There was a massive gap in accountability, not just because of the reparations—although that’s an important demonstration
of remorse—but because SNCF refused to accept responsibility for decades,” he says.
Additionally, because the French government owned SNCF, the survivors encountered foreign sovereign immunity issues requiring the introduction of federal legislation that would make France susceptible to suit in U.S. courts for their role in the Holocaust.
“I knew I needed to do whatever I could to help to hold SNCF accountable,” Prober says.
From litigation and legislation, this case ultimately was resolved with a $60 million settlement paid by France to the survivors and their families.
“This story demonstrates how much the truth matters, how much an honest recitation of history matters, how much the facts matter, and how much ultimate accountability matters,” he says.
“Covering Their Tracks” garnered critical acclaim, winning Rio Web Festival’s best nonfiction podcast of 2024, the 2025 New Media Film Festival award for best podcast, and becoming an honoree for the Webby Awards’ best documentary podcast of 2024.
“You can capture so many important stories within the podcast genre,” he says. “At Georgetown Law School, I quickly came to appreciate the unbelievable power of the law and storytelling, and this podcast is an outgrowth of that power.” •
—Racquel Nassor
Photo: Courtesy of Raphael Prober
In the documentary podcast “Covering Their Tracks,” Raphael Prober (SFS’00, L’03) and his partners share how one pro bono legal case helped secure justice for Holocaust survivors.
How one Hoya turned her favorite recipes into soups
Although Michele Di Pietro (B’92) was a certified public accountant, she found her true calling in the food world. As a website owner, recipe developer, professional chef, and culinary consultant, she leads her brand, Mangia With Michele, providing innovative culinary guidance to homes and businesses.
In 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic quarantine, Di Pietro finally had the time to write her first cookbook. Inspired by popular cozy recipes of the time, she created a comfort food cookbook, SOUPified: Soups Inspired by Your Favorite Dishes.
“My goal was to create soup versions of classic dishes with their traditional flavors and as many of their textures as possible,” she says. “SOUPified gives you the tangible elements of the recipes—the ingredients and techniques—as well as the intangible—the cultural inspiration, family stories, and personal experiences.”
Di Pietro’s SOUPified collects 31 soup recipes inspired by favorite dishes like eggplant parmesan and chicken marsala with a foreward from fellow Hoya, Mary Giuliani (C’97), founder and chief executive officer of Mary Giuliani Catering and Events.
Coming to Georgetown, Di Pietro never imagined she would write a cookbook, instead focusing on her accounting major and her role in the professional business fraternity, Delta Sigma Pi.
“My Georgetown experience is a significant part of who I am today,” she says. “Senior year, I had Professor
Robert Bies for management and organizational behavior. Our first assignment was to do something creative and write about it. It helped me realize I had a creative side and was a part of what led me to go to cooking school and eventually become a food writer.”
Coming out of college she wanted to work at a large accounting firm in New York, but after accomplishing that goal, “I realized I wasn’t passionate about it. I made the leap to go to cooking school and change careers,” she says.
Di Pietro is proud of her long career in the culinary world and her cookbook. In the future, she plans to write at least one more and, if possible, return to Georgetown for a cooking demonstration for students, faculty, and staff.
“The great thing about a printed cookbook is that it can be handed down to future generations; it won’t disappear when I do,” says Di Pietro. “It’s another avenue for me to share innovation, inspiration and nostalgia through my brand, Mangia With Michele. Ultimately, my passion is to bring people together around the cutting board, the stove, and the kitchen table.” •
—Racquel Nassor
Photos: Courtesy of Michele Di Pietro
Michele Di Pietro (B’92) soupifies cozy recipes for the public in her cookbook, SOUPified: Soups Inspired by Your Favorite Dishes Visit our digital magazine for a sample recipe!
LIVES WELL LIVED
Lives Well Lived honors alumni, faculty, and staff who have recently passed away. We share with you these portraits of people who have made an indelible impact living day to day as people for others. Memories collected by Patti North.
You can find a more complete list at alumni.georgetown.edu/in-memoriam.
