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Meet Our Tutors

James Barton

James BartonJames Barton is an attorney who retired from Manhattan Legal Services after thirty-five years of practice in New York, specializing in Federal Court litigation in disability cases.  

He received his undergraduate degree from Georgetown University, and his J.D. from Fordham University School of Law. Jim returned to graduate school here at Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology (ICSST), and in 2013 he was awarded a Master of Arts in Theology. His area of concentration was Ecclesiastical History, and he was fortunate to do a significant part of his degree work in Rome.  

Jim continues to practice law in New Jersey in his semi-retirement and serves in various volunteer capacities in the educational field, including as Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Academy of Brooklyn. He has volunteered here at ICSST as an ESL tutor since his graduation in 2013.  He also volunteers as an ESL tutor for the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, and helps facilitate communications in English between the Congregation administrative headquarters here in the United States and the Sisters in the missions in Brazil, Germany, Angola, Namibia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. 

Cecelia Anne Slater

Cecilia Slater

Cecelia is a former pediatrician, wife and mother, and active volunteer in her parish and for Pro-Life causes. She obtained her undergraduate degree from Princeton University with a major in chemistry and minor in French; received a Marshall Scholarship to conduct biochemical research at University of Cambridge, England; and subsequently received an M.D. from Harvard.  After residency training at Boston Children’s Hospital, she practiced pediatrics in New York City and was on the clinical faculty at Cornell.

Following the birth of her three children she elected to care for them full-time and spent many happy years both on the sidelines and at the rink as a volleyball and ice hockey mom. She is an active parishioner at St. Rose of Lima (Short Hills, New Jersey) where she leads the Women of Bethany book club, focusing on the study of female saints and biblical heroines. She conducts outreach to women in crisis pregnancies as a member of Sidewalk Advocates for Life and has worked with both NJ Right to Life and LIFENET of NJ in their lobbying and educational efforts.

She began tutoring ESL at ICSST in 2017 and, as a result, is blessed to know several amazing, dedicated priests and similarly gifted seminarians who she hopes and trusts will become holy priests one day.

Jim Ferruggiaro 

jim FerruggiaroJim Ferruggiaro retired seven years ago after working for 41 years in New Jersey as a social worker and administrator in the field of Developmental Disabilities. He has a B.A. in Philosophy from St. Mary’s Seminary and University in Baltimore, Maryland. He also has a Licentiate in Sacred Theology from the Gregorian University in Rome and a Master’s degree in Social Work from Rutgers University. Jim and his wife, Wendy, live in Maplewood, New Jersey, and are the parents of adult triplets – Alana, David and Sarah.  

Almost immediately after retirement Jim applied to tutor English at ICSST. English grammar and public speaking have been interests of his for many years. He is passionate about the importance of liturgy and the need for the Scriptures to be proclaimed so that the congregation can hear and understand them. In working with his students, he emphasizes the vital importance of the homily as a means of sharing their faith with the congregation. Jim believes that by assisting seminarians in learning English, he is helping them to become better priests.   

In addition to tutoring at ICSST, Jim is Chair of the South Orange/Maplewood Interfaith Holocaust Committee which has sponsored a Holocaust Remembrance Service in these two New Jersey towns for over 40 years. During Jim’s retirement he has also raised four puppies for The Seeing Eye of Morristown, New Jersey.

Clare Cunningham Mustafa  

Clare MustafaClare began tutoring in the ICSST ESL program in the fall of 2018. Previously, she had completed an undergraduate degree in Psychology and Speech Pathology at Douglass College, Rutgers University, and a Master’s degree in Audiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
 
After working as an Audiologist at SUNY Upstate Medical Center, Hackensack Medical Center, Siemens Hearing Instruments and a local ENT physician’s office, Clare decided to be a stay-at-home-mom for her two daughters. During those years, she taught her younger daughter’s CCD classes at St. Rose of Lima (Short Hills, New Jersey). While teaching CCD, from third through ninth grades, Clare discovered that she loved teaching. 

For the next several years, she went to Kean University to earn teaching certifications for elementary school and then ESL. After graduating, she worked in the Summit Public School System as a permanent maternity leave substitute for the ESL department. While there, Clare had the opportunity to teach ESL in high school, elementary, and then kindergarten classes. 

