But thanks to a recently created named research fund, Chandra, an economics Ph.D. student in the Graduate School Arts and Sciences (GSAS), will be able to continue the research for her dissertation, which focuses on the causes of education gaps in her native India.

Good Motivation

Speaking from her hometown near New Delhi, Chandra said the Donna Smolens Summer Research Fellowship in Economics, of which she is the second recipient, will help her manage her living expenses so she can continue to pursue her research without getting a paid job.

“I was checking my email almost every day since I came home, and it was really exciting to get some good news,” she said, noting that she has all the data she needs to work on what will be a chapter in her dissertation.

“It’s good motivation to get it done.”

Summer Funding Is Critical

Chandra’s is a story that is becoming more common, as GSAS has expanded its summer funding opportunities with the help of generous benefactors like Smolens. Melissa Labonte, Ph.D., interim dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, said that because most Ph.D.-level programs are only funded in nine-month intervals, summer fellowships are critical. GSAS currently has 24 endowed scholarships and fellowships that benefit students enrolled across 35 doctoral and master’s degree programs.

“Every single internship or opportunity a student might otherwise avail themselves this time of year is drying up very quickly because of the pandemic, so right now we’re in the midst of enhancing the support we provide students in the summer,” she said.

“We want to them be able to continue to make progress on their research, and we also want them to get mentoring support.”

‘It Made My Career’

Smolens said she funded the fellowship because the help she received as a Fordham student was instrumental in her success. After graduating from Fordham College at Rose Hill in 1979 and GSAS in 1981, she embarked on what would become a long and thriving career in finance. She retired in 2020 as a senior adviser with Insight Partners, a leading global private equity and venture capital firm.

Her undergraduate studies at Fordham were made possible with a partial scholarship and she attended graduate school with aid from William Hogan, S.J., the founder of the Fordham Industrial Economics Research Institute. Father Hogan hired her to be his research assistant, and when it came time to look for a job, career services arranged for her to interview with the bank Manufacturers Hanover Trust.

“I think I was the only Fordham person to get an offer, and it made my career, no question,” she said.

“How did I do that? The maturity and experience I got from working with Father Hogan those years allowed me to stand out against other students. Fordham really prepared me really well, and this is why I wanted to give back.”

Investigating Bitcoin

In addition to the Smolens fellowship that was first offered last year, this spring GSAS offered for the first time a Dominick Salvatore Summer Research Fellowship in Economics, named for Dominick Salvatore, Ph.D., currently a Distinguished Professor of Economics. It was funded by Sherif Assef, FCRH ’81, GSAS ’82, ’94, Luca Bonardi, GSAS ’99, and Selena Schneider, GSAS ’01.

While Chandra’s research is focused on analyzing a unique dataset from India on factors affecting education, such as family and school inputs, Janhavi Tripathi, the recipient of the Salvatore Fellowship, is training his sights on global cryptocurrency markets. Because currencies such as Bitcoin are still relatively new, there are still questions about whether market prices for the cost of individual units of the currencies reflect all publicly available relevant information and would be considered “efficient.”

In addition to measuring whether markets are efficient, Tripathi also researches how Blockchain technology can be used to make global remittances fast and more reliable. The movement of money from wealthy nations such as the United States to developing countries like India is expected to increase to $1.03 trillion by 2022, he said.

“Financial inclusion is one of the big gains from this. If Blockchain technology can be used to help global remittances, a lot of time that can be saved and a real gap can be bridged,” said Tripathi, who is also using his grant to cover living expenses.

Retired Professor Gives Back

Bridging gaps is something that Terrence Tilley, Ph.D., understands as well. Tilley, a professor emeritus and retired chair of Fordham’s Theology Department, has for the past year funded the Theology Graduate Student Development Fund. Rather than fund summer research, it funds travel for graduate students to either conduct research or present findings at academic conferences, such as the annual Leuven Encounters in Systematic Theology conference in Belgium that Fordham theology students have traveled to over the years.

Tilley has first-hand knowledge of the value that travel adds to research. In 1974, he traveled to England to do archival research and interviews as part of his doctoral dissertation, while his wife, the late Maureen Tilley, Ph.D., stayed at home with their daughter.

“Maureen and I were very poor grad students, but we scraped together as much money as we had, and I flew to England, where I found a manuscript that supposedly never existed, or had been lost,” he said.

The manuscript, an essay titled “On Revelation,” was written by Ian T. Ramsey, who was Bishop of Durham from 1966 to 1972. Tilley was able to cite it in his well-received dissertation and would go on to publish 10 books and nearly 100 academic papers over a career spanning four decades. But he noted that on one occasion while he was away, Maureen and their daughter had to settle for popcorn dusted with parmesan cheese for dinner until payday came the next day.

“I hadn’t thought of that adventure in terms of funding this graduate fellowship, but it may have been in my subconscious,” he said, laughing.

“Ramsey’s widow not only let me interview her for 10 hours but put me up overnight. I encountered such generosity on this trip, not only from her, but from other people. It was a remarkable experience, and to be in a position to be able to contribute to others being able to travel and doing research, it makes me feel good,” he said.

Labonte noted that all the donors who funded the fellowships did so before the COVID-19 outbreak.

“I don’t know if they even understood how incredibly impactful their gifts were going to be, especially this summer,” she said.

“It brings into stark relief the value of having engaged philanthropic leaders for your school in good times and bad. Certainly in times like these, students really need that support more than ever.”

This year, six Pioneering Women in Philanthropy will be honored for the personal and financial support they have given Fordham. Leaders in their fields, each one has invested in bettering their communities and the world in their own way. Here, they share their thoughts on the importance of mentorship, empathy, self-confidence, and more on the path to success—for them and for all women.

