Alumnae Speaker Series

Speakers share varied perspectives on the Critical Concerns of the Sisters of Mercy, which include Anti-Racism, Earth, Immigration, Non-Violence, and Women. 

Suzanne Gallagher, RSM has been in ministry in education for most of her professional life. She has been an elementary school teacher, administrator, and faculty member in graduate education at Gwynedd-Mercy University. Social, political, multicultural and diversity issues have been a central focus for her throughout her ministry. Currently, Suzanne is a justice resource person for the Institute of the Sisters of Mercy.  Her office is in the Convent of Mercy, Merion.

Stacey Zoto Desmond is a Gwynedd alum from the class of 1987 and the mother of Emilee Desmond class of 2016. She has a Bachelor’s Degree from Villanova University and a Master’s Degree from Columbia University. After starting her teaching career in the Cheltenham school district, she took time off from the classroom to raise her three children. She was an active parent at Nativity of Our Lord school on the Parent’s Association and CYO Board. While her daughter attended Gwynedd, Stacey was involved at her alma mater through volunteering and serving on the Auction Committee for four years. She currently teaches first grade at St. Katharine Drexel Catholic School in Holland.

Elizabeth Hasson is a 2018 graduate from Gwynedd Mercy Academy High School and a current senior at Villanova University.  She is studying Marketing with minors in Spanish and Public Administration.  During her time at Villanova, she has been an avid volunteer for Special Olympics and is on the planning committee for Villanova's annual Special Olympics event.  After graduation, she plans to pursue a Masters in Public Administration, with a particular focus on the relationship between for-profit and nonprofit entities.  She hopes to assume a position in corporate social responsibility in order to foster meaningful relationships between businesses and nonprofit organizations.

 

Gwynedd proudly launched a Distinguished Speaker Series on Women and Leadership, with inaugural presenter, Dr. Angela Duckworth, NYT bestselling author of Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, academic, psychologist, Wharton Professor, and founder and CEO of a non-profit called Character Lab. Dr. Duckworth spent most of her adult life pursuing one top-level goal: advancing psychological science to help children thrive.

A Q&A with Dr. Duckworth was moderated by Kristin Kane Ford '00. We extend our deepest gratitude to our donors who helped to make this evening possible—the Edward E. Ford Foundation, BLBB Charitable, the Patriarch Family Foundation, and all who supported our Edward E. Ford Challenge Grant.

Recent events have made us aware of "The Talk" — the conversations black mothers and fathers have with their black children about navigating a society full of racial landmines and booby traps. In "Between the World and Me" we get an inside and expanded view of that important conversation. Our alumnae and GMAHS's Leader of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice open the floor for a thought provoking and meaningful discussion.

Anita Roberson, Gwynedd's Lead of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice, firmly believes, as the late Congressman John Lewis professed, that "if you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have a moral obligation to do something about it." It is this call to action that has led Anita to live a life of service committed to helping individuals and organizations solve issues related to diversity, equity and inclusion. Prior to joining the Gwynedd Mercy team, Anita served as the Middle States Regional Program Manager for A Better Chance, a national non-profit that recruits academically talented students of color for independent school placement. There, Anita delivered workshops designed to help scholars successfully transition and thrive in predominantly white institutions while also advising member independent schools on their diversity, equity and inclusion goals. Anita served as the founding Boston site director at a national non-profit that provides academic enrichment programs for first-generation college students while simultaneously training future teachers on how to serve the educational needs of students from marginalized communities.

Additionally, Anita founded a college preparatory elementary school for economically disadvantaged students. Anita has developed and executed a broad range of workshops on topics pertaining to race, gender, class, and sexual orientation and is extremely excited to join the Gwynedd Mercy community in her role as the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice Leader. In her spare time Anita loves to read, listen to podcasts, cycle, and play recreational soccer. Anita is a graduate of Cornell University.

Alicia Jones, D.O. '87 was school’s first black student body president during her senior year. Upon graduating she attended American University in Washington DC where she obtained her undergraduate degree in biological sciences. After college Alicia was intrigued by research and continued studies at Columbia University and University of Pittsburgh until she decided that her impact for the community was best served as a physician. She attended the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine where she also earned a fellowship in geriatric medicine which focused on disparities in health care in underserved minority populations. After opening her own practice and working directly with the community and local politicians for about 5 years, she wanted her impact to increase so she moved to Washington DC and entered the Federal Health market.

