.png)
Sister Rosemary Keegan, Ph.D is being honored posthumously. She graduated from Community High School in 1947 and entered the novitiate the following October. She earned her BA in Education with a minor in Philosophy from Webster College and took her finals vows as a Sister of Loretto in 1953. She earned her Master's Degree from DePaul University and her PhD. from the University of Northern Colorado.
Sister taught for 15 years in Catholic elementary and high schools, but in 1965 her professional life changed significantly. She was released from teaching in parochial schools in order to design and direct the original program which became Head Start in Denver. She was awarded a 5 million dollar grant to do this.
On November 17, 1981, tragedy struck. Sister arrived at her Head Start office and was confronted by an intruder attempting to steal food vouchers. She was badly beaten left for dead. Fortunately, a coworker arrived and Sister was rushed to the hospital. At the time she was in the midst of studying for her PhD; two days after the accident she asked that her take home test be mailed to her professor at UNC. Her recovery took three years, but she eventually returned to Head Start as a consultant. Even more amazing than her recovery is her attitude toward her assailant whom she forgave and prayed for daily. When she met Pole John Paul II, she asked him to bless a rosary for Willie Loggins, the man who attacked her.
Not one to shy away from a challenge, Sister took on Denver Head Start Agency officials accused of defrauding the program. At her insistence, the federal government investigated and found them guilty of mismanaging agency funds.
Sister passed away at the Loretto Motherhouse in Kentucky in 2006, but not before she wrote her autobiography, Like Nun Other, Sister is being honored for her scholarship, but also for the way she lived her life every day, true to the teachings of Jesus, to love one another.
Click here for more of Sister Rosemary's story.
Patricia (Trish) Koehler Senneff graduated from Newman in 1977. In addition to being an outstanding student, she was a member of the first girls’ volleyball and track teams. She was National Honor Society President, an Illinois State Scholar and was named Most Valuable Player and All Conference in volleyball.
In 1981 she graduated with honors from Aurora University with a double major in Political Science and Writing and Language. While at Aurora, she was Editor of the Aurora Borealis, the student newspaper. She also earned a variety of journalism and writing awards, was the third-place winner of the Art Award and, had original poetry included in the AU student publication.
Trish then enrolled in law school at Drake University; she graduated with her Juris Doctor Degree in 1984. At Drake she was the winner of two American Bar Association national writing awards, Editor-in-Chief of the Gavel, the law school newspaper, Editor of the law school’s annual report, Dean’s Service Award winner, President’s Award winner, Who’s Who Among American Law Students, honorary columnist for the Des Moines Register legal bulletin and member of the Student-Faculty Relations Committee.
Her law career began in 1985 as Assistant State’s Attorney. She was in private practice from 1997-2012 when she was elected Whiteside County State’s Attorney, the first female to hold that position. In 2016, the Illinois Supreme Court unanimously appointed her to the Whiteside County Circuit Court, again the first female to hold that position. In 2019, she was appointed Whiteside County Presiding Circuit Court Judge, the first female presiding judge in the 14th Circuit, the position she currently holds. She was appointed by the Chief Judge of the 14th Circuit to serve as Co-Chair of the Illinois Judges Association and Conference of Chief Judges 2022 School Supplies Initiative. She was also the first female president of the Whiteside County Bar Association.
As part of her appointment to the Circuit Court, she had to interview with the Illinois Supreme Court. Prior to the interview she had been hit by a car, helicoptered to a trauma unit and undergone surgery. The day of her interview she arrived with her arm in a sling with bruising from head to toe. Needless to say, she was apprehensive about what the court would think of her ability to do the job. Fortunately for Trish, the justice who interviewed her had also been in a serious accident and confined to a wheelchair. He told her he had no concerns that her physical injuries would affect her job performance and she was approved for the 14th Circuit position.
Trish’s professional achievements include developing the Whiteside County Victim Impact Panel, the Juvenile Justice Council and the Whiteside County Drug Court. She also instituted a number of measures to secure the solvency of the Whiteside County child advocacy center, April House.
In her spare time….Trish is involved in a myriad of volunteer activities including, Special Olympics, Rotary Club, CGH Medical Center Hearing Officer, Whiteside County Honor Flight member and three time guardian, Crimestoppers Board member, Northwest Illinois Criminal Justice Committee Board member, YMCA board member, YWCA Women of Achievement Luncheon Committee, Taste of Fiesta, Harvest Hammer, Paint the Town and Pumpkin Dash volunteer, Past President of Sacred Hear Pastoral Council and many others.
In 2015, Trish received the Women of Achievement Crete Dillon Bowman Award for community service. Self Help Enterprises named her Volunteer of the Year in 2019. Trish is a strong supporter of Newman; she has sponsored the Trish Senneff college scholarship for the past ten years. Not one to remain idle during the pandemic, she learned to crochet lap blankets by watching YouTube; she has since donated 35 to local nursing, assisted living and special living facilities.
