Those words from keynote speaker Mary Ann Bartels, GABELLI ’85, GSAS ’92, summed up the sentiment at the fourth annual Fordham Women’s Summit: Philanthropy | Empowerment | Change, held on Oct. 21. The annual summit is an opportunity for women across Fordham to focus on philanthropy, leadership, personal growth, and professional development. This year, the virtual event drew more than 400 Fordham alumnae, parents, faculty, and friends who tuned in from locations around the globe. From the comfort of their own homes, they listened to expert financial advice and heard from four panels that explored topics like personal resilience, maintaining a career—and a household—amid a pandemic, and relinquishing the need for perfection.

A key theme of the summit was the importance of investing at a young age and learning how to create a plan for personal finances and philanthropy. In her keynote speech “Turning Financial Literacy into Philanthropy,” Bartels broke down complex topics in finance and offered advice for women that spanned generations. 

Bartels spent more than three decades on Wall Street, where she developed research that helped advisers and clients make better investment decisions. She worked for more than 20 years at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where she was known as a thought leader, and she’s appeared frequently on CNBC, Bloomberg, and Fox Business. 

She opened her speech with a few powerful statistics, including the percentage growth of women-owned businesses. 

“When we look at the employment that they are creating over the last five years, that’s actually up 8% compared to [the growth of]  all businesses of 2%. And when we look at women of color in the businesses that they are developing, their growth rate is at 43%,” Bartels said. “So not only will women have financial power—they’re creating new financial power.” 

Riding Out the Market Cycles

Bartels explained the big ideas behind finances to help her audience make better financial decisions. 

Markets have cycles that are generally controlled by fear and greed, she said. But more importantly, they tend to move in an upward trend. Long cycles tend to last 18 to 20 years, and the good news is that the most recent “uptrend” started in 2013, she said. She predicted that the U.S. will see at least one more decade of markets that reach new highs. But she also stressed that it’s critical to hold on to some investments even when the markets tank. 

“I can’t tell you the countless clients that came out during the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009 and never put money back in the markets again. Markets, I can guarantee you, will always go down. Do they always go down 50%? No. Will they go down 50% again? Yes, because that is the power of markets. That’s the power of fear and greed,” Bartels said. “But the diversified portfolio? If you hold it over time, you add to it over time, you collect dividends over time, that’s where the compounding and growth comes from … It’s called patience.” 

Perhaps most importantly, she urged the audience to start saving, investing, and growing their assets at an early age. 

“Build a solid financial foundation for yourself before you have any significant percentage of your assets given to someone else,” Bartels stressed. 

First Steps Into Philanthropy 

When you’re ready to start giving, ask your parents or family members about their financial advisers and find someone trustworthy who will listen to your needs, Bartels said.

“There are many advisers that will want to sit there and lecture you on what you should do, but they don’t listen to what you need or what’s important to you,” Bartels said. 

Bartels parceled out other pieces of philanthropic advice: Invest in things that are important to you, your community, and the world. Contribute, but don’t overextend. Consider seven key categories: family, finances, health, home, work, leisure, and giving. Don’t be afraid to ask charities how exactly your money will be spent. Finally, imagine your individual power as a single voice or instrument. 

“It’s beautiful to listen to one voice. But when you take a choir and listen to all the voices, it just magnifies—or if you take one instrument and you start blending in more instruments and creating a symphony, how much more powerful that becomes,” Bartels said. “Become that instrument to create that symphony that can have that impact [on]  what is important to you.” 

Honoring Pioneering Women

At the beginning of the summit, three accomplished women in the Fordham community were honored as “Pioneering Women in Philanthropy”: Mary Heyser, R.S.H.M., MC ’62 and Monica Kevin, O.S.U., UGE ’48, GSAS ’61, ’64, who were honored posthumously, and Regina Pitaro, FCRH ’76. 

The Impact of Scholarship Gifts

The event’s student scholar speaker, Taylor Bell, a sophomore studying international studies at Fordham College at Rose Hill and a member of the rowing team, spoke about how scholarship giving can help level the playing field. 

“Without scholarship support, there would be very few students of color at this institution,” said Bell, a recipient of the William Loschert and Paul Guenther endowed scholarships. “There’s such a gap between the marginalized and privileged in our community, and within that gap exists an opportunity to both educate those who have not known a life with such limitations and to expose possibilities to those who have been on the outside looking in for far too long.” 

Now in its fourth year and formerly known as the Women’s Philanthropy Summit, the Oct. 21 event offers alumnae, faculty, and friends a chance to discuss and celebrate their achievements and attend professional and personal development sessions.

Byrne, a clinical psychologist practicing in Eastchester, New York, will lead one of those sessions, along with Maria Nardone, GSAS ’79, ’82, and David Marcotte, S.J., Ph.D. During “Building Personal Resilience: Yes I Can! Yes We Can!” she said she’ll address the importance of taking responsibility for what we can control in life, and encourage attendees to “find meaning and satisfaction in seeking to do the right thing, even when it is difficult to do so.”

A Legacy of Giving Back

This is the first year that Byrne has been involved with the Women’s Summit, but she’s no stranger to volunteering her time in service of the University. An alumna of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS), where she earned a doctorate in psychology, Byrne has served on the GSAS Advisory Board and been a member of the Dean’s Leadership Committee (DLC) for about 15 years.

In a normal year, that would mean attending annual meetings on campus and several other in-person events throughout the year. But this year, those gatherings are being conducted virtually, and Byrne, who serves on the nominating committee for new members of the Dean’s Leadership Committee, said she still enjoys talking with “other graduates of GSAS who are enthusiastic about the school and joining DLC.”

She’s also involved with the new GSAS wellness initiative, which offers “various types of support to graduate students, including counseling, social support, and career guidance.” For now, much of that support, which is also targeted to combat stress related to COVID-19, is delivered virtually.

While the pandemic has certainly changed her responsibilities a bit, her desire to “pay it forward”—sometimes literally—has not. As someone whose three Fordham degrees were largely funded through scholarships and grants, Byrne said that she “always knew that once I was able to do so,” she would contribute to Fordham.

“My husband and I made the lead contribution for a scholarship in honor of Marvin Reznikoff, who mentored my Ph.D. and also walked me down the aisle when I got married,” she said.

