CONTRIBUTORS

Casey Bowser

Casey Bowser has served as Archivist for the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill since 2017 and the University Archivist at Seton Hill University since 2022. Casey earned her B.A. in History and Public History from Saint Vincent College and an M.A. in Museum Studies from Johns Hopkins University. From 2020 to 2024, she served on the leadership board of Archivists for Congregations of Women Religious (ACWR), a national organization which assists lay and religious archivists in the management, interpretation, and preservation of Catholic sisters and nuns in the U.S. and worldwide. Casey is a member of the Mission and Heritage Committee for The National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. She also serves on several local historical Boards, including the Westmoreland Historical Society, the Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor, and the Western Pennsylvania Catholic Archives Consortium. 

Christine Cusick

Christine Cusick is Professor of English and Director of Honors at Seton Hill University. Her research and publications are in areas of Irish Environmental Humanities, Creative Nonfiction, and Writing Pedagogy. She earned a B.A. in English and Philosophy and an M.A. in English Literature from St. Bonaventure University. Christine then obtained her Ph.D. in English Literature from Duquesne University. 

Her research focuses on the cultural and material intersections of ecology, narrative and place.  She has published ecocritical readings of contemporary Irish poetry, fiction, bogland photography and American nature writing as well as nationally recognized place based creative nonfiction. Her edited collection Out of the Earth:  Ecocritical Readings of Irish Texts, which includes her interview with Tim Robinson, was published by Cork University Press and her essay ‘Mapping Placelore:  Tim Robinson’s Ambulation and Articulation of Connemara as Bioregion’ appeared in The Bioregional Imagination:  New Perspectives on Literature, Ecology and Place.  She serves as the environmentalism advisory editor for New Hibernia Review and was an invited speaker at The Connemara Symposium:  Perspectives on Tim Robinson at the National University of Ireland Galway.  She co-edited Unfolding Irish Landscapes: Tim Robinson, Culture, and Environment in 2016. Christine recently published the chapter “Contemporary Irish America and the Environment” in The Routledge History of Irish America.

Debra Faszer-McMahon

Debra Faszer-McMahon is Professor of Spanish at Seton Hill University. She served as Dean of the School of Humanities from 2015-2022, and she currently serves as Director of Faculty Development. Her research interests include contemporary peninsular poetry, migration, women writers, and the global Hispanophone. Her most recent book was a co-edited collection titled A Laboratory of Their Own: Women and Science in Spanish Culture (Vanderbilt UP 2021), and she has also published African Immigrants in Contemporary Spanish Texts: Crossing the Strait (Routledge 2015) and Cultural Encounters in Contemporary Spain: The Poetry of Clara Janés (Bucknell UP 2010). She has published a wide range of articles in various edited volumes and literary journals, and she is currently working on a book project focused on Saharaui refugee poets living and writing in Spain.

She loves to lead immersive study abroad trips at SHU, and her most recent student trips have included Ecuador & the Galápagos Islands (2024), Morocco & the Spanish Canary Islands (2025), and Perú (2025 & 2026). She is also living proof that it is never too late to learn a language! She did not begin studying Spanish until after graduating from college (she was an English Education and Religious Studies Double Major), so she often tells students that her experience is proof that non-native speakers, even those at or beyond college age, can become experts in a foreign language. 

Kathleen Harris

Dr. Kathleen I. Harris is Professor and Dean of the School of Education and Applied Social Sciences at Seton Hill University, Greensburg, Pennsylvania. Kathleen teaches early childhood and special education undergraduate and graduate classes. Kathleen received her doctoral degree in Special Education at Kent State University; master’s degree in Early Childhood Education at Kent State University; and undergraduate degree in Early Childhood Education and Psychology at Notre Dame College of Ohio. Kathleen’s research interests include children’s spirituality, trauma-informed care, peer interventions, strengths-based leadership, superhero play, and contemplative practices in early childhood. Kathleen has taught young children, toddlers to pre-kindergarten, directed early childhood programs, and does professional development training for early childhood professionals and families. She presents at international, national, state, and local early childhood conferences. Kathleen serves as a consulting editor for Young Children; section editor for AI, Brain, and Child, and serves on the editorial board for International Journal of Children’s Spirituality. Kathleen is an Inquiry Educator in Educators’ Neighborhood, a professional learning community that is a project of the Fred Rogers Institute. Kathleen’s extensive research in early childhood and special education has been widely published including Young Children, Young Exceptional Children, International Journal of Children’s Spirituality, Early Childhood Education Journal, Childhood Education Innovations, Early Child Development and Care, Pastoral Care in Education, Focus: Association of Child Life Professionals, International Journal of Holistic Early Learning and Development, International Journal of Contemporary Education, Play Policy and Practice Connections, Education and Training Studies, and Journal of Integrative Pediatrics and Environmental Medicine. 

