2023 New York Awards Dinner

The SOAR! Board of Directors cordially invite you to the

37th Annual New York Awards Dinner

COME CELEBRATE!

Wednesday, September 13, 2023

Reception 6:00 pm  Dinner 7:00 pm

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HONORING:

2023 SAINT ELIZABETH ANN SETON AWARD
Tania Tetlow
President, Fordham University

Tania Tetlow is the first woman and the first layperson to be named president of Fordham University. Prior to beginning her tenure at Fordham on July 1, 2022, she was the first woman and first layperson to lead Loyola University New Orleans, where she had served as president since 2018.

Prior to joining Loyola, President Tetlow served as the Felder-Fayard Professor of Law at Tulane University, where she was also senior vice president and a key strategic advisor to President Michael Fitts. As a law professor, her research helped persuade the U.S. Department of Justice to reimagine its regulation of constitutional policing. She also directed Tulane’s Domestic Violence Law Clinic, for which she raised millions of dollars in federal grant funds.

Before her career in academia, she was an associate at Phelps Dunbar, litigating complex commercial transactions. She also served as an assistant U.S. attorney, prosecuting cases involving everything from violent crime to fraud.

President Tetlow graduated cum laude from Tulane University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in American studies and is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School, where she earned a Juris Doctor degree and was a Harry S. Truman Fellow.

President Tetlow has lifetime connections to the Catholic religious: she was educated by the Sisters of the Sacred Heart and the Sisters of Mercy; her uncle is Rev. Joseph Tetlow, S.J., and great uncle, the late Rev. P. Malcolm Mullen, S.J., are both Jesuit priests.

2023 FATHER VICTOR YANITELLI, SJ AWARD
Sister Eileen McCann, CSJ
Sisters of St. Joseph of Brentwood

Sister Eileen McCann has spent her life embodying the mission of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Brentwood– Uniting all in God’s love. Born in the Bronx and raised in the Queens neighborhood of Astoria, Eileen first met the Sisters of Saint Joseph at Bishop McDonnell High School. After entering the congregation in 1956, she was missioned as a teacher in parish elementary schools in struggling Brooklyn neighborhoods. At Transfiguration School in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Sister Eileen began to immerse herself in the lives of the families whose children she taught. In the 1960s, Williamsburg was an immigrant community marked by poverty and gang violence. Sister Eileen worked hard…and she loved it!

In the years that followed, Sister Eileen earned a Masters degree in Theology from Providence College, and went on to serve for eleven years as a high school religion teacher and elementary school principal at congregational schools in Puerto Rico.

Upon returning to New York, Sister Eileen found herself back at Transfiguration; this time focusing her energies on outreach to immigrants and the poor. By the mid-1980s, she had become an accredited representative for persons in immigration court, accompanying them to hearings and advocating on their behalf.

In the late 1980s, Sister Eileen enrolled in CUNY Law School. While studying, she shared life with women impacted by poverty and the criminal justice system at Providence House in Brooklyn. After receiving her degree, she embarked on a 20-year ministry as an attorney with the Legal Aid Society, dedicating herself to immigrants, family law, and domestic violence cases.

Most recently, Sister Eileen has put her love of the dear neighbor and her sharp legal mind to use at Long Island Immigration Clinic, a “pro-se” clinic founded by the Sisters of Saint Joseph in 2021. Here, she reviews cases, provides oversight to volunteers, and works directly with persons seeking asylum in the United States. In her retirement, Sister Eileen can be found at the clinic 4 days a week!