Byrne and her husband established the scholarship in 2009 to support doctoral candidates in psychology and honor Reznikoff, who died in 2013. (She has also shared her love of Fordham with her son John Rogan, FCRH ’10, LAW ’14, a two-time Fordham grad who is currently a visiting clinical professor of law at the Fordham School of Law.)

Byrne may have known early on that she wanted to give back to Fordham, but she didn’t always know she wanted to be a psychologist. A few years after graduating from Thomas More College (Fordham’s liberal arts college for women from 1964 to 1974), she decided “that being a psychologist would be interesting and engaging and also a worthwhile career to pursue.” Now, at her private practice in Westchester County, Byrne works mostly with adult women who have depression or anxiety disorders.

“I was amazed at how quickly my patients and I adjusted to the phone and how well therapy has been going for most people,” she said. “During the shutdown, I think people had more time to focus on therapy issues between sessions so that they made better progress in therapy.”

During the Women’s Summit, Byrne and her fellow panelists will delve into that trend, teaching attendees how to develop and maintain resilience in these uncertain times.

“We have to accept the circumstances of life that we cannot change and find meaning in how we choose to respond to those circumstances,” she said. “To [paraphrase]Victor Frankl: It is not about what we expect from life, but what life expects from us.”

Fordham Five (Plus One)

What are you most passionate about?
Motherhood is the thing I have been most passionate about. I have two young-adult sons and nurturing and watching them grow from birth onward is the best thing that has ever happened to me.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
The best piece of advice I have been given came from my best friend in high school. She suggested that it would be a good idea to get a Jesuit education. I went to Fordham, and that decision has had a tremendous positive impact on my life.

What’s your favorite place in New York City? In the world?
My favorite place in New York City is on the Staten Island Ferry with the view of the Statue of Liberty, the skyline, and the harbor. My favorite place in the world is Robert Moses State Park on the beach.

Name a book that has had a lasting influence on you.
My favorite book is Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. Frankl wrote this book after surviving three years in Nazi concentration camps. His message is that while we cannot always control the circumstances of our life, we can control how we respond to those circumstances. It is up to us to figure out how to act responsibly and find meaning in life—even when that process is demanding and challenging and involves suffering.

Who is the Fordham grad or professor you admire most?
My mentor Marvin Reznikoff is the Fordham professor I admire the most. He was a distinguished, talented academic who gave wonderful guidance and made the dissertation process as easy as possible. More importantly, he was an honorable, very kind, and attentive person who was a great model for what a psychologist should be.

Women are more likely to feel compounded economic impacts, adverse health effects due to the reallocation of health care resources and priorities, and an increase in unpaid “care work,” such as taking care of children or elderly parents, the report concluded.

That’s one of the reasons why this year’s Fordham Women’s Summit: Philanthropy | Empowerment | Change will feature panels and speakers addressing financial literacy, COVID-19 work trends, personal resilience, and modern home economics.

“The Fordham Women’s Summit is a unique opportunity for Fordham alumnae, faculty, and friends to discuss and celebrate their achievements as leaders, activists, and philanthropists, as well as attend professional and personal development sessions,” the event description reads.

The fourth annual summit, which will be held virtually for the first time, will take place on Wednesday, Oct. 21, beginning at 10 a.m. EDT.

Mary Ann Bartels, GABELLI ’85, GSAS ’92, who most recently served as the head of the Research Investment Committee and exchange-traded fund strategy at Bank of America Securities, will be the keynote speaker.

Bartels said through her talk she will aim to “encourage and empower women to achieve financial freedom,” and to help them understand their impact and force in the economy, and how they can learn to use that power to support causes and philanthropic interests that matter most to them.

A series of four panel discussions will offer attendees concrete strategies to deal with the current economic and social stresses:

Building Personal Resilience: Yes I Can! Yes We Can!
Career Outlook: COVID-19 Trends & Perspectives
Perfection Intervention: Finding Strength in Letting Go
“Who’s the Boss?”: Perspectives on Modern Home Economics

The summit will also honor three Pioneering Women in Philanthropy at Fordham—Regina Pitaro, FCRH ’76, managing director of GAMCO Investors Inc.; the late Mary Heyser, R.S.H.M., MC ’62, former Marymount College alumnae chaplain; and the late Monica Kevin, O.S.U., UGE ’48, GSAS ’61, ’64, a longtime biology professor who was the first woman to lead the Faculty Senate at Fordham.

This year’s virtual summit is free to attend, but summit organizers encourage attendees to consider supporting Fordham students by joining a Women’s Giving Circle or making a one-time gift to another area of the University. For more information and to register, visit fordham.edu/womenssummit.

That was the central message of the third annual Women’s Philanthropy Summit on Oct. 23, held at Fordham Law School. 

“This year, we developed a theme that represents today’s overall message and program: transforming today, safeguarding tomorrow. From our families to our communities, from our workplaces to our world, women’s philanthropy creates positive change and preserves the things we love,” said Martha K. Hirst, senior vice president, CFO, and treasurer of Fordham, in her welcome address.

In attendance were nearly 250 alumnae, students, faculty, and friends of Fordham. Throughout the day, they listened to keynote speeches and panels led by women at the top of their fields, from presidents and CEOs to a mother-daughter doctor duo. 

Attendees shared stories about their lives and the things they learned, including the importance of giving credit where it’s due. They networked and mingled over lunch. They decompressed while watching a digital sunset through headsets provided by the Glimpse Group, a virtual and augmented reality platform. But above all, the women celebrated the ways philanthropy has transformed people’s lives.

“Right now, it’s not only a fact that 50% of our alumnae are women,” said Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, addressing guests in the Costantino Room. “More than 50% of our students are women. So Fordham is now a majority women’s institution, and therefore, we are especially grateful and honored that you are here.” 

Rose Marie Bravo: From the Bronx to Buckingham Palace

The first keynote speaker was Rose Marie Bravo, a fashion industry icon whose past positions include CEO of Burberry and president of Saks Fifth Avenue. In recognition of her contributions to British fashion, Bravo was named a Commander of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in June 2006. 

At the summit, she spoke about how she helped revive the iconic Burberry brand, known for its raincoats and distinct tartan plaid, and met fashion giants like Anna Wintour and Karl Lagerfeld. She gave advice on how to be a good boss (communicate your vision clearly and be kind to everyone) and emphasized the importance of escaping your comfort zone to expand your career. But the focus of her speech was on what inspired her to give back to her community.

