Alumni & Friends

News Stories

ACCU Chief to Speak on Charter Day

On Wednesday, March 14, the College will celebrate its 42nd anniversary with the fourth annual Dr. Dorothy A. P. Leunissen Lecture, delivered by Dr. Richard Yanikoski, president and CEO of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities. The presentation, which is free and open to the public, will occur in the Fred P. Meagher Theatre at 2:30 p.m.

Prior to joining the ACCU, Yanikoski served as president of Saint Xavier University for nine years. Previously he was the founding director of the Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Studies at DePaul University, and served as associate vice president for Academic Affairs. He has lectured in doctoral programs at Loyola University, Chicago, and at Benedictine University, and is a keynote speaker at Boston College's Institute for Administrators in Catholic Higher Education.

Yanikoski has written, taught, and lectured on Catholic higher education, academic freedom, higher educational finance, leadership in the non-profit sector, and the history of higher education. He has been a reviewer for respected educational journals, including the American Educational Research Journal and the History of Higher Education Annual.

At a reception prior to the lecture, the College will acknowledge the sponsorship of the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia and recognize the contributions of its Education Division deans and faculty through the years. In January 2007, the Division launched a doctoral degree program in Educational Leadership. The Sisters of St. Francis founded Neumann College in 1965. The total enrollment then was 115 students. Today there are 2,969 students, including more than 750 who live on campus.

The lecture is named after Dr. Dorothy A. Piatnek-Leunissen, Ph.D., M.D., who died in 2003 after a long illness. She held degrees from Seton Hill College, Mount Holyoke College, the University of Pittsburgh, and the Medical College of Pennsylvania. She worked at Bryn Mawr Hospital and in private practice with her husband, R.L. Abraham Leunissen, M.D. at Riddle Memorial Hospital. While attending St. Anastasia Church in Newtown Square she came to know the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia and, through them, Neumann College.
 

2/26/07