Holy Cross Recognizes Alumni for Outstanding Professional Achievements and Service

WORCESTER, Mass. – Five graduates of the College of the Holy Cross will 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 7 at the College.

This year’s recipients are:

Jay A. Clarke, Ph.D '88: Jay is the curator of prints, drawings, and photography at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Mass.  Prior to her position at the Clark, she was a curator for 17 years at the Art Institute of Chicago, where she conceived of and curated the critically acclaimed exhibition (and edited the accompanying catalog) Becoming Edvard Munch.

Gregory M. Dever, M.D. '68: A Peace Corps alumnus and pediatrician, Greg has dedicated his professional life to improving medical care in the South Pacific.  He was director of the Pacific Basin Medical Officers Training Program, which educated and trained 70 indigenous Micronesians and American Samoans as physicians, who now form the backbone of the public health and healthcare service infrastructure in the Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Palau and American Samoa.

Michael G. Duggan '82: Since 1991, Mike has been executive director of Domus, now a multifaceted nonprofit organization of community services, residential programs, and schools serving young people in Connecticut whose lives are seriously at risk due to neglect, abuse, drugs, and homelessness. He personally mentors young people at the same time he has built policies, programs, and organizational models that are regionally and nationally recognized.

Robert Emmet Morris, D.D.S., M.P.H. '65: In 1969, as a Navy lieutenant and recent dental school graduate, Bob was posted to Vietnam where he cared for both fellow soldiers and Vietnamese villagers—beginning a career in public health that has taken him around the world.  He has established training programs for health care professionals in Trinidad and Guyana, and was responsible for planning the post-Gulf War reconstruction of Kuwait's oral health services.  Thirty-five years after he left Vietnam, he founded the Mai Tam House of Hope Project in Ho Chi Minh City, which serves women, children, and orphans with HIV/AIDS.

Tricia M. Striano, Ph.D. '95: A renowned research scientist, specializing in infants' social and cognitive development, Tricia’s work focuses on the neural systems involved in processing affective states, including brain systems that might associated with autism.  She was a 2004 recipient of a $1.2 million Humboldt Foundation research grant to fund her work. Widely published and frequently called upon to lecture around the world, she currently teaches at Hunter College.

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.