Diane Kondas

Dr. Diane Kondas is Program Director and Assistant Professor of Nursing at Seton Hill University’s Daniel J. Wukich School of Nursing. An educator since 2001, she has taught across classroom, clinical, and online settings and is known for engaging, practice-ready instruction. Dr. Kondas joined Seton Hill in 2018 to design and launch the University’s prelicensure BSN program; she developed and implemented the curriculum, led the first cohort beginning in 2019, and continues to oversee program curriculum and accreditation processes.

Her clinical background spans staff nursing roles in New York City, Pittsburgh, and Greensburg, Pennsylvania. As a Family Nurse Practitioner, she practiced for several years in a family medicine clinic in Fayette County, experiences that continue to ground her teaching in real-world patient care. Dr. Kondas’s teaching passions include pharmacology for nursing and NCLEX preparation, where she emphasizes clinical judgment, patient safety, and evidence-based decision-making.

Dr. Kondas holds a DNP from Chatham University, an MSN as a Family Nurse Practitioner from the University of Pittsburgh, and a BSN from the University of Pennsylvania. She was honored as a Cameo of Caring Nurse Educator by UPMC Schools of Nursing in 2016 and is a member of Sigma Theta Tau. Across roles, Dr. Kondas is committed to graduating compassionate, competent nurses who are prepared for contemporary practice.

Fran Leap

Fran Leap is a Professor of Religious Studies who joined the Seton Hill College faculty in 1991.  She was fortunate to know and work with Sr Lois Sculco, Dr Jacinta Mann, Dr Lynn Conroy, Sr Dorothy Jacko, and many other Seton Hill grande dames of that era.  Reading the personal journals which Sister Lois entrusted to her was a work of great honor that deepened Fran’s admiration and affection for Sister Lois and the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill.

Dr Leap studied at Jesuit institutions, earning her BA in Theology from Loyola University of Chicago, her MA and PhD in Religious Studies from Marquette University, and later returning to Loyola for an additional Master of Spirituality in Spiritual Direction.  She retired from Seton Hill University in 2026, and continues to offer her skills and service in spiritual direction.

Sarah Marsh

Sarah Marsh is an Associate Professor of English at Seton Hill University. She studies anglophone literature and culture of the long eighteenth century, with a focus on the western Atlantic history of race and slavery. In support of her book project, Novel Constitutions: Bodies of Law and Fictions of Race, 1688–1818, she was a Penick Fellow at the Smithsonian Institution Libraries in Washington, D.C. Her other research interests include medical humanities and the history of the novel. At Seton Hill, she serves as Director of Curriculum Development for Setonian Mission and directs the Jane Austen Summer Program, a public humanities initiative.

Professor Marsh’s classes study core humanities texts—from Plato to Saint Augustine to Jane Austen to Frederick Douglass—to explore what it means to be human. By reading these works with charity, and in a wisdom-seeking way, her students learn how to cultivate a life of the mind as a resource for human flourishing. Her most recent pedagogical work in character education encourages students to develop their intellectual virtues—such as humility, courage, and generosity—to sustain them in pursuit of the common good.

Sister Mary Kay Neff, SC

Sister Mary Kay Neff is a design educator, graphic designer, photographer, and a member of the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill. As Associate Professor of Art at Seton Hill University in Greensburg, PA, she instructs graphic design and digital imaging courses, mentors design interns, advises the Graphic Design Club, and coordinates the Seton Arts Service Corps. Her teaching philosophy centers on cultivating professional readiness in students by combining rigorous design foundations with evolving industry practices. Teaching design is an ever-changing profession that blends creativity and technology.

She owns MKN Design, an independent studio providing design and creative services to nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, and businesses. MKN Design develops brand identities, logos, and collateral, including annual reports, magazines, signage, and newsletters. Earlier in her career, she was a Graphic Designer and Coordinator of Publications and Photography at Seton Hill University’s Office of Public Information.

Sister Mary Kay completed her undergraduate studies in art and design at Pennsylvania State University and earned an MFA from Rochester Institute of Technology. While studying graphic design and photography at RIT, she explored historic, alternative photographic processes, which she continues alongside digital photography. Her award-winning photographs are exhibited locally and nationally and held in private collections. She is a member of AIGA (the Professional Association for Design), the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh (AAP), and the University and College Designers Association (UCDA).

Sister Maureen O'Brien, SC

Sister Maureen O’Brien entered the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill in 1962. She has served as Vice President for Mission and Identity at Seton Hill University since 2019. In this role, she is responsible for supporting Seton Hill University’s Catholic, Setonian mission through programming for students, faculty, staff, alumni and Trustees. Sister Maureen O’Brien joined the staff of Seton Hill in 2010 as Director of Campus Ministry. She spent much of her time in the ministry of education at both the elementary and secondary levels. This included her work at Greensburg Central Catholic High School, where she was the director of Campus Ministry and an instructor in religious studies for twenty two years. Sister Maureen served the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill as Coordinator of Ongoing Formation and as Co-Director of Vocation Ministry. She holds a bachelor of music degree from Seton Hill University, a master of arts degree from Aquinas Institute of Religious Studies and a certificate in Spiritual Theology from the Toronto School of Theology.

