The Journal News (Westchester County, New York)
March 25, 2007 Sunday
RK Edition
Dominican College president committed to human growth
BYLINE: Alice Gomstyn
SECTION: LOWER HUDSON BUSINESS; Pg. 70K
She is the leader of 350 employees at an organization that, in the last fiscal year, took in $33.4 million in revenue. She serves on the board of directors of the Rockland Business Association and in 2000, was named Woman of the Year by the Rockland Business and Professional Women’s Club. She is admired for her management skills and her “results-oriented” approach to her work.
But Sister Mary Eileen O’Brien doesn’t necessarily see herself as a business leader.
“I see myself primarily as a Dominican Sister who is very committed to human growth,” Sister O’Brien said.
“I think that each person,” she said, “is blessed with special gifts and they differ one from another. I remember, many years ago, hearing that most people develop little more than 15 or 20 percent of their potential, and it just seems to me if people are going to be happy and healthy and helpful, it’s so important that we develop as much of our potential as is possible.”
Sister O’Brien is the president of Dominican College. Under her tenure, Dominican – a liberal arts college founded in 1952 by the Dominican Sisters of Blauvelt – has seen the construction of several major facilities, a significant increase in the number of full-time students and the development of six master’s degree programs.
All the while, Sister O’Brien, herself a Dominican College alumna, has racked up an impressive array of honors: In addition to the Rockland Business and Professional Women’s Club award, she’s been recognized by Helen Hayes Hospital, the Rockland Employment Network, the Rockland Economic Development Corporation, the Rockland County Girl Scouts and the Rockland County Association.
This year, she’ll add another distinction to the list: Rockland Business Leader of the Year. The Journal News will present the award on May 2 at a luncheon benefiting Junior Achievement of the Hudson Valley. The nominees for the award were judged on criteria that included vision and innovation, courageous thinking, community involvement and inspiring leadership.
Sister O’Brien, the first college president and the first nun to receive the honor, “stood out from the rest,” said Angela Giustino, president of Junior Achievement of the Hudson Valley.
“She, as a leader, influences other people in their civic duties as well as in business,” said Holly Freedman of the Rockland Economic Development Corporation, which nominated Sister O’Brien. “She is a person of very high integrity who is good for people in business, and in all fields actually, to emulate.”
Sister O’Brien doesn’t seem to dwell on her own success, however, especially when it comes to her work at Dominican College.
“Nothing that’s been accomplished at the college has been done by a single individual, but rather by a group of very dedicated and competent individuals,” she said. “We’ve been very fortunate to have many faculty and administrators who have made a very long-term commitment to the growth of the college.”
A veteran in a changing field
Sister O’Brien’s own commitment to the college has spanned more than 20 years. She’s spent most of that time as the college’s president – a position she’s actually held twice. She joined the college in 1977 as a mathematics lecturer and an assistant to then-president Sister Natalie Casey. When Sister Casey fell ill the following year, the college’s Board of Trustees asked Sister O’Brien to step in as acting president. In 1979, “acting” was dropped from her title and Sister O’Brien began a presidency that would last nine years.
She left the college in 1987 after the Dominican Sisters elected Sister O’Brien to a six-year term as the president of their congregation. In 1994, at the request of then-president Sister Kathleen Sullivan, she returned to Dominican College as the college’s executive vice president. Three years later, she was back in the president’s chair.
For O’Brien, coming back to the college and later, to the presidency, was an experience akin, she said, to that portrayed in a painting that hangs in her office – a copy of Winslow Homer’s “The Veteran in a New Field.”
“There’s a gentleman returning from the Civil War, working in a field of hay, and his gun and water container are on the side and he’s picked up a whole new career,” she said. “I have always felt that my second involvement in the college was as fresh and exciting as the first ever was.”
While her first term focused mainly on the development of the college’s undergraduate programs, her second term has largely revolved around Dominican’s evolution from a small commuter college to a full-service, residential campus.
“The college, as a growing institution, was in a new place,” she said. “The needs were different.”
The college’s enrollment has remained fairly steady over the last decade at about 1,800 students. But the make-up of the student body itself has undergone a dramatic shift. According to Brian Fernandes, Dominican’s vice president for enrollment management, when Sister O’Brien returned to office in 1994, full-time, traditional-age students – those who matriculate shortly after graduating high school – accounted for no more than 40 percent of the student body.
Today, they make up 70 percent of Dominican’s student population.
“Nationally speaking, there have been more high school students graduating,” Fernandes said. Over the years, he said, “the traditional age students provided us with the best opportunity for growth,” he said.
“We’ve never lost focus on our traditional age students,” he added. “It’s just that we have been more active in terms of drawing of more traditional-age students than we have in the past.”
The college’s efforts to attract and accommodate new students – particularly those who want to live on campus – has spurred a flurry of construction and renovation work. In 2000, the college added a second story to the Granito Center – home to the college’s dining hall – for a new college bookstore, health center and a global communications center. In September 2005, the college opened Rosary Hall, a second student dormitory. About a month later, the college dedicated the Prusmack Center for Health and Science Education, a four-story, $13.7-million facility that’s become home to the nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy, athletic training, math and science programs. A third residence hall is now under construction and is expected to be completed by August.
Fernandes said that Sister O’Brien’s vision for the college helped guide it all.
