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Gen. Bryan P. Fenton named 2023 Rev. William Corby, C.S.C., Award recipient

2023-09-25T13:30:00-04:00

The University of Notre Dame has named alumnus Gen. Bryan P. Fenton as the winner of the . The honor was presented on Saturday (Sept. 23) during the Ohio State home football weekend.

One of the Alumni Association’s most prestigious honors, the Corby Award is bestowed upon Notre Dame graduates who have distinguished themselves in military service. The award is named for the University’s third president, who served as chaplain of the Irish Brigade during the U.S. Civil War.

A four-star officer, Fenton currently serves as the 13th commander of U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida. USSOCOM is the unified combatant command that oversees all special operations, including the special operations component commands of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps, for the U.S. Department of Defense.

“The Corby Award is one manifestation of how Notre Dame highlights and reaffirms the value of service — in any form — to your community, our nation and the world,” Fenton said. “The legacy of ‘God, Country, Notre Dame’ and ‘What would you fight for?’ is felt all over this campus, by ND students, faculty and alumni. I am honored to be associated with this award and the legacy of service it represents.”

Prior to assuming command of USSOCOM, Fenton served as the commander of Joint Special Operations Command at Fort Liberty, North Carolina. Fenton’s other assignments as general officer include senior military assistant to the U.S. secretary of defense; deputy commander, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command; commander, Special Operations Command Pacific; and deputy commanding general — Operations, 25th Infantry Division.

Fenton deployed multiple times to Afghanistan and Iraq and participated in operations in Bosnia, Somalia, Yemen, the Philippines and Colombia. He served in multiple military combatant commands including U.S. Southern Command, U.S. European Command, U.S. Africa Command, U.S. Central Command and U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.

A graduate of the class of 1987 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration, Fenton was also a senior manager assistant to former Notre Dame football head coach Lou Holtz, and in 2017 was the recipient of the 's Edward “Moose” Krause Distinguished Service Award. He holds a master’s degree from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College and was the 2009 Army Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at the Walsh 91��Ƶ of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.

Fenton and his wife, Dawn, have two daughters, both cadets of the Notre Dame Army ROTC program: Nora (class of 2021) and Cecelia (class of 2024).

Alumni Association and YoungND Board announce 2023 Domer Dozen honorees

2023-08-31T11:00:00-04:00

The announced its 2023 Domer Dozen cohort, honoring 12 graduates ages 32 and younger for excellence in their contributions in faith, service, learning or work — the core pillars of the Alumni Association’s mission.

The Domer Dozen program is the signature initiative of, the Alumni Association’s young alumni group. The 2023 honorees have displayed extraordinary dedication to the Alumni Association’s mission and have excelled in public service, health care, immigration, church life and entertainment, among other areas. They were chosen by a selection committee consisting of the YoungND board, University officials and Alumni Association staff, which considered 182 nominees this summer and evaluated them based on a weighted ranking system and their contributions in their respective fields.

“Even in this fifth year of the Domer Dozen initiative, I continue to be amazed by the incredible achievements of our young alumni in such a short time since their time here at Notre Dame,” said Dolly Duffy, executive director of the Alumni Association and associate vice president for University Relations. “This year’s Domer Dozen cohort is just the latest example of the ‘Force for Good’ ethos that drives so many Notre Dame graduates to make a difference in the world. We could not be more proud of these honorees for their dedication to this effort, whether their work uplifts the marginalized, cures the sick, inspires renewed faith or promotes justice for all.”

The 2023 Domer Dozen honorees are:

Ansel Nalin ’14, M.D., Ph.D. — Putting faith into action to cure cancer

Ashley Kyalwazi ’18 — Empowering the next generation of health care professionals from underrepresented backgrounds

Bryan Dimas ’14 — Increasing Latino representation in the entertainment industry

Elizabeth Wood ’14 — Fighting to help marginalized youth gain legal status in the United States

Garrett Blad ’15 — Advocating for environmental, social and economic justice

Ihuoma Nwaogwugwu ’15, ’16 — Leading and serving the Notre Dame family in San Diego

Kyle Witzigman ’16 — Creating a brighter future for the Vietnamese community at home and abroad

Lizzie Heilmann ’15 — Working to promote better health care and prevention in Africa

Margaret McMahon ’17, ’20 M.Div. — Responding to God’s call to serve the Church

Melissa Riordan ’18 — Inspiring the next generation of public servants in international security

Tony Guidotti ’20 MGA — Developing public policy solutions to advance holistic human development

Lt. Walker Embrey ’17 — Serving the nation through exceptional leadership in public military service

The honorees are invited back to campus this Friday and Saturday (Sept. 1 and 2) for a special recognition weekend. The Domer Dozen will meet with current students and University leaders, be celebrated during an awards dinner with the YoungND board and Alumni Association staff members and be recognized in Notre Dame Stadium during the football game against Tennessee State University.