Trish is the daughter of Jack and Carol Koehler and was a caregiver as they grew older and transitioned to assisted living centers. She visited them frequently and attended to their needs until they passed away in 2018 and 2019.
Kim Koehler Freitag nominated her sister with these words, “she is an outstanding example of a person who has served her community and distinguished herself with a number of female firsts. She has served on boards that benefit the Catholic and larger communities and strives to improve every organization she serves.”
Trish retired in December 2024 but remains active at St. Mary’s Parish and in the community. She finished crocheting her 70th. blanket and works to fund materials for the Newman Prayer Garden. She marked 15 years as a volunteer at the Self Help Pancake Breakfast and is still a member of the Whiteside County Honor Flight Committee. She was a team member on the Governance Domain for Newman’s Strategic Plan and was recently named co-chair at St. Mary’s for the Diocesan Capital Campaign.
Trish has broken barriers her entire life; physical in recovering from the car accident and social as a member of Newman’s first girls’ sports teams and later in her career as an attorney and judge. She is an outstanding example of excellence in many areas: athletics and academics as well as journalism, the arts and the law. She is a trailblazer and a role model for the students at Newman, female and male alike.
Daniel McCue graduated from Newman in 1994. He earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame in 2000 and earned his Master’s Degree in Secondary Education, also from Notre Dame. In 2020 he completed his Ed.D in Educational Leadership at Spaulding University. His dissertation was titled, “Relationship between Course Placement Criteria and Mathematics Achievement in an All-Boys Catholic School” which was published as the lead article in the Journal of Catholic Education (June 2022). Additionally, he published a review of Mark S. Massa’s book Catholics and American Culture: Fulton Sheen, Dorothy Day and the Notre Dame Football Team in the Journal of Catholic Education.
After Daniel graduated from college, he entered the ACE (Alliance for Catholic Education) program through Notre Dame. He taught high school Math in Mobile, Alabama for six years at a salary of $10,000 per year. After two years, at the age of 24, he was named Math Department Chair. By the last year at that school, he had increased the number of students taking Calculus from 15 to 50. He then decided to make education his career and moved to Louisville and Saint Xavier High School.
Daniel has taught most math courses including AP Calculus, Calculus and Physics. He started an Engineering course at Saint Xavier which has turned into two courses with multiple sections. He was in charge of the school’s Innovation Lab, an avid proponent of STEM education and Saint Xavier’s STREAM coordinator. In this position, he encouraged teachers to take an interdisciplinary approach to Math and Science education. In 2016, he joined Saint Xavier students and two other faculty members on a service trip to Belize. Together with the family’s father, they built a house in one week. When the pandemic began in April 2020, Daniel and his students joined with the University of Louisville to produce parts for face shields using the school’s 3D printers. After the University project wound down, he started making entire face shields by himself using the school’s laser. He donated these shields to local organizations and any that were left over were used by Saint Xavier teachers when school reopened.
Daniel was a Notre Dame Scholar, awarded to the top 10% of incoming freshmen and was honored by the Notre Dame Alumni Association for “singular contribution to the education of youth.” At Saint Xavier, he was named Assistant (football) Coach of the Year, awarded the Joseph F. Maupin Award given to a coach who also demonstrates excellence in the classroom and the Xaverian Brothers faculty Excellence Award. In 2019 Daniel was named one of two endowed Faculty Fellows, which is a lifetime designation for distinguishing himself as a master teacher and mentor to students as well as an academic leader among peers.
Daniel has been teaching for over 20 years, but a lesson he learned during his fourth year at Saint Xavier still resonates with him. Yearbook Day was a big deal at Saint X so he passed his around to his PreCalc students. Two of them wrote this half page message: National Holiday March 13, 2002 12:12pm, Mr. McCue admits making a mistake. Daniel laughed, but then realized that every interaction with his students teaches them something; the things said or unsaid, the things done or not done. Daniel said, “that this seemingly innocent comment helped me appreciate the fact that every word that comes out of my mouth might impact a student.” That note serves as a constant reminder to Daniel that, as a teacher, his words and actions matter.
He currently serves as Assistant Principal at Saint Xavier; he is responsible for scheduling, database management and academics. During the Spring Semester 2022, he was an adjunct professor at Spaulding University where he taught two 400 level statistics courses for education majors.
Daniel is the son of Joseph and Teresa Baeza McCue, also Newman graduates. He was nominated by his sister, Tara McCue Propheter, Class of 1995. In her narrative, she stated that Daniel “is an example of someone who has remained dedicated to his faith and continues to give back to the Catholic community.” She also said that when she read the article about making the PPE face shields, she was “in awe of my brother and the amount of time and energy he gave helping with a project that would benefit so many people.” She concluded “Daniel has never been one to brag or boast about his own accomplishments so I value this opportunity to do it for him.”
