Holy Cross Recognizes Alumni for Outstanding Professional Achievements and Service

WORCESTER, Mass. – Four graduates of the College of the Holy Cross will all receive a Sanctae Crucis Award, the highest non-degree recognition bestowed by the College on an alumnus or alumna. The 12th annual presentation of the awards will take place on Friday, May 1 at the College.

This year’s recipients are:

Leo M. Cooney Jr., M.D., ’65.  Internationally recognized for pioneering achievements in the field of geriatric medicine, Dr. Cooney has been associated with the Yale University School of Medicine for more than three decades.  He established Yale’s program in geriatric teaching and clinical care — a program that stands out nationally because of its focus on the interventions, support services, public policies, health care infrastructure, and medical training needed to allow older persons to remain independent for as long as possible.  The author of more than 60 scientific articles covering a broad range of issues in geriatric medicine — ranging from health economics to the prevention of delirium — Dr. Cooney also has an outstanding reputation as a clinical teacher.  His expertise has been sought as a panelist by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and by the World Health Organization.  He currently serves as president of the medical staff for Yale-New Haven Hospital.  Dr. Cooney resides in New Haven, Conn.

Michael F. Audette ’74.  For the past 10 years, Audette has been the principal at a Bristol, Conn., urban elementary school with a poverty rate of 80% and — when he first arrived — a reputation for being the worst, most neglected school in the district.  Under his leadership, the school has become a statewide model for success.  It was the first and only school to come off the “needs improvement” list of Connecticut’s “No Child Left Behind” rankings; and was called “The Little School That Could” by The New York Times.  He overhauled the before-  and after-school programs, instituted wide-ranging curricular and professional development improvements; and established family resources such as parenting classes, school readiness help, and other practical assistance.  Like many Holy Cross graduates who have gone into teaching, Audette says opportunities to engage in service at Mount St. James helped shape his life’s work.  He is a resident of Terryville, Conn.

Lisa D. Levine, M.D. ’01.  Dr. Levine is a third-year medical resident in obstetrics and gynecology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine’s Montefiore Medical Center in Bronx, N.Y. Before she started medical school, she moved to Costa Rica to learn Spanish and work in a health clinic.  While in medical school, she first became involved with a volunteer medical service (“Prevention International: No Cervical Cancer”), paying her own expenses to join teams of health care professionals traveling to villages in Africa and South America to test and treat impoverished women.  If caught early, cervical cancer is easily treatable; yet it kills an estimated 300,000 women worldwide, most of them from Second and Third World countries.  On their most recent trip to Uganda, she and her team saw 545 women over five days; 34 were treated for precancerous lesions.  While the sheer volume of patients can be daunting, Dr. Levine says the work has only renewed her commitment to helping the medically underserved around the world.  She lives in New York City.

Cpt. Robert P. McGovern, USA ’89.  Drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs after his graduation from Holy Cross, Cpt. McGovern’s NFL career also included stints with the Steelers, Patriots, and Browns.  In 1993, he enrolled in the Army Reserves and began studying at Fordham Law School.  As an attorney, he worked as a prosecutor for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, specializing in narcotics cases; and after that for a city law firm.  Then, after the attacks of September 11, 2001, Cpt. McGovern volunteered at Ground Zero to search for survivors.  He left his law firm, and volunteered for active duty, spending eight months in combat training before he was assigned as a judge advocate general in the U.S. Army.  Following a tour in Afghanistan, he was deployed to Iraq where he prosecuted Iraqi bombers and insurgents.  Currently stationed in Falls Church, Va., Cpt. McGovern is the author of All American: Why I Believe in Football, God and the War in Iraq (William Morrow, 2007).

ABOUT THE SANCTAE CRUCIS AWARDS: The Sanctae Crucis Awards were established in 1998 to recognize the distinguished achievements of alumni. “The primary goals of the Sanctae Crucis Awards are to honor outstanding alumni and in so doing recognize and celebrate the distinctive mission of Holy Cross,” says Frank Vellaccio, senior vice president, who presents the awards to recipients. The Holy Cross Mission Statement is the foundation for the awards program, which honors alumni who are leaders in business, professional or civic life, who live by the highest intellectual and ethical standards, and who are committed to the service of faith and promotion of justice.  Past recipients have included: John Higgins ’76, Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist for the Chicago Sun-Times; Paul La Camera ’64, general manager WBUR Radio in Boston;  Peter J. O'Connor ’63, founder and executive director of the Fair Share Housing Development Corporation; and Joyce O'Shaughnessy ’78, a leading breast cancer researcher and practitioner.