Alicia is a currently a Lead Associate at Booze Allen Hamilton Consulting Firm in Washington, DC and works on various federal contracts that focused on the advancements of health policy and quality management in healthcare in the ever-changing climate of health advancement. Most importantly Alicia is a mom of 7 boys, a big, blended family that continues to stay aware of today’s political and social climates that are very real for all men and women of color and the threads of racial inequities that go along with it.

Karalyn McGrorty Derstine, Ed.D '01 teaches American History at Gwynedd Mercy Academy. Her courses examine American history through the lens of the Critical Concerns of the Sisters of Mercy: Racism, Women, Immigration, Earth, and Nonviolence. She is also co-moderator for Mercy Effect. This student run advocacy organization at Gwynedd Mercy Academy organizes events in support of a yearly Mercy focused global initiative. Additionally, Dr. Derstine frequently collaborates with Leadership Initiatives on various projects and serves as moderator for service projects. 

Kara holds two bachelor’s degrees in History and Secondary Social Studies from Temple University and a Master of Liberal Arts with a certificate in African American Studies from the University of Pennsylvania.  During her time at Penn, she served as the ARCO Fellow for the Graduate Students Center and studied the international abolitionist movement (among other topics) at Exeter College, Oxford University in Oxford, England. She is a 2010 recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Award entitled “Winston Churchill and the Anglo-American Relationship.” The grant took her to Churchill College, Cambridge University to complete research in the Churchill Archives Centre.  Here she created and published project-based learning lessons that expand students’ STEM skills while developing student understanding of the past. She earned her Doctorate in Education from Gwynedd Mercy University with her dissertation entitled Framing Future Academic Success While Teaching the Past: Improving Skills Literacy in a Social Studies Department. She served as a fellow at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and is published on teaching organized labor in American History, Workers United: The Knights of Labor (2014), and pandemics in American History, Pestilence and Pandemics in Pennsylvania History (2019). She is a presenter at the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) 2020 and 2021 conferences with her presentation Interjecting into the Narrative: Black Women’s Voices Through Primary Documents.

Brooke Morris-Chott, MPS '01 is Advocacy and EDI (Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion) Program Officer for Core: Leadership, Infrastructure, Futures, a division of the American Library Association (ALA). In this role, Brooke leads in the development of principles, standards, and best practices in the areas of advocacy and EDI surrounding the preservation and conservation of museum, library, and institutional collections, archiving, library patron privacy, access, copyright, net neutrality, intellectual freedom, online security, and international standards within library technical services. She has written articles on EDI in non-profit and for-profit management for Association Forum’s FORUM Magazine and is a member of the Association Forum Content Working Group and the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE).

Brooke holds a BA in English Language and Literature from the University of Maryland, College Park, and a master’s degree in publishing from The George Washington University in Washington, DC. She is an avid volunteer and social activist, serving on the associate boards of the AIDS Foundation of Chicago and Chicago House; Chicago-based non-profit organizations that support and advocate for healthcare equality for LGBTQ+ and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) Chicagoans living with HIV and AIDS. She lives in Chicago, IL with her husband, dog Snoopy, cats Marley and Henry, and gecko The Professor.

About the Book:

Between the World and Me

Recent events have made us aware of "The Talk" – the conversations that black mothers and fathers have with their children about navigating a society full of racial landmines and booby traps. In Between the World and Me, the author provides an inside and expanded view of those important conversations.

Written as a letter to his teenage son, New York Times Bestseller author and Atlantic journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates, examines the complexities and hazards of what it means to exist within a black body while coming of age in American society.  Told through a series of personal narratives reflecting on his adolescence and young adulthood, Coates grapples with profound questions about race, identity, the American dream and ‘The Struggle’ to exist fully while actively fighting for black lives to matter.

In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father to his son, Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis.

Our alumnae discuss COVID-19 spread and the importance of vaccines during the pandemic.

Corinne O'Brien, MD '02 is an Emergency Medicine physician working on the front lines of the Covid-19 pandemic in St. Louis, Missouri.  She completed her medical education at Thomas Jefferson University Medical College '10 and went on to do her residency training at Christiana Care Hospital in Delaware.