In cosmetics, which is where I particularly grew up, we had these wonderful [women]  role models. … If you’ve been given this road map and you see that others have gone before you and achieved, you never have in your mind the notion of failure. You have the notion that you can do it too, if you’re good enough and smart enough and make the right decisions.
—Rose Marie Bravo, CBE, TMC ’71

Bravo grew up in the Bronx, the daughter of an Italian-born barber and a seamstress from Sicily. A Bronx High School of Science graduate, she earned a bachelor’s degree in English cum laude at Fordham’s Thomas More College in 1971 and later held leadership positions in several major fashion businesses—including Macy’s and Saks Fifth Avenue. She took over Burberry in 1997 and is widely credited with transforming the classic brand and greatly expanding its markets during her nine-year tenure as CEO. In 2006, Queen Elizabeth II recognized Bravo’s achievements in promoting British fashion, naming her a Commander of the British Empire.

Bravo will deliver a keynote address, “From the Bronx to Buckingham Palace,” at this year’s Women’s Philanthropy Summit.

I entered the work world bolstered by an amazing education in liberal arts that made me feel strong and confident. Still, to rise up the corporate ladder meant more than just feeling confident. I soon learned that it meant persistence and resilience, not being afraid to ask for help, and so much more. I quickly realized the importance of communicating, listening, adaptability, and using words like “us” “we” and “with.” I learned that the best leaders hire strong people, set goals, don’t make excuses, are empathetic, and understand their own self-worth.
—Carolyn Dursi Cunniffe, Ph.D., UGE ’62, GSAS ’65, ’71

Dursi Cunniffe grew up in a family of eight, including two brothers who also went to Fordham. Fluent in French and Italian, she studied at the Sorbonne and the University of Perugia as well as Fordham, where she earned bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in French literature. She had a successful career as an executive in the cosmetics industry and, later, in executive recruiting. She spent 13 years at Revlon, rising to vice president at a time when that title was a rarity for women. She was a senior vice president and the key strategist in recruiting senior talent at Cablevision Systems Corporation before retiring in 2011. Her husband, Maurice “Mo” Cunniffe, FCRH ’54, is a fellow Fordham grad.

From my parents, I was always encouraged to be kind and fair—and to always let people know they are valued and loved. I think women have that capacity to inspire people by their passion, compassion, and empathy. Women stand tall for their beliefs and by nature have the ability to listen and compromise. We know how to bring people together and we are problem solvers.
—Barbara Dane, Ph.D., GSS ’67, ’85

Dane is a retired professor of clinical social work who has maintained a private clinical practice, working with dying and grieving persons and their families, since 1971. She earned both her M.S.W. and Ph.D. in gerontology from Fordham’s Graduate School of Social Service. She has taught at Fordham, Columbia University, and NYU, and has a substantial publishing record in social work. Dane was awarded a summer fellowship from the National Institutes of Health to conduct research on aging, and she was among the first recipients of a social work leadership grant from the Soros Foundation’s Project on Death in America. Her research on Thai women coping with HIV/AIDS and the role of meditation was presented at the Seventh International Interdisciplinary Congress on Women in Tromsø, Norway.

What I know is that we each have the opportunity to change a life every day, to share wisdom from experiences that can help one another, even if we don’t get to hear the triumphant follow-up story. What counts is what we give to lift others up around us, no matter how big or small our gift may be.
—Valerie Rainford, FCRH ’86

Rainford is head of advancing black leaders and diversity advancement strategies at JPMorgan Chase. She earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Fordham. Prior to joining JPMorgan Chase, she served at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for 21 years, where she rose to become the most senior black woman there and the first to rise to senior vice president. The author of an award-winning memoir, Until the Brighter Tomorrow: One Woman’s Courageous Climb from the Projects to the Podium (Eloree Press, 2014), she has dedicated much of her life to uplifting others by sharing her story of perseverance, as she did with local Bronx students on the Rose Hill campus in August.

Rainford will deliver a keynote address, “Paying It Forward: A Journey of Resilience and Giving Back,” at this year’s Women’s Philanthropy Summit.

Being a leader is about continuous learning, hands-on engagement, and the power of giving time and resources. Women do this exceptionally well. The challenge is to understand the exciting opportunities for change, and to still find time for self-care and reflection.
—Susan Conley Salice, FCRH ’82

Conley Salice is the president of the Salice Family Foundation. She also serves on the boards and chairs the development committees of Fordham University, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York, and Greenwich Hospital. Before shifting her focus to philanthropy, she worked in the business sector for two decades. She earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Fordham College at Rose Hill and a master’s degree in fundraising and philanthropy from New York University. She was one of the keynote speakers at the inaugural Women’s Philanthropy Summit in 2017.

Women who have succeeded in business need to discuss how we navigated the workplace. These experiences are especially relevant today as some business leaders and politicians are seeking to erode the progress that women have made in this world. Women continually face discrimination based on their gender and have an especially tough path to managerial roles in many organizations. A man is considered tough when he makes a strong point while a woman is considered to be too emotional when making a similar point in a similar tone of voice. These stereotypes need to be put to rest. We must lead through a combination of common sense, empathy, and determination.
—Donna Smolens, FCRH ’79, GSAS ’81

Smolens has been a senior advisor at Insight Partners, a leading global private equity and venture capital firm, since 2015. Prior to joining Insight, she worked at Portfolio Advisors LLC, was a voting member on the investment committees of numerous Portfolio Advisors funds, and was on the advisory boards of 13 private equity funds. She previously worked at Crossover Ventures, DLJ Securities Private Fund Group, General Motors Investment Management, and New York Life Insurance Company. She graduated from Fordham University with both a B.A. and an M.A. in economics.