Jean Price Lewis (C’92)
Jean passed away May 27, at 107 in Montgomery, Alabama. Born in 1918, she graduated high school at 16 and worked to help support her family during the Depression. She married an Army Officer and had two children. In the late 1950s, Jean began working for Sen. John F. Kennedy, eventually opening the L.A. office of his presidential campaign.
His victory took her to the White House where she served on his correspondence staff. After the assassination, President Johnson asked her to stay on, which she did until 1967 when she joined USAID, serving the Nixon, Ford, and Carter administrations. She joined the U.S. Small Business Administration in the 1980s, heading the legislative office, and for two years was deputy director of the Disaster Assistance Program.
Jean was loaned to Georgetown by SBA to help Georgetown’s Center for Intercultural Education and Development. In 1988, she began attending classes to earn her B.A. and graduated summa cum laude in 1992 at age 73.
Her granddaughter Kristin Henderson recalled, “My grandmother loved being a student at Georgetown! She got a kick out of being one of the oldest students on campus and enjoyed spending time at The Tombs. A lifelong learner, she enjoyed the ‘excuse’ of being a college student to read the great books, study philosophy, history, and ask the big questions.” The family asks gifts to honor her memory be made to the American Civil Liberties Union.
Survived by son Ralph Everett Lewis, grandchildren Kristin Jean (Swenson) Henderson, Karin Swenson Blom, Patrick Evan Lewis, and eight great grandchildren, she was predeceased by daughter Barbara Lewis Swenson.
Marie N. DeVita, M.D. (M’54)
Marie DeVita died peacefully on December 22, 2024, in Paramus, New Jersey, surrounded by her loving family. She was born in New Jersey in 1928, the child of Dominic and Maria Nicoletti.
Graduating from The College of Saint Elizabeth in 1949 and Georgetown University School of Medicine in 1954— one of only four women—she married and had seven children, settling in Paramus. A family doctor for more than 60 years, she saw patients in her home office while caring for her large family. She was on staff at Pascack Valley Hospital, Holy Name Hospital, and Bergen Pines Regional Medical Center, retiring in 2020 after her 92nd birthday.
Two of her children became physicians, both graduating from Georgetown School of Medicine. Then three of her grandchildren became physicians—one, a third generation GU school of medicine graduate, and another, a third generation female physician. Son Michael recalled, “Our mother went to medical school at a time when, not only
were women rare and unexpected, but sometimes reviled. Georgetown gave her a chance and she made the most of it. She wanted a career and a family and she succeeded spectacularly with seven accomplished, happy children and diverse leadership achievements in the field. Perhaps most importantly, she served as a role model for other women. She lived the dream— but it wasn’t easy.”
Marie is survived by her children: Michael, Stephen, Maria DeVita Meyers, Robert, Thomas, Joseph, and John. She leaves behind 25 grandchildren and six great grandchildren. Those who wish to honor her memory may make gifts to Breakthrough T1D to help find a cure for Type 1 diabetes, or Georgetown University School of Medicine.
William F. Daddio
William “Bill” Daddio passed away on July 13, 2024. Born in 1944, at Mitchell AFB in New York, Bill graduated from St. Benedict’s Preparatory School in Newark, New Jersey, and received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame. He served as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War and was awarded the Bronze Star. After service, he returned to Notre Dame, earning an M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology and anthropology.
Bill had a long career as associate director for protection/ chief for the U.S. Mint Police, where he directed all security and law enforcement programs for Mint facilities nationwide, including at Fort Knox.
Bill also served as adjunct professor at Georgetown University for more than 45 years, teaching a wide variety of courses in sociology, security studies, terrorism, cybersecurity, international crime, and criminology.
He served as consultant and appeared in two TV series shot in Washington in 2021. Series Producer Ilan Arboleda
(SFS’97) said, “Bill was an incredible man and a good friend. He had deep insight into the inner workings of geopolitics, a sharp wit, and was a colorful raconteur. He was so talented that I featured him in my Paramount+ TV series Murder of God’s Banker and in the follow-up series Mafia Spies. Spending time with him on the phone and in on-camera interviews, it was easy to see why he was also a popular and highly regarded professor. I will miss him.”