“It all began in the Bronx,” Bravo said. “It began with my parents … this idea of giving back.”

Her father was an Italian-born barber who spent his Sunday mornings in a hospital, tending to patients who needed a shave and a haircut. Her mother—who is still alive at 97—was a seamstress from Sicily who offered her services to all, including those who couldn’t afford the cost, she said. Raised in the Bronx, Bravo graduated from the Bronx High School of Science and earned a bachelor’s degree in English cum laude at Fordham’s Thomas More College in 1971. 

Decades later, she gave back to the schools that had shaped her early life. At Fordham, she established the Biagio and Anna Lapila Endowed Scholarship Fund in honor of her parents and the Rose Marie Bravo Endowed Scholarship for students studying theology or a related field. 

In a fireside chat with Justine Franklin, senior director of development for major gifts, the conversation took a more personal turn. 

“I was diagnosed three years ago with a very rare ovarian cancer … I had surgeries, I had chemo, I went through the whole thing,” Bravo said. “But it taught me a lot.” 

“How do you touch people, in a way that’s special? And being able to say, thank you, God … [So that] when our time comes, we’re going to be ready to go on that journey,” she said, in a speech that ended with a standing ovation.  

Valerie Rainford: An Uphill Climb to Success

At every juncture of Valerie Rainford’s life, Fordham has played a central role.

“I feel like at every turn, Fordham has been there pouring into me, which is why I’m committed to pouring back in,” said Rainford, FCRH ’86, head of advancing black leaders and diversity advancement strategies at JPMorgan Chase and Fordham trustee.

When Rainford was a sophomore, her mother committed suicide and she dropped out of school. However, a few staff members in the Graduate School of Business, where Rainford was doing work-study at the time, refused to let her go. Rainford returned after six months.

“It doesn’t really matter how many times I walk up that hill from the bus stop. I get tears in my eyes and goosebumps that here’s this kid who dropped out of Fordham and who almost didn’t come back, and now I sit on the board of [trustees]—it’s pretty crazy,” she said in her keynote speech. 

Rainford said Fordham gave her confidence to go on after she lost her mother and helped her get her first job at the Federal Reserve.

“I got my first job through career planning and services,” she said. “I got my second job through a Fordham alum, who I met at an event outside of Fordham. There was a time I was thinking about leaving JPMorgan, by the way—it was a Fordham alum who convinced me to stay.”

Rainford emphasized that even those who don’t have the ability to make large donations can still give their time.

“For a kid like me, who grew up like me with nothing, 10 dollars matters,” she said. “For anybody to sit here and say they don’t have enough to give … everybody has something to give.”

Jazmin Nazario, FCLC ’20, the student scholarship speaker, proved Rainford’s point. 

Nazario, a mathematics major who works four jobs, received the Clare Boothe Luce Scholarship through Fordham during her sophomore year. It helped her work toward her goal: becoming a mathematics teacher. 

“It is important that we keep future Fordham women educated and supported through scholarships so other young women like myself can have similar accomplishments and confidence in their future careers,” she said.  

Fighting Imposter Syndrome

Many women experience “imposter syndrome”: the struggle to embrace their success because they feel like they don’t belong.

“You have made some terrific accomplishments … but you persistently think that you’re not bright and you’ve fooled others,” explained Toby Tetenbaum, Ph.D., a professor of educational leadership, administration, and policy at Fordham’s Graduate School of Education, in an afternoon workshop. “It leaves you with this crippling sense of self-doubt.”

Much of the syndrome’s roots lie in how women are raised and taught to conform to “societal ideals,” Tetenbaum said. Women are taught to be humble and modest while attributing their successes to luck instead of hard work and accomplishments.

“Women have a really hard time self-promoting,” she said. “No one wants to be seen as a braggart.” 

She encouraged women to fight the syndrome by being clear about their goals, asking for feedback to help better themselves, and identifying their strengths.

“You have to brand yourself,” Tetenbaum said. “You have to be known for something.” 

Celebrate What Makes You Unique

In the workshop “Guide Your Career (Not the Other Way Around),” guests learned how to bring their unique talents to the table. 

“Our brand is who we are and what we bring that might be unique and different, and what’s important about us,” said one of the presenters, Megan Taylor, senior director of employee experience at Adobe Inc. “It’s our key differentiator.”

To begin building your brand, it’s important to do five things, Taylor said: understand yourself, offer a distinct value, identify how you’ll get that information out there, network and market yourself, and re-evaluate your brand as you change and grow. 

Your personal network is also important in guiding your career, she said. A good way to keep track of all your connections is to physically map them out, said Taylor. Annette McLaughlin, director of Fordham’s office of career services, agreed. 

“You’re at the center of the circle. And then put all the circles and activities that you’re involved in—your volunteer [service], your work, your friends, your exercise, your gym—and look at all the people that are in those networks,” McLaughlin said. 

The Struggle to Embrace Our True Selves

Six women recounted their professional and personal obstacles in the afternoon panel “A View From the Top: Reflections on Success and Coaching the Next Generation of Women Leaders.” 

Elizabeth Zeigler, GSE ’00, president and CEO of Graham-Pelton Consulting, started working at the firm as a 32-year-old part-time employee and a new mom. The male CEO, at the time, was wary about assigning her on a project because of her gender. 

She confronted him. More than a decade after their conversation, she became president and CEO of their company. (And she mended fences with the old CEO, who became a mentor.)

Panelists also discussed the struggle to stay authentic to their true selves while countering negative stereotypes.

“If we are compassionate or supportive, then we’re weak … For black women, if something is not going right and I’m about to tell somebody, ‘You need to do this,’ then you have a chip on your shoulder,” said Valerie White, FCRH ’83, LAW ’96, an executive vice president at the Empire State Development Corporation. 

White said she used to be the only black woman managing director at her old Wall Street firm.

“I had braids … It was a big issue because I traveled all over the country. If I were in New York or New Jersey, it might be OK. When I was in Oklahoma or Arizona, someplace, there was always this look—‘I’m not sure if she’s going to be able to do a credit analysis,’” White said. 

“Unfortunately, that’s kind of how we have to gauge the environment that we’re in. But we’re women—we know how to do that, right?” she said, to affirmative “mmm-hmms” across the room. 