Beth Merlini Vitucci, DO ’01.  Dr. Vitucci is a family medicine physician at Suburban Community Hospital in Norristown, PA.  Dr. Vitucci received her medical degree from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (PCOM).  She completed her residency in Family Medicine at Mercy Suburban Hospital (Now Suburban Community) where she served as the chief intern and subsequently as the chief resident.  Dr. Vitucci is the Director of Medical Education and the Director of Osteopathic Education at Suburban Community Hospital.  She is an associate faculty member at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine where she serves as the Advanced Clinical Skills Selective Medical Spanish Course Director.  Dr. Vitucci is dedicated to providing compassionate care for the whole person, and she is passionate about medical education.  Dr. Vitucci is Board Certified (AOBFP) in Family Medicine.

Casey Zipfel ‘12 is a Ph.D. candidate in the Biology department at Georgetown University. Casey studies quantitative infectious disease ecology, and her research focuses on integrating complex healthcare data with epidemiological and statistical models to further our understanding of the relationship between human behavior and infectious disease transmission. Casey is a PhRMA public health informatics pre-doctoral fellow and a Chateaubriand STEM fellow.

Alison McGrorty-Crotts, MD is a board certified pediatrician for the City of Philadelphia Department of Public Health. Dr. McGrorty-Crotts dedicates one-hundred percent of her practice to treating the most vulnerable patient populations in North and South Philadelphia neighborhoods. She received her medical degree at the Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia after earning her undergraduate degree in Speech Language Pathology and Spanish at Temple University. Dr. McGrorty-Crotts completed her pediatric residency at Thomas Jefferson University/Nemours-A.I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Delaware. While in medical school, Dr. McGrorty-Crotts lived in Nepal for three months and provided medical care as the lead physician at a remote medical outpost in Kolma Village in the Annapurna Mountains. Further, Dr. McGrorty-Crotts founded the first student-run HIV clinic at Temple University. Dr. McGrorty-Crotts is currently pursuing her Master’s degree in Public Health. In her spare time, Alison enjoys playing dress up and trains with her two young children and watching very low quality reality television with her husband.

Marissa Simone Costonis ‘87, H.C. is a Certified Health Coach, guest speaker, and award-winning author of the Amazon bestseller, Change BITES! 5 Change Management Strategies to Transform Your Health.  Marissa spent over a decade in change management consulting with Accenture, leading a variety of business transformation initiatives around the world. After developing chronic neuropathy and a host of other health problems, she decided to take a business approach and break the change process down one bite at a time to transform her diet and health. Marissa has been a guest host on many international podcasts and has been featured in publications such as Mantra Wellness and Gluten-Free Living as well as Forbes and CFO Magazine. She was named People Maven’s Top Nutritionist for the New Year and her book made the list for Top Book on Dieting to Help Achieve Your Goals. She is a graduate of Villanova University (1991) and is a member of the Gwynedd Enrollment Committee.

 

Ava Scarpato ‘17 is a senior at the University of Pittsburgh, studying in the Accelerated Dietitian Nutritionist Bachelor of Science, Master of Science Program with an expected graduation in 2022. Ava has spent her college career focused on gaining experience in the field of dietetics through internships and shadowing experiences with health professionals. Within the University of Pittsburgh’s Student Dietetic Association, Ava acts as the Volunteer Chair, responsible for coordinating volunteer opportunities for her peers within the Pittsburgh community. Ava works as a Dietetic Intern for Rejuvenan Global Health Inc., a virtual platform for healthcare where she writes research-based articles surrounding current dietary topics. Recently, she has created a student-based dietetic platform called Nourish, which highlights the importance of seeking dietary guidance from professionals and encourages research-based conversation surrounding nutrition trends.

 

Our alumnae discuss how to take care of your mental health in stressful environments, strategies for managing your thoughts and emotions, navigating the new normal with your family, and the benefits of changing your mindset.

Carmen J. Breen-Lopez Lewis '02 is a Licensed Psychologist. Her career has focused on serving under-served populations, including the Latinx immigrant community through community mental health in Chester County, and those struggling with mental illness and substance abuse in North Philadelphia. More recently, her focus has been on providing those engaged in immigration proceedings with psychological evaluations to include as evidence in their legal cases. Dr. Lewis's training and treatment approaches are trauma-informed and trauma-focused, and her ongoing work as individual therapist in private practice helps her clients identify how to best leverage their strengths in the face of adversity. She is a graduate of the Virginia Consortium Program in Clinical Psychology and Duke University, and a mother of two.