James Paharik

Dr. James Paharik was appointed Director of the National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education in 2019. He most recently served as Professor of Sociology and Coordinator of the Behavioral Health Program at Seton Hill, having joined the university’s faculty in 1982. Paharik, who holds a doctorate degree in sociology from the University of Pittsburgh, teaches courses in the Sociology and Behavioral Health programs as well as in the Liberal Arts curriculum. 

Dr. Paharik has been active in Holocaust Education on the international and national levels, having presented several times at the International Conference on Holocaust Education at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem on topics such as Catholic-Jewish relations in the aftermath of the Holocaust and the intellectual roots of Nazi racism.

A member of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, the Peace and Justice Studies Association, the Catholic Peacebuilders Network, and the North Central Sociological Association, Dr. Paharik brings to his classroom and his research a worldview that calls for understanding and respect of “the other” and upholds the dignity of all people.

Denise Pullen

Denise Pullen is an Associate Professor of Theatre in the Department of Theatre and Dance at Seton Hill University. Denise joined the full-time faculty at Seton Hill in 2002. She teaches courses in Acting, Dramatic Writing, Speech and Directing. She also directs plays and musicals for the Department of

Theatre and Dance. Most recently she directed Bess Wohl’s SMALL MOUTH SOUNDS and Shakespeare’s JULIUS CAESAR. She served as Chair and Co-Chair for the Department since 2020. Denise has enjoyed work in the larger community, serving several terms on the Liberal Arts Committee as well as The Catholic Intellectual Tradition group, and the Setonian Mission Formation and Leadership cohorts. She relishes opportunities to bring the students to these initiatives, often collaborating with them in devising special programming for events such as “Lunch With Liz” and the recent Founders’ Day celebrations. She has been honored to work with students and colleagues on the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. educational programs. Denise holds a BFA in Drama and an MFA in Dramatic Writing from Carnegie Mellon University, where she teaches in their Drama Precollege Program. An awarded playwright and screenwriter, Denise is currently writing La cella all’interno (The Cell Inside), a play about the life of St. Catherine of Siena. This was supported by a sabbatical in the fall of 2023 and given a reading at Seton Hill in 2024.

David Von Schlichten

Dr. David von Schlichten joined the Seton Hill faculty in 2008 and has been actively involved with a variety of activities on campus, particularly those related to Seton Hill’s Catholic, Setonian mission and identity. David currently serves as Professor of Religious Studies and Coordinator of the Gender and Women’s Studies Program at Seton Hill. He was appointed as the Dean of the School of Humanities in 2023.

Dave serves as a co-leader of the Journey with Elizabeth program, which aims to teach cohorts of Seton Hill faculty and staff about the life of Elizabeth Ann Seton and her importance and relevance to the work at Seton Hill University today over the course of an academic year.

David majored in English and religion at Drew University. He earned a Master of Arts in English from Kutztown University, a Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry from Lutheran Theological Seminary, a Doctor of Philosophy in English from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and a Master of Fine Arts in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill. From 1997 to 2020, he served as a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. 

He has more than 200 publishing credits in various genres, and is an acclaimed, sought-after speaker who gives talks on practicing allyship and excelling at caring during overwhelming times.

Sister Susan Yochum, SC

After earning a B.A. in Chemistry from Seton Hill College, I entered the Sisters of Charity in 1978. My ministry in education began at Monongahela Valley Catholic High

School in Monongahela, PA, where I taught physics and chemistry and served as Science Department Chair (1979–1984). I went on to earn an M.S. in Chemistry from

Duquesne University in 1985, the same year I joined the faculty at Seton Hill. In 1994, I completed a Ph.D. in Chemistry at Cleveland State University.

For more than four decades, I have had the privilege of teaching students in the areas of general, analytical, physical, inorganic, and allied health organic chemistry. From

1995 to 2010, I especially valued working with students in our award-winning American Chemical Society (ACS) Student Affiliate Chapter. My service has also extended to

leadership roles, including Division Chair for Natural and Health Sciences (1997–2015) and Provost since 2015. Along the way, I have been deeply honored to be named Seton Hill’s Professor of the Year (1998) and to receive the Women Chemists Committee Regional Award for Contributions to Diversity from the American Chemical Society (2002).

Inspired by Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, founder of the Sisters of Charity and a model educator, as well as the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill past and present, I strive to welcome all students with patience, encouragement, challenge, and respect. My goal has always been to create a learning environment where every student’s potential can truly flourish.