The Influence of Jesuit Education

In the afternoon Values-Based Leadership session, Joan Cavanagh, Ph.D., director of campus ministry for spiritual and pastoral ministries at Fordham, moderated a panel of three women of faith whose bold decisions led them to leadership roles in service of others. Each of them had a life-changing moment to look back on.

Debbie Santalesa, GABELLI ’91, global lead for emergency preparedness and planning for CARE International, was in a car accident early in her accounting career that almost took her life.

“That was the beginning of where I became who I was supposed to be,” she said. She soon began a career in humanitarian work that brought her to the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Santalesa said she didn’t realize it until later, but the theology and philosophy classes she took at Fordham impressed upon her the importance of giving back to the community.

“When you feel that something needs to be changed,” she said, “that’s God calling you.”

‘A Life of Meaning’ 

The previous two summits have raised nearly $540,000 for Fordham. Many of the funds were achieved through Fordham’s giving circles—groups of individuals who donate money to a pooled fund. Last year, there were 16 circles; this year, there are three new ones: career services, higher education opportunity program giving, and living the mission. 

This year, the summit also honored six women who have supported Fordham students. Receiving the Pioneering Women in Philanthropy Award were Barbara Dane, Ph.D., GSS ’67, ’85, professor emeritus of clinical social work in palliative and end-of-life care at New York University; Carolyn Dursi Cunniffe, Ph.D., UGE ’62, GSAS ’65, ’71, former cosmetics executive and retired senior vice president of Cablevision Systems Corporation; Susan Conley Salice, FCRH ’82, a philanthropist who served as a vice president at Diversified Investment Advisors; Donna Smolens, FCRH ’79, GSAS ’81, senior advisor at Insight Partners; and the two keynote speakers.

They were honored for their service, which Father McShane said is something essential for a life well spent: 

“A life of meaning must always include service of others—service and causes that are greater than ourselves.”

Next year’s Women’s Philanthropy Summit will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2020.

Complete bios of all of this year’s speakers, panelists, and honorees can be found here. 

—Kelly Kultys and Nicole LaRosa contributed reporting.

“What my aunt kept teaching me was that I could do whatever I wanted to,” says Bartels, who began her own career on Wall Street in the 1980s. “She empowered me not to be intimidated just because I was a woman.”

Bartels grew up on City Island in the Bronx and attended community college before transferring to Fordham, where she deepened her newfound passion for analyzing the economy as “a puzzle with a lot of different moving parts.” She graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the Gabelli School of Business in 1985 and later earned a master’s degree in economics at Fordham’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Today, Bartels is a leading investment strategist with a knack for explaining financial concepts to the general public. As head of the Research Investment Committee and of exchange traded fund strategy at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, she has often shared her expertise on outlets like CNBC. And she continues to come back to Fordham, she says, because “they gave me a chance.”

As a member of the President’s Council, Bartels has been a guest lecturer in classes and for the Smart Women Securities club, and has served as a judge at a Shark Tank-inspired event hosted by the Gabelli School. On October 23, she’ll be attending Fordham’s third annual Women’s Philanthropy Summit, where she’ll participate in a panel discussion titled “A View from the Top: Reflections on Success and Coaching the Next Generation of Women Leaders.” It’s an important event to her, she says, because “it’s women supporting women.”

“It’s nice that Fordham is creating an environment where women can come together and share their success and do good for whatever their cause is,” she says.

“You know, women have come a long way,” Bartels says, “yet we have a lot more to do. Many women used to be hostage to a husband and their views on how to use their wealth. Now women have their own finances and their own voice. But we still represent very small ratios in most lines of business.”

That’s why continuing to engage in mentorship is also important to Bartels. “For women and men alike, how do we grow without mentorship? It’s a way of giving back,” she says.

That desire to give back is something she sees in her daughter, Lorraine, a first-year student at Fordham College at Rose Hill. Bartels says that her daughter was most attracted to Fordham’s ethos of engaging with surrounding communities. She started her Fordham experience with Urban Plunge, an optional pre-orientation program run by the University’s Center for Community Engaged Learning where students participate in community-enriching programs throughout the Bronx and Manhattan.

“She is absolutely thriving,” Bartels says of Lorraine. “And I get to see Fordham in a new way—as a parent.”

What are you most passionate about?
At the end of the day, what’s most important to me are my two children. My main responsibility is to be a mother; it has to be.

My second passion, at least professionally, is that I love to assist people with their finances. I love sitting down and helping a client understand what they have and how we can get them to where they want to go.

Another passion I have, and something I’m really learning as I get older, is how to stay healthy and have a health program for longevity, starting with diet. In your 20s, you feel like you’re invincible; you snap back like a rubber band. In your 30s you still think you’re invincible, but you start to learn that the rubber band doesn’t snap back quite as fast. By the time you’re 40, the rubber band does not always snap back. And by the time you’re 50, you really need to have everything together.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
My Aunt Bernadette taught me the value of networking, and how a lot of life is about networking and meeting people. But I didn’t appreciate it until it worked for me. When I look at my past, through Wall Street, a lot of it was connected by people I met through the years and who I stayed in touch with, who became my friends within the industry both inside and outside my company. As you go through your career, you need a mentor, right? But you also need what’s called sponsorship, people that you work with who say “you are adding value to our business.” So you never know who that might be.

On a personal level, and we’ve all heard this from many different avenues, another piece of advice that has been important has been “learn how to accept yourself, take care of yourself, and love yourself.” As you get older and wiser, you really start understanding why that was said to you so often. You’re pulled in so many different directions, especially women, and many of us struggle with that. How many women have said, “Yeah, I just don’t do anything for myself.” And then they end up unhappy. You have to love yourself enough to take care of yourself. Or you can’t help anybody, you can’t be at the top of your game. And even if you get there, you can’t enjoy it.

What’s your favorite place in New York City? In the world?
My favorite place in the world is Alaska, the pristine and absolute beauty of the nature there. Especially in the winter. I get there and it’s my happy place. I’ve been there many times, fished there, seen whales and porpoises, been out on glaciers. The people are wonderful and grounded. It’s all about loving and being with nature.

My favorite place in New York is harder. I think it would be Battery Park. I worked down there for many years. My office was overlooking the water and I took the ferry twice a day. And I just loved being there on the river.

