On Sept. 30, students had the special opportunity to hear from and interact with the five alumni selected as this year’s Sanctae Crucis honorees — individuals 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.
The Sanctae Crucis Award is the highest non-degree recognition bestowed by the College upon graduates who continue to live out the Holy Cross mission well after graduation.
The alumni, honored in the evening at the 20th annual Sanctae Crucis awards presentation in the Hogan Ballroom, were: Thomas H. Carey ’66, AnnMaura Connolly ’86, Cheryl A. Martin, Ph. D. ’84, Rev. James D. Mathews ’58, and Jonathan Racek ’95.
During the day, the recipients participated in a series of on campus events, including a panel discussion moderated by Rev. Philip L. Boroughs, S.J., president of the College. The panel was followed by seminar-style conversations led by each recipient where students, faculty, and staff got an inside look into the lives and career paths of the alumni and how their Holy Cross education served as a foundation for later success.
Learn more about this year’s honorees below:
Thomas H. Carey ’66
Mr. Carey is the former executive vice president of Omnicom Group Inc., a global marketing and corporate communications holding company, where he led the strategic development, networking, resourcing and integration of Omnicom companies for the benefit of major clients, including Daimler Chrysler, Mars and PepsiCo. He began his career at D’Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles (DMB&B), where during his 23 years at the company and in his eventual role as the international executive vice president, he led the agency to unprecedented growth. Mr. Carey continued on to become the president of BBDO North America, where he installed new management teams in the U.S. and Canada, overseeing aggressive acquisition programs, and netting the corporation new high-profile clients, including AT&T, Bayer Worldwide and Hyatt Hotels. Mr. Carey is a member of the Board of Advisers at the Medill School of Journalism, Media and Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University and has served on the Big Agency Management Committee of the Association of Accredited Advertising Agents. He is also a former Trustee of the College of the Holy Cross and a key member of the College’s Alumni Marketing Advisory Group.
AnnMaura Connolly ’86
Ms. Connolly is the chief strategy officer and executive vice president of City Year, Inc., a national youth service corps dedicated to helping urban schools and students succeed, and co-founder and president of Voices for National Service, a coalition committed to expanding opportunities for Americans of all ages to serve and volunteer. Since serving in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps after graduating from Holy Cross, Ms. Connolly has been a leading voice for the idea that a year of service should be a common expectation and experience of every young person, and has built a career around growing citizen service as a strategy for solving critical issues and developing the next generation of leaders in the U.S. and abroad. At City Year, Ms. Connolly has directed the organization’s public policy, public affairs, and international work, and, as a co-founder and president of Voices for National Service, she has led the effort to expand and strengthen the federal investment in national service, playing a key role in the development and passage of the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, which was signed into law in 2009.
Cheryl A. Martin, Ph. D. ’84
Dr. Martin is a member of the Managing Board of the World Economic Forum and responsible for the Forum’s industry agenda. She joined the Forum in March 2016 from the consulting firm, Harwich Partners, which she launched to work with public and private sector entities to identify critical drivers that would accelerate adoption of new technologies into markets. Previously, Dr. Martin served as the acting director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E), and as the deputy director for commercialization at the agency where she developed the Technology-to-Market program, which helps breakthrough energy technologies succeed in the marketplace. Dr. Martin earned a B.A. in chemistry from Holy Cross and went on to earn a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from MIT. She is a non-resident fellow at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University and serves on the board of Enbala, an early stage company focused on making the electric grid more sustainable by harnessing the power of distributed energy.
Rev. James D. Mathews ’58
Rev. James Mathews has served as the pastor at St. Lucy’s Church in Syracuse, N.Y., for more than 25 years and continues to remain the force behind the parish and its impact on the surrounding community. Located in one of the poorest neighborhoods in the country, St. Lucy’s welcomes members from all walks of life, beginning with a banner that reads “Sinners Welcome” hanging over the church’s entrance. Fr. Mathews has served the parish’s inner-city neighbors through everything from signed Masses for deaf community members and transportation to the local prison for families to visit their loved ones, to job training, computer skill and ESL classes for refugees and weekly free lunches served to hundreds of community members. Fr. Mathews also initiated strategy discussions on urban blight and decay, resulting in the formation of the Near West Side Initiative, which advocates for decent housing and jobs for community members and is now supported by Syracuse University. Fr. Mathews has received countless awards throughout his career for his dedication to peace, social justice and hospitality to the poor, specifically those in the Syracuse community.
Jonathan Racek ’95
Mr. Racek is the executive director of Play360, a non-profit that trains organizations to build low-cost educational resources throughout the developing world, and a senior lecturer at the apparel merchandising and interior design department at Indiana University. After completing his sociology and anthropology degree at Holy Cross, and four years of teaching through Teach for America in Los Angeles, Mr. Racek earned a masters of architecture from the Southern California Institute of Architecture in 2004 and established a successful high-end furniture design firm. His architectural work turned towards community engagement and empowerment when he traveled to Thailand to build playgrounds for fleeing refugees along the Thai/Burmese border. Upon his return, Mr. Racek launched Play360 in 2010 and has helped construct more than 60 playgrounds for over 12,000 children around the world, including in Peru, the Philippines, Zanzibar, Guatemala, Thailand, Haiti and Kenya. In 2012, he was named one of “40 Under 40” in the architecture, engineering and construction industry by Building Design + Construction Magazine.
More coverage about the awards ceremony and the honorees will appear in the winter issue of Holy Cross Magazine.
Submit Nominations
Do you know a Holy Cross graduate who has an exemplary record of professional achievement or community service? The College is soliciting nominations for next year.
The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame announced today the 20 watch list finalists for the 2017 Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year Award presented by College of the Holy Cross. Named after Hall of Famer and former Boston Celtic and Holy Cross guard Bob Cousy ’50, the annual honor now in its 14th year recognizes the top point guards in Division I men’s college basketball. A national committee comprised of top college basketball personnel determined the watch list of 20 candidates.