Kari Anne Morris Carr was the Valedictorian of the Class of 1996. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and Spanish from Northwestern University in 2000 after spending her junior year studying in Spain. In 2003, she earned her Master of Science in Education, also from Northwestern. Kari completed her PhD. at Indiana University in 2014 with a Doctor of Philosophy in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies. She partnered with the Archdiocese of Indianapolis in her research of newly formed charter schools at two of their closed Catholic schools. Her dissertation title was “When Catholic Schools Close and Become Charter Schools: A case study of organizational narratives and legitimacy.”
Kari began her teaching career as part of the Inner-City Teaching Corps at Good Shepard Elementary School in Chicago’s Little Village where she was a Math and general classroom teacher. Corps members lived in the neighborhoods where they taught and earned $5.00 per day; their salaries went back to Chicago’s low-income Catholic schools for scholarships or direct aid. Since Kari speaks Spanish fluently, she incorporated Spanish and English into all the subjects she taught, including Math. After moving to Indianapolis, she taught Math and Logic at Oaks Academy. She was also the Assessment Administrator coordinating admissions assessments for Pre-K to 8th grade while consulting with faculty, other administrators and parents. She spent a year as the Curriculum Coordinator and co-designed the Kindergarten, First and Second grades Early Reading and Language Arts program and directed the development, revision and professional development of curriculum in Math, Language Arts, History, Science, Nature Study and Art and Music Appreciation. Kari was also the Director of Academic Development directing curriculum, professional development and data assessment strategy. She was a teaching assistant to Dr. Craig Willey at Indiana University and to Dr. Samantha Paredes Scriber at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). She was a Graduate Research Assistant and Project Lead at the Center for Urban and Multicultural Education at Indiana University.
In 2013 Kari became adjunct professor in the School of Education, Master’s Degree program at IUPUI. More recently she was the Curriculum Specialist and Instructional Coach at Saint Joan of Arc School until that position was eliminated due to budget cuts and COVID.
Kari has authored or coauthored journal articles, book chapters, manuscripts, and technical reports dealing with education in general and Catholic and charter schools more specifically. She has made research presentations based on the nine papers she either wrote or co-wrote.
Kari received the Favorite Professor Award given by student-athletes at IUPUI three times, the Foster-Polite Graduate Student Award and was a National Graduate School, Research Seminar in Educational Administration and Policy nominee.
Kari is involved in many volunteer activities. She was a member of the Enrollment Committee for Notre Dame ACE Academies-Indianapolis, the Grant Proposal Committee for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, Managing Editor to Dr. Samantha Paredes Scribner for a special issue of the Journal of Cases in Educational Leadership, Saint Joan of Arc School volunteer consultant, Birthline Crisis Pregnancy Outreach helpline volunteer and volunteer artist at Sunrise Assisted Living.
After many years in Indianapolis, Kari and her family recently moved to Fort Wayne. She is an Adjunct Lecturer and University Supervisor for the Transition to Teaching Program at Purdue University in Fort Wayne. She also volunteers in the Fort Wayne Diocese as a member of the K-8 Curriculum Committee for Catholic Schools.
Kari’s parents, Judy and John Morris nominated her for the Hall of Fame. Judy wrote that Kari’s first teaching job at Good Shepard “pointed her to gain more knowledge in the area of adolescent learning” which was the focus of her Master’s Degree. She also emphasized that Kari’s faith has directed her life: here at Newman through Peer Ministry and at Northwestern through numerous service trips and teaching religion to CPS students. At their first parish, Saint Monica, Kari and her husband, Tony, started and then coordinated the babysitting ministry and were Catechists in the Sunday School Program.
Kari’s husband and four of their five children were part of her journey to her PhD. When she started, they were a family of three with daughter, Kellyn; school was postponed for two years with Kellyn and Paige. Things were moving along with classes and research and the arrival of Elliot. Kari remembers that day she went to her advisor’s office to tell her Drew was on the way. Fortunately, Dr. Scribner convinced Kari that her background was also part of the process and her personal life could be a part of the narrative that shaped and gave meaning to her research. Kari was studying the changeover from Catholic to Charter schools and many teachers who were mothers found themselves in the same spot as Kari; there was more to do and a lot less time to do it. Kari took her qualifying exams at 38 weeks pregnant and graduated when their children were 9, 7, 4, and 3. Kari’s friends think she works best under pressure of a deadline and Maryella missed all the excitement.
In 2024 Kari was named the Founding Head of School at The Chesterton Academy of Saint Scholastica in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Recently she was a faculty member for the Catholic Educator Formation and Credential (CEFC) program. This program provides a uniquely Catholic approach to teacher licensure. She co-led the inaugural co-hort from Oklahoma allowing teachers in both the state’s dioceses to earn CEFC credentials. Kari has taught workshops integrating the wisdom of Aristotle, Euclid, Saint Augustine, and Saint Benedict.
Kari, Anthony and their children are members and volunteers at Saint Vincent DePaul Parish