Name a book that has had a lasting influence on you.
So this is probably going to be very odd. Early in my career, my aunt told me to take this course on technical analysis. And the book we had to get for it was Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets by the teacher, John Murphy. When I read that book in that course, I was like, “This is it for me.” It changed my life; it gave me confidence that I could actually do it. He wrote it in a way that I could understand. For me, that was a light bulb moment.

Who is the Fordham grad or professor you admire most?
I’m going to say economics professor Dominick Salvatore. Not only is the man brilliant, and not only does he write great textbooks, he teaches in a way that makes economics exciting. It completely lights up, and he has this magnetism that comes through in his teaching. He’s great at taking concepts and explaining them so any student can understand. And that’s an important part of what I have to do in my work now, take the most complex situation or topics and be able to explain them to any audience.

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.

The tips her guests share are practical, often based on their own life experiences. For example, Bethenny Frankel, the reality TV star and founder of the Skinnygirl brand, emphasized the importance of being financially independent and always prepared for the unexpected.

“She went through a very public and difficult divorce, but because she knew what she owned, learned about investing, and kept working, she came through that experience quite well,” Dagher says.

Real estate mogul and Shark Tank investor Barbara Corcoran told listeners to buy only those investments they fully understand. With many complex products out there, it’s important for women to be clear about where they are putting their money. Another guest, comedian Sandra Bernhard, spoke about the importance of living beneath your means and saving.

“She’s been able to do well financially despite the ups and downs that often come with a career in entertainment,” Dagher says. “She never felt the need to keep up with the Joneses or what’s often the very ‘spendy’ Hollywood/NYC celebrity lifestyle.”

A Holistic View of Wealth

Dagher says the idea for the podcast came to her at a time when more and more women are seeking guidance on how to manage their money.

“There’s an estimated $33 trillion wealth transfer happening in America, and women stand to control a large portion of those assets,” she explains. “Women are inheriting, earning more, and many are generating wealth from their own businesses. They are understanding that they need to take greater ownership of their money and careers.” They generally live longer than their husbands and often assume more control over their finances after a divorce. What’s more, women view wealth differently than men, seeing it more holistically—related to their career, family, and health—and as a way to achieve specific goals, like putting a child through college.

Though most of Dagher’s guests focus on earning and investing, some share stories of personal challenges and triumphs. Bonnie St. John, for example, urged listeners to keep pushing forward when facing life’s difficult obstacles. She spoke from experience: She won silver and bronze medals in the 1984 Winter Paralympics for ski racing despite the fact that her leg was amputated when she was a child.

Meditation expert and author Sharon Salzberg suggested that women take a deeper look at what wealth and happiness really mean. “She led us through a meditation to figure out what we are really striving for,” Dagher says. “She also gave tips on how to come to greater peace with our current financial situations.”

The Alumni Network

Dagher says she was honored to host fellow Fordham alumnae Mary Higgins Clark, FCLC ’79, and Liz Ann Sonders, GABELLI ’90, on the podcast, calling them two of the most “down-to-earth women” she’s interviewed. “Mary is 90 and still writing page-turners, and Liz Ann travels extensively to teach people how to be smart investors. The fact that both still have such a strong work ethic inspires me.”

Although she always wanted to be a writer, a career in journalism wasn’t what Dagher envisioned when she started out at Fordham. Instead, she pursued business, inspired by her late father, William T. Dagher LAW ’54, and grandfather who both had their own businesses, and she also earned an M.B.A. at Fordham.

As an undergraduate, Dagher contributed to The Fordham Ram and later freelanced for Ms. Magazine and Newsday while holding down 9-to-5 jobs. But after taking a career class at her church, she decided to follow her heart and transition from business to writing full time. She landed a position as a reporting assistant at The Wall Street Journal after networking with alumnus Scott Stearns, GABELLI ’02, who was an editor there.

Dagher, a Long Island native, credits her alma mater not only for connecting her with great mentors and lifelong friends but also for meeting her husband. She and Patrick Mormino met at the wedding of mutual friends Deanna Rytell, FCRH ’00, and Bryan Connelly, FCRH ’11, and married five years ago.

An Advocate for Women

In her spare time, Dagher enjoys traveling—some favorite destinations include Iceland, Haiti, Israel, and Turkey—and often her travels are service trips organized by churches, such as a trip to Tanzania, where she volunteered with AIDS orphans. Service is important to Dagher, who also volunteers with LifeWay Network, a Queens-based organization that provides safe houses for survivors of sex trafficking. She became interested in the issue after seeing a documentary on it.

“Human trafficking is a several billion-dollar global business, the second fastest-growing criminal enterprise after drugs,” she says. “There are brothels full of trafficking victims right in midtown and in private residences in Brooklyn. I was appalled and felt I needed to do something.” Dagher speaks to various groups to raise awareness about the crisis, and also does special projects, such as visiting New York City hotels, which are hot spots for trafficking, to educate staff members about warning signs and how they can help.

In addition to hosting the podcast, Dagher is a wealth management columnist at wsj.com and frequently appears on Fox Business, Fox News Channel, and nationally syndicated radio to speak about personal finance. In October, she was a panelist a Fordham’s second annual Women’s Philanthropy Summit.

She says there’s a personal connection to the work she does related to women and wealth. Her mother, Monica Dagher, faced a life-changing experience when she was widowed at a very young age.

“She wasn’t financially savvy when it happened and she had to learn at the worst possible time,” Dagher says. “To her credit, she learned about managing investments and made sure I learned, too.”

What secret to success does Dagher wish to share with other women?

“Follow your dreams sooner than later,” she says. “I’ve found that you have a better chance of success if you follow your passions.”

—Claire Curry

The all-day summit drew about 250 alumnae, students, faculty, and friends to Fordham Law School for a series of keynote speeches, forums, pep talks, networking breaks, and even a five-minute yoga session. But more than that, it was a chance for them to gather in the same room and discuss something they all had in common: how much Fordham meant to them.

The Power of Philanthropy

One of the first speakers was Gabelli School junior Arnell Stewart, who explained how alumnae donations directly impacted her life.

When Stewart’s older brother died suddenly last year, the family faced financial hardship. But with the help of two women—Stewart’s CSTEP counselor Tiffany House and Christina Seix Dow, TMC ’72, who established the Fordham scholarship Stewart received—she knew she could continue to attend college.

“This was the first good thing to happen to my family since the tragedy,” Stewart said, fighting back tears.