 

 Juliet Marciano, MD ’81 is a PCI Certified Parent Coach®, a retired pediatrician, and a mother of four young adults, several with extra needs. Her own experiences as a parent of children with special needs led her to retire from her medical career to find the answers that would help her family, and she was able to develop parenting practices that allowed her family members to thrive as individuals and as a family. As a Certified Parent Coach, she supports parents of children with special needs, high needs, extra needs, and different needs and works with them so that they can have a calmer, more conscious, more connected, and more confident parenting experience. Coaching by phone and video calls, she helps parents around the world reclaim the joy of parenting no matter what challenges they face or struggles they encounter. She has been a featured speaker in the “Revolutionizing Parenthood Conference”, and the “Raising Your Strong-Willed Child Interview Series” and a recent guest on the “Powerful Parenting for Today’s Kids” podcast.

 

 Suzie Pileggi Pawelski '87 is a well-being writer, producer and consultant specializing in the science of happiness and its effects on relationships and health. Her 2010 Scientific American Mind cover story, "The Happy Couple," was the catalyst for Happy Together: Using the Science of Positive Psychology to Build Love That Lasts, the best-selling book she wrote with her husband James.  Named a best book of 2018 by Business Insider, Success magazine, and The Greater Good Science Center, Happy Together has been featured in numerous top-tier media including Time magazine, Inc. magazine, Oprah magazine, NPR, The Washington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times, and The London Times. Suzie pens a popular blog for Psychology Today and gives Romance and Research™ workshops around the world with James. Together, they are currently collaborating with legendary talk show host Larry King, PositiveVoices.com, and the 92^nd Street Y on two interview series featuring world-class researchers in the science of well-being, as well as celebrities (including Philadelphia’s very own Kevin Bacon!) and business leaders who are making a positive difference in the world. 

 

After beginning her career in Psychiatric Rehabilitation, Pam Hurlbrink Howard '85 shifted to public service when she began working for Montgomery County over 21 years ago. Pam participates in many cross-system partnerships throughout the County as a member of the Health and Human Services Cabinet, the Criminal Justice Advisory Board, the Family Justice Advisory Board and the Leadership Advisory for Your Way Home, Montgomery County’s public/private partnership to end homelessness. Pam has been leading Montgomery County’s work as an Innovator County in the national Stepping Up Initiative to decrease the number of individuals in county jails who experience serious mental illness. In March of 2020 Pam was named a member of Governor Wolf’s Trauma-Informed PA Think Tank, which worked on the Governor’s Trauma-Informed PA plan.

Our alumna provides great advice and tips for professionals on increasing marketability and skills for employment opportunities in a virtual world.

Kristin Kane Ford ’00 is a partner and director of social media with Kane Partners LLC. In 2010, she launched a social media division of her previous advertising firm, which has grown into a boutique digital agency. Kristin and her team  develop brand marketing communications for companies from websites to private events. Kristin has been a special guest on NBC10’s “Survive and Thrive” with Tracy Davidson as a subject matter expert for career and social media advice. She has been featured in Forbes and Glamour magazines, on CBS and KYW, and is a guest speaker at events and conferences across the country. She is a graduate of Fairfield University and is an advisor for the ‘She Is the Future’ initiative as well as the Gwynedd Force platform launch.

 

 

Our alumnae discuss the complexities of juggling life, family, and career in the midst of a global pandemic.

Kate Toolan Madden ’97 has spent more than 15 years in project management in the pharmaceutical research and development industry. Her career began in meeting planning and then transitioned into clinical operations running clinical studies. During high school, Kate was the editor of the Magnet newspaper, president of the Business Club, and a captain on the swim team. She had no idea what ‘Clinical Operations’ was until she stumbled into it during her first job after college with Wyeth (now Pfizer). Currently, Kate is the senior clinical operations lead for clinical pharmacology at Incyte in Wilmington, DE. She is the co-founder and silent partner of Fresh Start Careers with her classmate Carrie Davis. Kate is a member of the alumnae board and advisor for the ‘She Is the Future’ initiative as well as the Gwynedd Force platform launch. She has a bachelor’s degree from Scranton University and a master’s from Temple University.

Kristin Kane Ford ’00 is a partner and director of social media with Kane Partners LLC. In 2010, she launched a social media division of her previous advertising firm, which has grown into a boutique digital agency. Kristin and her team  develop brand marketing communications for companies from websites to private events. Kristin has been a special guest on NBC10’s “Survive and Thrive” with Tracy Davidson as a subject matter expert for career and social media advice. She has been featured in Forbes and Glamour magazines, on CBS and KYW, and is a guest speaker at events and conferences across the country. She is a graduate of Fairfield University and is an advisor for the ‘She Is the Future’ initiative as well as the Gwynedd Force platform launch.