Bill is survived by his beloved partner of more than 35 years, Jean Gentry, daughter, Susan Zwiep and family, brother, Raymond Daddio and family, sister, Arlene Sulek and family, and sister, Linda DePasquale and family.
Michael P. Pitterich (C’76)
Michael Pitterich passed away on May 9 at the age of 70. He graduated from Georgetown with a degree in political science before earning his J.D. from the Duquesne University School of Law. He began his career as a lawyer, founding the Pitterich and Associates law firm, but soon pivoted to business and built a steel empire. Owning and operating multiple steel mills, he revitalized parts of the industry.
A lifelong lover of live music, he devoted himself to resurrecting Pittsburgh’s once-vibrant live music scene. His most well-known project was Altar Bar, a former church that he converted into a concert venue.
Michael was also a prolific philanthropist. He founded The Pitterich Foundation in 2008, which supports cancer research, the Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute’s research and development on liver transplants, and the UPMC Cancer Research Center. He also funded the Michael Pitterich Endowed Scholarship, which has supported students enrolled in the Georgetown Scholars Program since 2016.
Classmate John Quigley (C’76) said, “Mike Pitterich was my dear friend from the moment we met in the fall of 1972 on Second New North. His magnetic personality, smarts, exuberance, and love of Georgetown were oh so evident immediately. Mike was a presence larger than life. His close friends will never forget all the good times we had with him. His laugh and smile will live on in our hearts forever.”
He is survived by his nieces Sarah Molloy Roxe (C’99), Beth Wells, and Meg Colella, and his nephew Bart Molloy. Donations honoring Michael’s memory may be made to the Pitterich Foundation or the Michael Pitterich Endowed Scholarship.
Father Mark Bosco, S.J., Vice President for Mission & Ministry, on the new pope
Following the election of Pope Leo XIV in May 2025, Georgetown Magazine sat down with Father Bosco to discuss the transition.
How do you think the new pope will connect with Pope Francis’s legacy?
He’s building on what Pope Francis started and he’ll have his own way of doing it, his own words. And he’ll probably use his Augustinian spirituality and background to shape the language of what Pope Francis did in an Ignatian language.
I think that Pope Francis saw something in him and raised him up to be a cardinal. Pope Francis saw his love for the poor, his work in South America, his ability to be in different places and spaces without causing any problems or making it all about him. I think that those qualities that Pope Francis saw in him will now come to fruition.
How do you expect that he will focus his teaching?
There’s usually an audience that fills St. Peter’s Square every Wednesday, and he’s going to continue to do that. He will also continue to reflect on theological hope: What is hope about? What’s the religious grounding of our hope in the world? What does it mean to have hope in the church?
The Mass itself gives the world a chance to meet him, and he can meet those who visit St. Peter’s. We’re in
Pope Francis saw his love for the poor, his work in South America, his ability to be in different places and spaces without causing any problems or making it all about him.
a Jubilee year—every 25 years the holy doors are open and people go on pilgrimage. I think he really wants to make sure that he’s present for those pilgrims in the final six months of the Holy Year.
What do you think it means to worshipers in the United States that the pope is an American for the first time?
Talking to our Georgetown undergraduates, they’re excited to have somebody who knows what a hot dog is, who cheers for the White Sox, who went to Villanova. It makes us feel a closeness to him.
There’s also a sense that he’s a Midwesterner and they are more practical kinds of people. I’m a Midwesterner myself. I think that his pragmatism is going to really come forth in his work and his shepherding the church. •
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Fall 2025, Volume 56, Number 2 Georgetown Magazine (ISSN 1074-8784)
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Do you recognize this stone carving that resides somewhere on the Hilltop campus? Go to the digital edition at g.town/fall25magazinequiz to see if you’re correct!
Photo: Phil Humnicky
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Emmy Award-winning actor Henry Winkler delivered the 2025 graduation speech for the College of Arts & Sciences. Winkler, known to many as “The Fonz,” spoke about overcoming negative thoughts. “You don’t know what you can accomplish until you put one foot in front of the other,” he shared.