“Because of this blessing and Ms. Seix Dow’s generosity, I can stand here before you today as a member of the Fordham community, but also as one of the strong leading ladies here in this room today.”

How Do You Begin?

Many of the day’s speakers acknowledged that for women, pride in one’s wealth and success—and the power they bring—has not always come naturally.

“Some women feel uncomfortable with the idea of wealth. For men, for generations, it’s been culturally and socially acceptable—generally speaking—to be okay with that idea of, ‘I’m wealthy. I’m rich,’” said Veronica Dagher, GABELLI ’00, ’05, a senior wealth management reporter at The Wall Street Journal and a panelist at the summit. “For women though, in general, that’s been frowned upon.”

So for many, thinking about philanthropy has not been top of mind. But guests gained some insight on how to take their first steps toward giving from the day’s first keynote speaker, Harriet Edelman, GABELLI ’80, Vice Chair of Emigrant Bank—the largest privately held, family-owned-and-run community bank in the nation. Her advice: first pinpoint what you’re passionate about, consider how you want to donate—alone versus with “like-minded souls,” establish a budget, learn how to say no, and research possible organizations through sources like Charity Navigator.

And while she acknowledged that differences between men and women may be part of the day’s discussions, it wasn’t a critical point of focus for her.

“What matters,” Edelman said, “is why you give—why one gives; and, based on the fact that you are here, it means we have a common desire to be intentional and responsible, and share a common interest in the success and sustainability of Fordham.”

Kirsten N. Swinth, Ph.D., associate professor of history and American studies at Fordham, spoke about societal challenges for women in her keynote, “Women Organizing for Change: Feminism’s Forgotten Fight for Work and Family.”

“We are one of two nations in the entire world that does not have [mandatory] paid maternity leave,” Swinth. “Our companion in that status is Papua New Guinea.”

Swinth said that women can take action by joining or creating groups like giving circles, building workplace networks and unions, getting more involved with the government, protesting when necessary, and, perhaps most difficult of all, prioritizing the “collective restructuring of society.”

At the keynote panel session Women’s Giving: How Women Accumulate and Distribute Wealth, panelists discussed how women are achieving parity in the United States.

“Right now, in the United States, 39 percent of the top wealth holders are women. Forty percent of U.S. households have a female breadwinner. And 45 percent of the millionaires in the United States are women,” said the panel’s moderator, Elizabeth S. Zeigler, GSE ’00, CEO of Graham-Pelton Consulting.

And at Fordham, thousands of women possess potential financial power—perhaps more than we think.

“More than half of Fordham’s living alumni are women,” said Martha K. Hirst, Fordham’s senior vice president, CFO, and treasurer. “Which means together with the women among the University’s friends, faculty, administrators, staff, and other supporters, our collective impact potential on the University we love is boundless.”

Having It All: A Career, Love, Family, and Happiness

One of the day’s most popular panels was Work/Life Balance at Every Stage of Your Life, a forum where women traded stories about how they balance their careers with everything else: motherhood, romance, and “me time.” They acknowledged that women often feel that others have a better handle on the balancing act than they do.

“We live in a day and age where you can constantly be bombarded with the ‘perfect’ [on social media] and somebody else who appears to be doing it better than you’re doing it. You have some sort of imposter syndrome. And why is that? You’re doing so well. You’ve achieved so much so early in your career. Why would you think that that’s not success?” said Beth Savino, GABELLI ’03, a partner in asset management practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Marianne Cooper, FCRH ’77, a managing director at IBM who is a breast cancer survivor and the mother of a child with special needs, noted that priorities shift with age. And, she said, it’s important to take stock of what you will leave behind.

“What do you want to get out of your life?” asked Cooper. “When you go on, hopefully, up to heaven, how do you want to be remembered by your family, friends, and colleagues?”

Finding Meaning in Giving

Alumnae held a candid conversation about the spirituality behind giving at Keeping the Faith: Engaging the Next Generation in Conversations of Spirituality and Service, a panel moderated by Christine Firer Hinze, professor of Christian ethics and director of the Curran Center for American Catholic Studies at Fordham. 

“Beyond the huge terrible things that are going on in the world today, there are day-to-day tragedies and heartbreaks. You can feel overwhelmed, like nothing you can do makes a difference,” said Anne Conroy, FCRH ’79, director of development and communications at the Center for Family Representation. “By being involved—whether it’s a faith community, a social justice opportunity, whether it’s giving to nonprofits or volunteering—my experience has been doing those things makes me feel less alone; it gives me a sense of hope and optimism. And as a Christian, I feel more connected to God.”

The day’s closing keynote speaker, Anne L. Williams-Isom, FCLC ’86, CEO of Harlem Children’s Zone, talked about meaningful opportunities that giving can provide. She urged all the women in the room to consider how they could help others achieve the American dream. Williams-Isom, the daughter of a single mother from Trinidad and Tobago, acknowledged that it’s difficult—but not impossible.

“I know you guys don’t want to hear about ‘stretching beyond your reach’ because everybody feels like they’re pulled to their limit,” said Williams-Isom, who serves on the University’s President’s Council and works to end generational poverty in Harlem by providing high-quality education and social services to children and families. “I’m here to tell you that you haven’t even begun to touch all the potential that is inside of you.”

Honoring the Past, Looking Toward the Future

The summit honored a group of women who have supported Fordham students in various ways. Receiving the Pioneering Woman in Philanthropy Award were Mary Higgins Clark, FCLC ’79; Rosemary Santana Cooney; Eugenie F. Doyle, M.D., MC ’43; Christine Driessen, GABELLI ’77; Brenda L. Gill, LAW ’95; Alice Lehman Murphy; Frances K. Reid; Margaret Mary (Peggy) Smyth, FCRH ’85; and Valerie Torres, FCRH ’83, GRE ’01, ’08.

Doyle, a retired professor of pediatrics and director of the division of pediatric cardiology at the New York University Medical Center, was a pioneering practitioner of using open-heart surgery to save babies with a rare disorder: “blue baby syndrome.” She and her late husband, Joseph, established two scholarships that benefit pre-health students at Fordham.

“You have quite literally changed the world, one baby and one student at a time,” Justine Franklin, senior director of development at Fordham, said to Doyle. “And have shown all of us how working for the common good is truly life-giving.”