“If it wasn’t for the fact that she had the vision, saying we have to build,” he said, “I don’t think that we would be able to have the success that we have had in terms of increasing the enrollment.”
But Sister O’Brien brought more than just vision to the college’s expansion efforts – she helped bring dollars.
“We are an institution that is self-sufficient, but at the same time we are not the kind of institution that has huge endowments like some of the other institutions do,” Fernandes said. Sister O’Brien, he said, spearheaded fundraising efforts for projects like the construction of the Prusmack Center as well as academic programs, such as the college’s master’s program in nursing and its new Doctor of Physical Therapy program.
“She’s very successful because when you talk to her and you listen to her passion for this institution and what it’s doing and the impact it has on the community, people are engaged to want to help,” said Dorothy Filoramo, Dominican’s vice president for institutional advancement.
Business of inspiration
Sister O’Brien’s work in education has always been tied to her commitment to her faith. Born in the Bronx and raised in Pearl River, Sister O’Brien first became exposed to the work of Dominican sisters in Goshen, where she attended a Catholic boarding school.
The sisters were her teachers, she said, and she was impressed with their sheer joy and their generosity. She later joined the order and, at its request, went on to teach math at two schools in the Bronx. She made her first foray into education administration in 1972, when she became principal of St. Luke School, a kindergarten-through-eighth grade school in the south Bronx.
It was a challenging place to be.
“Circumstances were not easy,” she said. “The people whose children were in the school were warm and dedicated people. They, in many cases, were poor and struggling with living in an area that was not always so safe.”
Her experiences there taught her an enduring lesson.
“What I learned from the people I worked with and the families I worked with was that when good people with good will work together to accomplish something, it’s possible,” she said. “That’s a strong conviction that I continue to carry.”
Sister O’Brien’s skill at working with others has earned her the admiration of employees and colleagues alike.
“She is results-oriented, but at the same time cares deeply about people, so it makes it easy to work for her,” Fernandes said.
“She’s a real consensus-builder,” said Cliff Wood, the president of Rockland Community College. Wood co-chairs “Forty under Forty” with Sister O’Brien. The program honors Rockland residents under the age of 40 who have exhibited leadership, talent and generosity. When the Forty under Forty panel meets to decide on its annual honorees, Wood said, Sister O’Brien makes sure everyone’s voice is heard.
“She can really lead a discussion and get something done,” he said.
Students, too, have been impressed with Sister O’Brien’s people skills and also by her warmth, said Rafael Ortiz Jr. Ortiz, who graduated in 2004, said Sister O’Brien was always happy to give a word of advice or encouragement.
“She never underestimated anybody,” he said. “Her being there inspired me to do more.”
Inspiring others, whether it be through college programs or civic projects like Forty under Forty, is something Sister O’Brien takes seriously.
“My own feeling is nothing helps another person grow more than being in touch with alive, inspiring, dedicated people,” she said.
“People can be greatly encouraged in their pursuit of generous living,” she said, “by other good people who are committed to the same thing.”
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Sister Mary Eileen O’Brien
Title: President, Dominican College
Age: 65
Residence: Orangeburg
Family: Parents Philip and Helen O’Brien, West Nyack, two brothers and two sisters
Education: Bachelor of arts, Dominican College. Master’s in mathematics, Manhattan College. Master’s in Adult and Higher Education, Teachers College, Columbia. Doctorate in Educational Administration and Supervision, Fordham University. Nine credits in Spanish, La Javeriana in Bogota, Columbia. Twelve credits in theology, Providence College.
Professional memberships: Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, Association of Governing Boards, Council of Independent Colleges, National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, Dominican Higher Education Council, Lower Hudson Valley Catholic Colleges and Universities Consortium, Rockland Business Association Board of Directors, St. Luke’s Educational Foundation Board of Directors, “Forty Under Forty” Co-chair for Rockland County, Bon Secours Charity Health System Board, National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities Board.
Whom do you most admire?
I admire people of vision and courage. I am impressed by people who work to make our world more compassionate and just. Some of the people I admire most are those closest to me – parents, friends, colleagues, members of my religious community. I am also deeply inspired by great people like Jesus, Theilhard deChardin, Nelson Mandela, Jimmy Carter, Catherine of Siena.
What is your biggest regret?
I don’t have too many regrets. However, whenever I fail to reach out to another for advice or assistance, I believe I am the poorer for it. There is so much we can learn from one another and so much we can accomplish together. I love Margaret Mead’s quote: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.”
What do you wish to know more about?
Technology. I have great appreciation for new developments in technology and greatly support its use in the college. I envy young nieces and nephews who grew up with it and can use it so easily.
What do you do to relax?
I find being outdoors very relaxing. Good conversation with family and friends is a joy. I also enjoy reading, keeping current with world events and learning new insights regarding learning and human growth. I thoroughly enjoy a good movie or a good play. I thoroughly enjoyed the film ‘Water’about the plight of widows in India at the time of Gandhi. I recently saw ‘Translations,’a Brian Friel play about the English occupation of Ireland in the 1830s. I have a great love of history.
What are you reading now?
I am currently reading Al Gore’s, ‘An Inconvenient Truth.’I share his concern for the environment. I am also reading Mary Oliver’s latest book of poetry, ‘Thirst.’She writes beautifully of what she learns from nature.
What was your best day?
I try to make every day my best day.
LOAD-DATE: March 25, 2007
