Carolyn Manning ’87 was named a CNN Hero of 2009, and she was interviewed on the Larry King Live show in January. The cable news network cited Manning for her work as founder and director of The Welcome to America Project, which helps refugee families being resettled in Phoenix. . . . Brian McKeon ’85 has been named deputy national security adviser to Vice President Joseph Biden. McKeon had worked on Biden’s senate staff and most recently had been deputy staff director and chief counsel of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. . . . Miguel Diaz ’92, ’00Ph.D., an associate professor of theology at the College of Saint Benedict and at Saint John’s University, served during the election campaign on Barack Obama’s Catholic Advisory Council. . . . Kevin R. Gingras ’03J.D., an attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, presented the oral argument for the government in the appeal of convicted 9/11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui before the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. Moussaoui’s attorneys had argued that their client did not have an adequate defense in his original trial and therefore his guilty plea should be thrown out and a new trial granted. Currently Moussaoui is serving a life sentence. . . . Comedian Mike Somerville ’94, who writes a dating column for Glamour magazine and dispenses advice on the FLN cable channel program Wingman, was featured as one of the new “relationship gurus” in a February 23 Time magazine article on changing social norms in dating. . . . Jonathan Reyes ’00Ph.D., former president of the Augustine Institute, was named CEO of Denver’s Catholic Charities by Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput. . . . Deacon Jeffrey Burns ’78, ’82Ph.D was featured in a story in Catholic San Francisco about his 25 years as archivist for the Archdiocese of San Francisco. . . . Sister Kathleen Conan, RSCJ, ’78MSA has been elected superior general of the Religious of the Sacred Heart. The order has ministries in 44 countries. . . . Paul Appleby ’05, a tenor with the Juilliard Opera Center, was one of four winners of New York’s Metropolitan Opera 2009 National Council Auditions. Appleby was one of eight semifinalists selected from 1,800 singers who performed arias with the Met Orchestra. He received a $15,000 cash prize and was invited to join the Met’s Lindemann Young Artists Development Program. . . . Hannah Storm (Hannah Storen ’83), co-anchor of ESPN’s Sports Center and former host of CBS’ The Early Show, has been named a “Champion of Literacy” by Literacy Advance of Houston. . . . Arthur J. Lendo ’68 stepped down as president of Philadelphia’s Peirce College after 18 years at the helm. Under Lendo the institution became a four-year college and tripled its enrollment. . . . Jessica Coseo Willcox ’00, creative director of the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, was featured in an article in Event Design magazine about a guide she created to help museum designers construct environmentally friendly exhibits. . . . Dr. John J. Callaghan ’76 was elected to the board of directors of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons and will serve the academy as first vice president. . . . Father William Dorwart, CSC, ’76, ’80M.Div., former provincial superior of the Indiana Province of the Congregation of Holy Cross, recently enlisted in the U.S. Navy for the third time and is serving as a chaplain on Diego Garcia, a remote island military base in the Indian Ocean. After his one-year tour there, Dorwart will be assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, based in California. . . . Judge Jean FitzSimon ’76Ph.D. was profiled in a recent story in The Philadelphia Inquirer regarding her role as the judge who will rule on the bankruptcy filing of the company that owns the Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News. . . . North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue recently named Kenneth R. Lay ’71, former senior executive in marketing and information technology with the Bank of America, as secretary of North Carolina’s Department of Revenue. . . . Marty Loesch ’87, ’91J.D., ’92M.L., ’94M.A., intergovernmental affairs director and tribal attorney for the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, has been named general counsel and senior advisor to Washington Governor Chris Gregoire. . . . Colorado Governor Bill Ritter named Bernie Buescher ’71 Colorado’s secretary of state. . . . Paul Charron ’64, former CEO of Liz Claiborne, Inc., and now senior adviser with the equity firm Warburg Pincus, was honored by the Catholic Education Foundation at the group’s 19th annual Salute to Catholic School Alumni in Louisville, Kentucky. . . . Father Michael Heintz ’08Ph.D., rector of Saint Matthew Cathedral in South Bend, has become qualified to serve as a professional baseball umpire. The priest, who has umped at the Little League and high school level as a hobby for years, recently completed a five-week training course at the Harry Wendelstedt School for Umpires in Florida. The course was a Christmas gift to the priest from several parishoners. . . . David Rintoul ’06MBA, formerly general manager of U.S. Steel’s Great Lakes Works near Detroit, Michigan, was recently named president of U.S. Steel Canada. . . . Larry Andreini ’84, founder and CEO of RIDEMAKERZ, a chain-store company that sells customized model cars, was nominated for the 2009 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award. Previously the firm won the 2008 Chain Store Age Retail Store of the Year Award for “best attraction retailing.” Andreini, a two-time Bengal Bouts heavyweight champion, was a walk-on member of the Irish football team. . . . Katie Stuhldreher ’07 recently had an op-ed essay published in the Christian Science Monitor arguing that the problem of piracy in Somalia could be alleviated by establishing an international fishery protection force. Stuhldreher, a grand-niece of legendary football Four Horseman Harry Stuhldreher, class of 1925, notes that Somali piracy emerged 10 years ago as a response to foreigners poaching on Somali fishing grounds and fouling the waters. . . . John McEleney ’73 was recently elected president of the National Auto Dealers Association. . . . Stephen Doering ’83 has been named associate program manager for NASA’s Constellation Program, which is responsible for developing a new fleet of rockets as well as the Orion crew capsule and the Altair lunar lander. . . The world premiere of The Quiet Man Tales, co-produced and co-written by Frank Mahon ’73, took place in March at The Chicago Theatre downstairs. The original musical is based on the short stories of Irish novelist Maurice Walsh. Mahon began his writing career with ABC’s Equal Justice. The attorney, who served as a Cook County assistant state’s attorney from 1979 to ’89, is president of Smock Alley Theater Company.
John Monczunski is an associate editor of Notre Dame Magazine.