The second summit also recognized Fordham’s six new giving circles—groups of individuals who donate money to a pooled fund and collectively decide how the money should be spent—that were established at last year’s summit. In just a year, the circles have raised more than $400,000 in Fordham scholarship funds.

“Joining a giving circle is a great first step in the start of your charitable giving journey,” said Susan Conley Salice, FCRH ’82, a University trustee and co-chair of Fordham’s Faith & Hope | The Campaign for Financial Aid. “By raising money as part of a fundraising group, your giving impact is that much more powerful and allows for you to connect with others who share your unique passion for helping Fordham educate more deserving students.”

Last year’s inaugural Women’s Philanthropy Summit raised almost half a million dollars. Donations for this year’s summit are just starting to come in. But perhaps more important than dollar amounts is the question of how to educate the next generation of philanthropists, said one alumna.

“How are we ensuring that the next generation of leaders are being cultivated with a love of community, a heart for justice, and a heart for servant leadership and love of neighbor?” asked Laura Risimini, FCLC ’10, GSAS ’13, foundation manager of the Sister Fund. “And what are we doing to make sure that the next generation—which is going to be taking the reins of leadership soon in the next couple of decades—is prepared?

“Our future literally depends on it.”

Complete bios of all speakers, panelists, and honorees can be found here.

And next month, it’s happening again.

Fordham’s second annual Women’s Philanthropy Summit will be held on Oct. 24. It’s an all-day affair at the Lincoln Center campus, starting at 7:30 a.m. Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, will welcome guests at 8:15 a.m.; he’ll be followed by a scholarship student and the first keynote speaker. There will be three keynotes over the course of the day: Harriet Edelman, GABELLI ’80, vice chair of Emigrant Savings Bank; Kirsten Swinth, Ph.D., an associate history professor at Fordham and author of the forthcoming Feminism’s Forgotten Fight: The Unfinished Struggle for Work and Family; and Anne Williams-Isom, FCLC ’86, CEO of the Harlem Children’s Zone and a staunch advocate for quality education in communities of color. Drawing on their own success, they will be sharing personal stories and advice on how women can use their time, talent, and money to make a difference.

In between keynotes, attendees can attend panel discussions that deal with women in the workplace and in philanthropy. They’ll hear success stories from accomplished women, figure out how to balance work and life from their early twenties to retirement, become comfortable with speaking freely about finances, understand how to make philanthropy meaningful, and learn how to be leaders.

“Part of what’s important for women and women’s development,” said Edelman, “is leadership, not only in terms of your professional life, but your full life.”

And for young women, Edelman said, self-assuredness is key.

“I’m so impressed with this generation,” she said. “Sometimes they tell me the situation, and I just ask what they think they should do next, and they’ve got it. They just need to hear themselves speak it.”

At its core, the summit revolves around three concepts: control, confidence, and courage. It’s about women taking ownership of their lives, their money, and their charity; building leadership skills; and questioning the old way of doing things.

“Women want to trust, to form a relationship, to have a conversation, to really understand the story and the purpose and the outcome of what their giving is for,” said Mary Lou Quinlan, GABELLI ’82, a keynote speaker at last year’s summit. “It’s about being part of a community and understanding how we, uniquely and collaboratively, can have a real effect.”  

The summit ends around 5:30 p.m. with a networking reception. Visit the event webpage to learn more and register.

But shortly after graduating and accepting an offer from a master’s degree program in music, she realized she was taking the wrong path.

“It sounds like an apocryphal story,” Edelman admits, “but I woke up one morning and said, ‘I’m doing the wrong thing.’ So I took the GMAT, applied to Fordham, and started going to business school at night that September.”

She was attracted to Fordham’s Gabelli School of Business because of the University’s culture, which the 1980 grad describes as “scrappy, diverse, with no pretensions. And you can still feel that now.”

Two years after enrolling in Fordham’s MBA program, where she concentrated in marketing and operations research, she got a job in marketing at Avon. Over the course of 25 years there, she worked her way up through several marketing and product development positions and later led the sales organization and global supply chain—until she ended up in IT. “I had not written a piece of code since I had been in the seventh grade,” she laughs, “but they felt I understood the Global IT area well enough to run it while we recruited a CIO.” She fell in love with the job and ended up as senior vice president and chief information officer for eight years.

She left the company in 2008 to deal with family matters and, for flexibility, decided to focus on expanding her positions as a board member for two public companies. But she was soon recruited as vice chairman at Emigrant Bank, which Fordham founder Archbishop John Hughes helped establish. The bank’s values and ethos have a lot in common with those of her graduate alma mater, Edelman says, noting that both were founded to support Irish immigrants. And, she adds, she loves working for an organization whose “footprint is primarily in the community.”

“It almost seems like, no matter who I meet, if I tell them where I work it’s like, ‘Oh, I had my first mortgage with you,’” she says. “It’s terrific to see the values and legacy of the bank in action.”

Edelman especially enjoys using the diverse experiences and knowledge she’s gained to support young women as they begin their own careers, something she does often with her own daughter, Julia, now a first-year law student at Fordham, and her friends.

“I’m close with several of her friends,” Edelman explains, “and I’ve met with several of them often, either helping them write resumes or coaching them on how to handle work situations that sometimes get political. Early in my career I had terrific mentors, people who explained the dynamics that weren’t apparent to a young person starting out in the workforce. And that was tremendously beneficial to me. So I have a great time with her friends, soaking in the stories, and helping them if I can.”

Though sometimes, she says, they already know exactly what to do. “I’m so impressed with this generation. Sometimes they tell me the situation, and I just ask what they think they should do next, and they’ve got it. They just need to hear themselves speak it.”

She hopes to touch on some of these themes during her keynote speech at next month’s second annual Women’s Philanthropy Summit at Fordham, which will be held on October 24 on the Lincoln Center campus.

“Part of what’s important for women and women’s development,” Edelman says, “is leadership, not only in terms of your professional life but your full life.”

This generation of young women, she says, “is focusing on supporting each woman’s personal choice, on self-reliance and independence, which I think is positive. So a focus on personal principles is important.

“We’re in a world right now with a lot of mixed signals. So individuals who have a constancy to them, a set of beliefs, an inner strength—they are going to prevail and lead.”