In 2018, she started tutoring at ICSST while preparing to move to the Atlanta, GA area. In 2019, Clare and her husband (and two cats) moved to Georgia. During the pandemic lockdown, she was delighted when program coordinator Chandler Cohen invited her to teach her former seminary student again, this time virtually, through Zoom. Clare considers it a blessing to be able to continue to teach ESL at ICSST.        

Dorothy Iantosca  

Dorothy Iantoscax320As a child, Dorothy (Dottie) loved gathering younger neighborhood children to read to them which inspired her to later become a teacher. She graduated from Seton Hall University with a B.S. in Elementary Education and an M.A. in Special Education. She taught first grade for 25 years in the Glen Ridge, New Jersey public school system. 

Now in her retirement, Dottie enjoys traveling, especially to Italy, where she has studied Italian and continues to benefit from immersing herself in its language and surrounding herself in its rich culture. This experience has given her an insight into the difficulties that international seminarians face on their journey to English proficiency and makes her a more effective tutor in helping them meet their goals. This is Dottie’s seventh year volunteering in the ESL program here at ICSST, generously assisting several students per semester.  

Dottie is also vice-president for vocations with the USA Council of Serra International, an organization which fosters and promotes vocations to the priesthood of the Catholic Church around the world. 

Deborah Lerner Duane 

First recruited to tutor at ICSST in 2008 by former program director Sister Phyllis Kapuscinski, Deborah worked closely with seminarians, ordained priests and women religious over a nine-year period, committed to facilitating their transition to life in the United States by assisting them in gaining fluency in English. Deborah earned a Master's degree in Jewish-Christian Studies at Seton Hall University, writing her thesis, "The Language of Acceptance: A Jewish Response to Christian Zionism," in 2012.

Prior to her retirement, she enjoyed a 40-year career in public relations, both on the corporate level and with Lerner Duane Communication, LLC, a public relations consulting firm she founded in 1990.  Deborah is a Chair Emerita of the Sister Rose Thering Fund for Education in Jewish-Christian Studies, where she has served as a trustee since 2008; the Fund honored her with its Servant Leader Award in 2019. 

John Coakley, Ph.D.

Dr. John CoakleyJohn Coakley has served as a former associate professor of English at Salve Regina University, an instructor in Effective Writing at the U.S. Naval War College (Newport, Rhode Island) and Chair of English Language and Literature at Bermuda College in Paget, Bermuda. 

After returning to the United States in 1994, he continued to pursue research interests in Literature of Incarceration, cultural history, religious anthropology and trends in American education, focusing on issues of student success and retention, teacher training and ESL instruction.  He has held adjunct faculty appointments at Fairleigh Dickinson, Drew, Kean and Seton Hall Universities and Stevens Institute of Technology. Until his retirement, he worked full-time as the Director of Composition and teacher in the Humanities Department at New Jersey Institute of Technology.  

His volunteer activity has included tutoring in English as a Second Language at ICSST. Pursuing ongoing academic interests in language acquisition, music, poetry, and anthropology of religion, he also continues editorial work. This has included publications of historical religious archives and a book of Naga folktales. Beginning in 2013, he made several visits to the state of Nagaland in India where he served as a guest lecturer in college-level writing, elocution and art at St. Joseph's College. 

He holds Master of Arts degrees from both Hunter College and Brown University and a Ph.D. from Brown.

Renata (Renee) Kessler

Renee KesslerRenata Renee Kessler has recently earned her Doctor of Letters degree from the Casperson School of Graduate Studies at Drew University, School of Arts and Letters. Her dissertation, “The Flowers and Bones of Georgia O’Keeffe,” is in the collection of the Research Center of the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico and is also published online by ProQuest.

She received her Master of Arts degree in Judeo-Christian Studies in 2009 at Seton Hall University; a Master of Arts in Urban Education in 2005 and a Master of Arts in Special Education in 1989, both from Jersey City State University; and a Master of Arts in Art Education from NYU in 1985. 

Upon Renee’s retirement from a long career as a public school ESL teacher, she began tutoring at ICSST during the summer of 2014. Renata also currently teaches Conversational English at County College of Morris in New Jersey and has taught Conversation for Intermediate ESL students at Seton Hall University.  