Domer Dozen honorees will share brief talks about their life and experiences since graduating from Notre Dame during “Lunch and Learn: An opportunity to connect with the 2023 Domer Dozen honorees” at 12:30 p.m. Friday (Sept. 1) in Duncan Student Center, Meeting R. 1 South W106. Students, faculty, staff and visitors are invited to attend the event, which is free and open to the public.

Alumni Association presents spring awards

2023-04-26T10:11:00-04:00

The University of Notre Dame Alumni Association recognized a number of distinguished alumni during its annual spring board meeting in April. The association presents awards three times per year. The awards fall into six categories, each representing an area in which the University encourages excellence: the arts, athletics, service to the Alumni Association, service to country, service to humanity and service to the University.

The following three awards were presented on campus April 19 and 20:

The James E. Armstrong Award

Established in 1978, the , presented this year to Carol Mullaney, class of 1982, is conferred on a graduate who is a current or former employee of Notre Dame and has rendered distinguished service to the University.

Mullaney currently serves as senior director in the Office of the President, where she helps coordinate operations and communications for the Board of Trustees; leads high-impact, strategic projects; manages and coordinates major University-wide events; and provides critical support to the President’s Leadership Council.

During the 2020-21 academic year, Mullaney provided leadership to several initiatives associated with the University’s initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent commitment to in-person learning and living. She ultimately became the director of the COVID-19 Response Unit (CRU), which included oversight of the hotline, testing center, student compact compliance, contact tracing, care and concern and housing teams.

Prior to joining the University as a full-time staff member, Mullaney served on the Notre Dame Alumni Association Board of Directors (2001-04) and was a member of the initial steering committee for ND Women Connect. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Notre Dame in English and theology in 1982 and an MBA from the Kellogg 91��Ƶ of Management at Northwestern University. Mullaney and her husband, Brian McMorrow, class of 1981, live in South Bend.

The Dr. Thomas A. Dooley Award

Established in 1984, the , presented this year to Robert J. Dempsey, class of 1973, is conferred on a graduate who has exhibited outstanding service to humankind.

Dempsey is the Manucher Javid Professor and Chairman of the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of Wisconsin, specializing in cranial neurosurgery of brain tumors, intracranial aneurysms, carotid endarterectomy and the repair of congenital brain stem disorders.

With a philosophy of “service through education,” Dempsey is committed to solving health disparities by training, equipping and mentoring generations of physicians in worldwide areas of need. The former president of the U.S. Society of Neurological Surgeons (SNS), he also chairs the Foundation for International Education in Neurological Surgery, where he established and supports more than 20 training programs in developing countries.

Dempsey has received the Humanitarian Award from the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and distinguished service awards from the Neurological Society of America, the SNS and the University of Chicago Medical and Biological Sciences Alumni Association, denoting his lifetime commitment to science, mentoring, neurosurgical service and education nationally and internationally. In 2022, he received the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies Medal of Honor, the highest award in neurosurgery.

In recognition of a lifetime of worldwide mentoring of resident and young faculty, the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and the Congress of Neurological Surgeons have named its annual resident award the Robert J. Dempsey Research Award for Cerebrovascular Neurosurgery in his honor.

The Dr. William P. Sexton Award

Established in 2001, the , presented this year to Guiorgie “Gia” Kvaratskhelia, honors non-alumni of Notre Dame who have contributed outstanding service to the University and whose lives exemplify the spirit of the University.

Entering his 10th season at the helm of the Notre Dame fencing program, Kvaratskhelia has perhaps done more to rewrite the Fighting Irish record books than anyone who came before him. Just last month, he and the Irish captured the program’s 13th national championship — the fifth during his head coaching tenure — becoming the first team on campus to win three consecutive titles. In earning a fifth national title, he surpassed legendary football coach Frank Leahy, who previously held the Notre Dame record with four.

Since assuming the head coaching role ahead of the 2015 season, Kvaratskhelia has overseen 13 individual champions across all three weapons categories. He has also led the Irish to extraordinary success in conference competition, with the men’s and women’s squads claiming seven ACC Championships each. Irish fencers have won 43 out of a possible 54 individual conference weapons titles under his watch, and he has been named ACC Coach or Co-Coach of the Year a combined 10 times.

Kvaratskhelia — who became a United States citizen in 2004 — immigrated to the U.S. in 1994 from the former Soviet Republic of Georgia. In 1993, he received his bachelor’s degree in physical education and sport from the Georgian State Physical Training Institute in his hometown of Tbilisi and earned a sports journalism certificate from the same institution in 1992. Kvaratskhelia and his wife, Dani Edson, have one daughter, Maya, and one son, Alexander.

Alumni Association presents winter awards

2023-02-10T11:00:00-05:00

The University of Notre Dame Alumni Association recognized a number of distinguished alumni during its annual winter board meeting in January. The Alumni Association presents awards three times per year. The awards fall into six categories where the University encourages excellence: the arts, athletics, service to the Alumni Association, service to country, service to humanity and service to the University.

Four awards were presented to honorees on campus Jan. 27:

The William D. Reynolds Award

In recognition of her outstanding commitment to providing school-aged children in America the nourishment they need to learn and grow, Erin Kerr, class of 2001, was presented with the William D. Reynolds Award.