Fordham Five

What are you most passionate about?
I am most passionate about my family and our extended family of friends. I’m very fortunate that both my parents are still alive, and I’m very close with my sister and brother. And then there’s my daughter, Julia, and her friends and their parents. We are loving, close, together constantly, and help each other navigate life.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
It came from a friend in the form of a quote from Shakespeare’s Hamlet: “This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.” Because the reality is that, in business and in life, there often can be multiple “rights.” But if you operate in a way that’s consistent with your values and with what you really believe, you can’t look back with regret. Everything may not work out, but you have your integrity.

What’s your favorite place in New York City? In the world?
In New York, it’s Lincoln Center, especially the Metropolitan Opera House. I think it’s an extraordinarily beautiful place, with an energy and a dynamism all its own.

In the world, I have two. First, my home in rural Connecticut. It’s very quiet. It’s very slow. It’s very nature-filled. And I love that. But also Florence, Italy. I inherited that one from my dad. We traveled there together, and I’ve been there since. I’ve brought Julia and her friend and her friend’s mom there too. There’s this intersection, particularly from the Renaissance period, of the highest order in architecture and art and music—all in one very walkable city.

Name a book that has had a lasting influence on you.
I am a student of human behavior. I have to name three. Daniel Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence for me filled in the blanks about certain characteristics of high-performing leaders that translate into more success than others. Because I don’t know how you can be a great leader if you do not have self-awareness, if you don’t listen, if you don’t have empathy. It’s the glue that holds together why certain people make certain situations—situations that by all rights should never have worked—work. Next is John Krakauer’s Into Thin Air, about tragedy on Mount Everest. It’s an incredible story of a plan that goes awry, of team dynamics, of individualism and—to some degree—selfishness. And then Endurance, by Alfred Lansing, about Ernest Shackleton’s ill-fated trip to Antarctica 100 years ago—an incredible story of leadership, resilience, integrity, and persistence.

Who is the Fordham grad or professor you admire most?
Alan Alda. He is a man of diverse talents and interests, humble and honest, and forever young. He is still trying to change the world for the better, including through his podcast and his book, If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face? I saw an interview he did recently where he said that the question he most likes to ask people, either as an icebreaker or just as a way of getting some noise out of the system, is “what are you passionate about?” Because people are absolutely willing to talk about that, and all of a sudden you learn something about them, and all of a sudden maybe you have a connection you didn’t know about.

While the meaning of the “Fearless Girl” statue standing confidently in front of Wall Street’s “Charging Bull” might be open to interpretation, Mary Barneby, CEO of the Girl Scouts of Connecticut, sees it as the perfect metaphor for the growing clout of women creating change.

In her presentation at Fordham’s inaugural Women’s Philanthropy Summit on Nov. 6 at the Lincoln Center campus, Barneby, GABELLI ’80, said she wanted to debunk the myth that women can’t be ‘fearless’— just like the statue. This courageous mindset is particularly important in philanthropy, where women are beginning to exercise their financial power, she said.

“…Women comprise an important social and economic resource, in not only investing in financial assets like stocks and bonds, but also through the impact that their economic power has on the well-being of our world,” she said.

Barneby was one of three keynote speakers at the half-day summit, which raised over $300,000. Also featured were author, actor, entrepreneur, and award-winning marketer Mary Lou Quinlan, GABELLI ’82, and philanthropist Susan Conley Salice, FCRH ’82, of Magis Philanthropy and the Salice Family Foundation. Sponsored by Ernst & Young, Macari Vineyards, L’Oréal, and Ann Taylor, the summit was created to help alumnae and other University supporters discover unique ways that their charitable giving can help Fordham change the world “one student at a time.” 

“That is the only way Fordham can continue to live out its mission to offer a special, world-class education to students who are talented and come from families of very modest means,” said Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham. Father McShane said that initiatives like the Faith & Hope | The Campaign for Financial Aid are an investment—not only in the future, but for eternity. “I want you to invest in eternity because what you do with your philanthropy changes lives [and]changes the course of history.”

Getting Personal

Quinlan, who has advised major brands such as Procter&Gamble, Pfizer, and General Motors, believes that philanthropy is most meaningful when it is personal.

“I believe that as women, we’d live more sound and successful lives if we’d only honor that personal voice that is uniquely ours and embrace it and live it out loud,” she said.

From endowing a scholarship for gifted young women to creating a lecture series focused on her family’s appreciation for the arts, Quinlan said her decision to give is rooted not only in love, but also in her desire to pay it forward, express gratitude, show loyalty, and advocate for people, institutions, and causes that she believes in.

Quinlan used the passing of her mother, “her career cheerleader,” and the discovery of her mother’s “God box,” a collection of prayers for family, friends, and people she’d never met, as further inspiration to give. She penned The New York Times bestseller The God Box, developed a one-woman play of the same title, and later raised over $500,000 from the project for hospice, cancer care, and education causes.

“Whatever gifts we’ve been given, that’s what we can share,” she said, announcing that she would be pledging $10,000 over the next four years to the first Gabelli Women’s Philanthropy Endowment Circle for aspiring business women.

Women of Impact

Conley Salice, a member of Fordham’s Board of Trustees and co-chair of Faith & Hope | The Campaign for Financial Aid, shared that earning a scholarship during her years at Fordham not only changed her life, but later enabled her to do the same for other students.

She said a giving circle— a fundraising group where individuals raise money collectively and decide where the money will go— is a great first step for women who are interested in charitable giving but don’t know where to start.

“This form of collective giving serves to teach philanthropy,” said Conley Salice, who spent 18 years in the business sector. “It inspires a new generation of givers and creates a tangible, direct return on your investment— almost immediately.”

Conley Salice, who also pledged $10,000 to the University over the next four years, praised Fordham women who continue to rise to the challenge when it comes to giving back. She described alumnae as “humanitarians,” “activists,” and “do-gooders.”

“Fordham women have the ability to think critically, act ethically, and serve responsibly,” she said. “We are global citizens. We are restless to make a positive change, and we are in fact women of impact.”

Jolie Ann Calella, CFP, FCLC ’91; Christina Seix Dow, TMC ’72; Emily L. Smith, Gabelli ’77; Mary Jane F. McCartney, TMC ’69; Tracy O’Neill, FCRH ’87; Judith Law Clayton Zoller; and the late Mary Ann Quaranta, D.S.W., who served as dean of Fordham’s Graduate School of Social Service for 25 years, were honored as the first class of pioneering women in philanthropy at the end of the summit, for supporting Fordham students with their leadership and generosity.