She has edited and written chapters for The Wartime Diary of Edmund Kessler, her father's eye-witness account of the Holocaust. Renata has given presentations about her book at The Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, 2008; Seton Hall University, 2010; The Galicia Jewish Museum in Krakow, 2010; the 42nd and 44th Annual Scholars' Conference on the Holocaust and Churches, 2012 and 2014 respectively; and at University College, London, 2013. 

Deacon Richard O’Hara 

a photo of Deacon Dick O'HaraWhile still teaching in the public school system, Dick O’Hara was ordained a deacon for the Archdiocese of Newark in 2002. For the first few years, he worked primarily in parish ministry. He then decided he needed to do something for the Archdiocese but was uncertain of which path to choose.   

After earning his Master’s degree in English and American Literature from John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio, he realized that what was needed in schools was knowledge of how to teach reading and how to teach students with learning problems. He then enrolled in a Master’s degree program in reading at Montclair State University. In addition to teaching English and Latin at Montgomery Township High School, Dick was also a specialist/teacher there, training students with learning difficulties. To enhance his knowledge in this field, he volunteered for Literacy Volunteers of America, tutoring adults with reading deficiencies or learning problems.

After retiring from public education, Deacon Dick taught English and Latin at Seton Hall Preparatory School in West Orange, New Jersey, while earning another degree, this time in Scripture from Seton Hall University. At that point, he realized that he could use his educational training for the Archdiocese in addition to his parish ministry.

Dick finds it rewarding to work with the seminarians at ICSST, who show appreciation for his time spent teaching them. He also serves as a volunteer at St. Barnabas Medical Center doing both pastoral care and in surgical reception.

Mary Jane Tannen  

a photo of Mary TannenMary Jane has been an ESL volunteer at ICSST since she retired in 2012 from a 36-year elementary school teaching career. During those years, she taught fourth through eighth grades but primarily fifth grade language arts and science.

She did not realize that she missed teaching until she started volunteering to help seminarians develop their English speaking and writing skills. She finds it extremely satisfying to help these wonderful men! They are so grateful for her efforts and are such gentlemen.  

Mary Jane feels truly blessed to have been given this opportunity to serve as an ESL volunteer. Mary Jane feels strongly that retired teachers should seriously consider enriching their lives by donating their time and hard-earned expertise in the field of education to become ESL volunteers at ICSST.

Mercedes Gutiérrez Gutiérrez

Mercedes GutierrezMercedes was born and raised in Mexico City. She has a bachelor’s degree in Actuarial Science and worked for 15 years in market-risk evaluation areas for financial institutions.

She moved to Illinois in 2013 with her husband and three children, where she realized that a great number of Spanish-speaking families enroll their children in Catholic schools, and there was a immense need for Catholic instruction in Spanish since most of these parents do not speak English fluently.

In 2018, Mercedes moved to New Jersey and has been volunteering at ICSST, tutoring Spanish for the past two years. She has received much more than she has given from this experience. She has found her new mission: not being completely fluent in English herself, she hopes that eventually some of the seminarians she is teaching, and others benefiting from this program, will be able to hear confessions in Spanish and give advice that promotes spiritual growth, something that she considers very important and really misses.

Deborah Abbattista

Deborah AbbattistaDeborah (Debbie) Abbattista is a Seton Hall University alumna who graduated from its Stillman School of Business with an accounting degree. During her four years, she swam competitively for the Seton Hall Pirates Women’s Varsity Swim Team. After graduating, she worked for a Wall Street brokerage firm. 

Debbie is married to Gerard Abbattista, a fellow Seton Hall alumnus. Together they have raised three children and have been married for 34 years. Once blessed with a family, Debbie took a break from the business world to stay home and raise her children. She became very involved with her parish, St. Helen’s Church in Westfield, New Jersey, and taught CCD to her three children and other young parishioners.  

Along the way, Debbie worked part-time with preschoolers as a fitness instructor and also as a physical education teacher for a Catholic grammar school.  She was the coordinator of the Christ Life program in her parish. Currently, Debbie serves as a core volunteer for the Bridges Outreach program. She hosts small group gatherings in her home to discuss Sunday’s homily message.