Kerr is the national chief executive officer of Blessings in a Backpack, the only national organization solely dedicated to feeding school-aged children across America on the weekends. This school year, Blessings in a Backpack has provided more than 3.1 million hunger-free weekends for children.

Prior to her role as chief executive officer, Kerr served as the organization’s chief development officer, leading Blessing in a Backpack’s national fund development team to raise support to make more hunger-free weekends possible for children. Her past roles include president of Kerr Consulting, corporate and foundation relations manager with Girl Scouts of Chicago, and assistant director of resource development at Christopher House. Kerr serves as president of the advisory board of Alphonsus Academy and Center for the Arts and volunteered with Welles Park Parent Association. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in finance from Notre Dame and a certificate in nonprofit management from Northwestern University Kellogg 91��Ƶ of Management's Center for Nonprofit Management. She also participated in the Allstate Foundation’s Greater Good Nonprofit Leaders program.

Kerr and her husband, Ross, class of 2000, have two teenage sons.

The Rev. Arthur S. Harvey, C.S.C., Award

In recognition of her advocacy for a Catholic vision of social justice through her outstanding musical achievement and public service to our country, AnnaMaria Cardinalli, class of 2004, was presented with the Rev. Arthur S. Harvey, C.S.C., Award.

A proud 18th-generation New Mexican, Cardinalli earned a doctoral degree from the University of Notre Dame in theology with a concentration in liturgical studies and an emphasis in Latino studies. She is most noted for her extraordinary achievement as an operatic contralto and Spanish guitarist. Making her solo recital debut at the Kennedy Center as a teen, Cardinalli has also performed at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall and for personages from St. John Paul II to Spain’s King Felipe. She has more than 15 successful albums to her credit, many as a soloist and one as a collaborator on a CD including John Legend, Jennifer Hudson and Adam Levine.

Cardinalli places her art fully at the service of her Catholic faith. Her most recent book, “Music and Meaning in the Mass,” links her artistic expertise and theological background at their most critical point of emphasis and calls upon the power of music to draw souls anew to Christ in the Eucharist. She aims to both evangelize through beauty and channel the notoriety of her music toward her community, Familia Victricis, which seeks to open a home for children at risk for human trafficking.

She is also a veteran whose groundbreaking intelligence work in Iraq and Afghanistan revealed human rights abuses that Familia Victricis works to combat wherever they occur, especially on her home soil near the U.S.-Mexico border. She asks for prayers and support for their mission at www.ranchosantacatarina.org.

The Rev. Robert F. Griffin, C.S.C., Award

In recognition of her outstanding public scholarship on behalf of Haitian culture, Marlene L. Daut, class of 2009, was presented with The Rev. Robert F. Griffin, C.S.C., Award.

Daut is an author, scholar, editor and professor. Her books include “Tropics of Haiti: Race and the Literary History of the Haitian Revolution in the Atlantic World,” “Baron de Vastey and the Origins of Black Atlantic Humanism” and the forthcoming “Awakening the Ashes: An Intellectual History of the Haitian Revolution.” Daut’s articles on Haitian history and culture have appeared in more than a dozen publications including The New York Times, Harper’s Bazaar, Essence, The Nation and the LA Review of Books.

Daut has won numerous awards and fellowships for her contributions to historical and cultural understandings of the Caribbean, notably from the Ford Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Haitian 91��Ƶ Association and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Most recently, she won a grant from the Robert Silvers Foundation for a biography she is writing, “The First and Last King of Haiti,” about the Haitian revolutionary turned monarch Gen. Henry Christophe.

Daut graduated from Loyola Marymount University in 2002 with a Bachelor of Arts in English and French and went on to teach in Rouen, France, as an Assistante d’Anglais before enrolling at Notre Dame, where she earned a doctorate in English in 2009. Since graduating, Daut has taught Haitian and French colonial history and culture at the University of Miami, the Claremont Graduate University and the University of Virginia, where she also became series editor of “New World 91��Ƶ” at UVA Press.

In July 2022, she was appointed professor of French and African American studies at Yale University.

The Rev. Anthony J. Lauck, C.S.C., Award

In recognition of his award-winning work in film, television and theater, including writing screenplays for two of the top five highest-grossing films of all time, Stephen McFeely, class of 1991, was presented with The Rev. Anthony J. Lauck, C.S.C., Award.

Graduating from Notre Dame with a degree in English and government and international studies, McFeely went on to earn a master’s in writing at the University of California, Davis. Since then, he has worked as a screenwriter for more than 20 years with feature credits including “The Chronicles of Narnia” franchise, the “Captain America” franchise, “You Kill Me,” “Pain & Gain,” “Avengers: Infinity War,” “Avengers: Endgame” and “The Gray Man.” His work for television includes creating the series “Agent Carter” and co-writing the made-for-television movie “The Life And Death of Peter Sellers,” for which he won an Emmy. McFeely’s next feature, “The Electric State,” is filming now.

He and his writing partner, Chris Markus, are the highest-grossing screenwriters in history.