Live from New York, it’s Tommy Brennan (Schneeman) ’16! A rising star in stand-up comedy, Brennan — who uses his middle name as his stage name — joined the cast of Saturday Night Live this past fall after making his television debut in June on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where he drew on his background as one of eight kids in a Midwestern family. As a touring comic, Brennan opened for headliners such as Nikki Glaser, Taylor Tomlinson and the late Louie Anderson. True to the musical bit he used in his SNL audition, he has already appeared in a karaoke sketch and performed the viral song “I Miss My Ex’s Dad,” which he co-wrote. . . . Brennan is not the only alum working for the 50-year-old sketch-comedy institution.
Producer Caroline Maroney ’12 has been with SNL since 2013, starting as an assistant to executive producer Lorne Michaels. Maroney also served as an associate producer for the Broadway and touring productions of the musical Mean Girls. . . . In September, Texas A&M University fired Melissa McCoul ’17Ph.D., a senior lecturer in its English department, and removed two administrators from leadership positions after Republican lawmakers criticized McCoul’s course on children’s literature, which discussed gender and sexuality. The controversy escalated when videos circulated showing a student confronting McCoul and arguing that lessons on “gender identity and transgenderism” violated her religious beliefs and President Donald Trump’s education directives. The instructor, backed by the university’s faculty council, defended the legality and academic relevance of the course’s content, but university officials condemned the course, citing its “personal political agenda,” and launched an audit of course offerings across the school. At press time, McCoul was actively appealing her removal. . . . Paul Toboni ’14MBA got his start as a professional baseball executive by mistake. A cold email Toboni sent to the Boston Red Sox ended up in the inbox of the organization’s chief of baseball operations, who took it as a thumbs-up on Toboni as an internship candidate. He then spent nearly a decade with
the Red Sox in various scouting, professional development and
management roles before being named the Washington Nationals’ president of baseball operations this past September. At 35, Toboni is the youngest person to hold that position in Major League Baseball. A former shortstop for the University of California’s 2011 College World Series team, he takes over an organization that The Washington Post describes as “in desperate need of modernization and direction.” . . . During his 45-year career in construction, William E. Reifsteck II ’78 has guided dozens of design-build projects, overseeing work on San Francisco’s Oracle Park and the first net-zero-emissions educational facility in the state of California, among others. In September, Reifsteck’s contributions were celebrated with the 2025 Brunelleschi Lifetime Achievement Award, the Design-Build Institute of America’s highest honor, which cited his “pivotal role in shaping and refining design-build best practices” and “a legacy that continues to influence the architecture, engineering and construction industry nationwide.” . . .
As Florida officials prepared to open a new immigrant detention facility nicknamed the “Panhandle Pokey,” Bishop Bill Wack, CSC, ’89, ’93M.Div., of the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee made a public appeal for compassion. “The Gospel and the Church’s rich tradition of social teaching are clear,” he wrote in an October 14 letter to the diocese. “We are called to care for our neighbor, to shelter the stranger, and to welcome the foreigner.” Wack told the Tallahassee Democrat that he intends to provide pastoral care for detainees in the facility; his letter affirms his stance in “solidarity with those who have come to this country in search of safety and a better life.”. . . Larry Morris ’78 was honored at Midtown-Metro Achievement Centers’ gala in Chicago on November 3, receiving a 2025 Reach for Excellence Award for his decades of service to the city’s youths. Morris first joined the Catholic community organization as a summer sports director in 1976 and became a longtime board member. The award, presented during an evening that raised more than $950,000 for Midtown-Metro programs, recognizes Morris’ enduring commitment to academic opportunity and character formation for Chicago students. . . .
For 50 years, Sister Susan Kintzele, CSC, ’72M.S., has directed the South Bend Bail Bond Project to help low-income people in the St. Joseph County Jail continue to work before their cases go to trial. More than a financial service, Kintzele’s ministry has included monthly visits with as many as 40 inmates, some of whom reached her by finding her name and number scrawled on the jail wall next to a pay phone. A founding member of South Bend’s Dismas House, which since 1986 has supported local residents released from prison in their return to society, Kintzele has now become a permanent, physical part of the organization’s new Dismas Hub, an expansion of its services. Her likeness is featured in a new mural on the Hub building unveiled in November. “Sister Sue’s legacy of faith, compassion and justice is beautifully celebrated through this homage,” the Sisters of the Holy Cross said in an Instagram post.