Tutoring seminarians and priests has been a gift to her. She admires their tenacity in not only learning a new language, but also in being immersed in a new culture with different traditions and social mores. Listening to the stories of these men, who left their native lands in order to spread God’s word, has been both inspiring and encouraging. 

Carolina Sanchez Calabrese

a photo of Carolina CalabreseCarolina Sanchez Calabrese taught in the Newark Public School system for 34 years in elementary schools. She taught ESL, literacy and math. She is most proud of teaching many students how to read and write during her years there. 

Since Carolina stopped teaching full time, she has done significant volunteer work. She has worked with Literacy Volunteers of America to teach adults ESL and literacy. Now Carolina volunteers at ICSST, working with seminary students who either want to improve their English skills or study Spanish for ministry. She also volunteers teaching an ESL conversation class at the South Orange Public Library.  

During the changing landscape of the COVID pandemic, Carolina wanted and needed to stay active, and with the help of her tech-savvy husband, learned to use Zoom as a platform for remote teaching. This enabled her to continue tutoring two seminarians in ESL as well as students at the South Orange Library. 

Now that in-person tutoring has returned to Seton Hall University, Carolina has been busy back at the seminary. An interesting development has been that she continues to use Zoom with three teenagers in Brazil. They are the nieces and nephew of her ESL student from the library.  

All of these adults have one thing in common: they have all stepped out of their comfort zones to learn and improve. Carolina’s own observation is, “I salute them and I embrace the opportunities to help them.”

Jeorge Alvarado  

Jeorge-AlvaradoBorn in El Salvador, Jeorge immigrated to the United States in 1970. He graduated from Kean University with a Computer Science degree in 1984 and had a long career as a Computer Programmer/Systems Analyst at AT&T.
He has taught computer courses and GED (General Education Development) at Union County College since 2004. A resident of Hillside, New Jersey, Jeorge is married with two children and four grandchildren. 

Acknowledging his humble origins, Jeorge has always desired to serve others without expecting any reward. Over the years, he has volunteered in the following organizations: the Ignatian Volunteer Corps; Catholic Charities’ Immigration Assistance Program; Blessed Sacrament Church in Elizabeth, New Jersey; First Friends of NJ and NY; the Human Concerns Office and the Hispanic Ministry, both in the Archdiocese of Newark; Literacy Volunteers of America, Inc.; both the Senior Citizen Center and the Recreation Department of Hillside, NJ; and the Hillside Scholarship Fund. 

Jeorge feels blessed to have the opportunity to tutor Seton Hall seminarians aspiring to serve diverse communities other than the English-speaking community. Their desire and dedication to learn Spanish motivates him in his effort to teach them conversational Spanish and Spanish for ministry.

Joseph Kacirek

a photo of Joe KacirekJoseph (Joe) Kacirek is a retired New Jersey high school History teacher and high school principal. His career in public education spanned forty years and during that time, he served as the faculty advisor to the Student Council, Assistant Boys’ Soccer Coach, Ski Club Advisor and chairman of his high school's Middle States Association Secondary School Accreditation Committee.

After retirement from his career in education, Joe has devoted his time to volunteer work at his alma mater, Seton Hall University, where he earned his B.A. and M.A. degrees in History. It was through a conversation with Father John Dennehy that Joe came to join the ESL tutorial program at ICSST. Father John encouraged Joe to become a volunteer tutor and he recommended him to the rector of the seminary. As an alumnus of Seton Hall, Joe understands that servant leadership is a calling from our Lord and he is humbled to follow it.

Norma Brundage

Norma BrundageBorn to devout Catholic parents in rural Ohio, Norma was raised on a farm, received the sacraments and regularly attended catechism classes on Saturday mornings. After moving to Toledo, Norma graduated from business college earning a certificate in their secretarial program.

Her career path started at the United States Federal Bankruptcy Court and continued at Owens-Corning Fiberglass, before moving to Frito-Lay in Dallas, Texas, and finally landing at American Airlines where she worked for 25 years. During her early years in the southwest, Norma studied evenings at North Lake Community College in Irving, Texas, earning her Associate degree in Business Administration.

At American Airlines, Norma worked in various departments, gaining valuable experience that enabled her to enter management with a position in their marketing department. After many years at American Airlines, Norma switched to their subsidiary, American Eagle, where she became administrative assistant to their Vice President, Flight. Norma’s final position was with the City of Arlington, Texas, where she worked for ten and a half years, retiring in 2016 to relocate back to Ohio to be closer to family. 

During her time in Texas, she was actively involved in the Catholic Church. Norma served as Eucharistic Minister, participated in Bible Study, and assisted in the RCIA and RENEW programs. Periodically, she attended other study programs to strengthen her faith and increase her knowledge.

Norma is currently a member of St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church in Elyria, Ohio, where she serves as a member of their Altar and Rosary Society and as Eucharistic Minister. She also volunteers once a week as Eucharistic Minister at University Hospitals, Elyria Medical Center. Norma joined the staff as a volunteer here at ICSST two years ago, where she continues to tutor virtually in the ESL program.

Frances Trovillion

Frances is a retired middle school science teacher who has had several ESL students in her classes over the years. One of the side benefits of seeing her students improve their English language skills is to learn about their backgrounds. Her seminarian ESL student during the last two years is a delight to work with, bright and eager to learn. While assessing his language skills, he was willing to share his life experiences with his tutor Frances, who enjoys sharing her native language skills with others.

She realizes that English is not an easy language to learn and is thrilled when she has taught something new to someone. Frances has always considered teaching a two-way street: if she has not learned something from the people around her, she has not had a good day!

Marie Kelly

a photo of Marie KellyServed as a program tutor through fall of 2019.

Marie worked as an administrative assistant for a Department Chair of Rutgers Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and as instructor of adult education. She considers tutoring a purposeful service to the community. Based on her own personal experience emigrating from Ireland in her youth, Marie is familiar with the adjustments one must make while adapting to life in a new country, and particularly to an academic environment.  

She is happy to be supportive of the seminarians and hopes her efforts will enhance their knowledge and enable them to respond effectively to any challenges they may encounter in their ministry. She is encouraged by the noticeable progress in their English skill development. Marie feels privileged to work with these men and finds her association with them enjoyable and edifying.

Donna Monaco

a photo of Donna MonacoServed as a program tutor through the spring of 2019.

Donna holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Kean University in Political Science and Sociology. She is a retiree following a 34-year career with the United States Department of Justice in the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey.  

Her duties included overall administration of, and responsibility for, the office's case management system. Her report-writing utilizing this system provided supervisors with the statistical information necessary for resource management at both the local and national levels. Donna also provided the training for all required applications to Assistant United States Attorneys, support staff, contractors and investigators which entailed designing classes and creating instructional guides.  

Donna spent six years as a tutor at ICSST and she always found this work very rewarding and a lot of fun. 

Martha Gibson

Martha GibsonServed as program tutor through spring of 2020.

Martha earned an M.B.A. from The American Graduate School of International Management in 1978 and worked as an advertising account supervisor for two major companies in New York City.  

After a brief hiatus to start a family, Martha’s fluency and desire to share her language skills in both Spanish and Portuguese led to a 23-year teaching career at both Seton Hall University and Seton Hall Preparatory School. 

Upon her retirement from teaching, Martha, who is active in her own Presbyterian Church, decided to expand her efforts to include volunteering at ICSST at Seton Hall University, where she served very capably for several years training seminary students in both English and in Spanish for ministry.

Evanna Topper

Served as a program tutor through the spring of 2019.

Evanna, a graduate of Princeton University and fluent speaker of three languages, lived in Mexico for approximately one year in the mid-1970s. During that time, she was highly motivated to learn Spanish since she was expecting her first child, who was born in Oaxaca. She and her young family continued to live in small villages (pueblos) in Jalisco and Oaxaca where no one except her husband spoke English; therefore, learning to communicate in the native language was a necessity for survival.

On returning to the United States, Evanna became active in the Latino community: tutoring a Spanish-speaking immigrant student, participating as a lector and Eucharistic minister at Spanish language Mass and helping immigrants prepare for the tests and other steps necessary to gain U.S. citizenship.

Evanna feels blessed to have served for several years here at ICSST tutoring pastoral and general Spanish language skills. She also functioned as an English tutor for a beginner-level speaker using primarily immersion, only offering isolated concepts to him in his native Spanish when necessary. It is her firm belief that participating in the tutoring program is a ministry that tutors in this unique program can feel both humble and proud to perform.