Board of Directors
- Patricia Byrne
- Daniel Cronin
- Brian Gagnon
- Richard Smith Kelly, Jr.
- John Lively
- Christopher Lowney
- Paul Macke, S.J.

- Daniel Nelson
- Kevin O’Brien, S.J.
- Martina O'Shea
- Marianna Pierce
- Deborah A. Robbins
- Walter Smith, S.J.
- Rudy Vargas, IV
- Martin Walsh
Members of The Jesuit Collaborative board of directors and staff. From left to right: Paul Macke, S.J., Rudy Vargas, Richard Smith Kelly, Ed Quinnan, S.J., Jim Tracy, Deborah Robbins, Jim Conroy, S.J., Kevin O'Brien, S.J., Marianna Pierce (Vice Chair), Pat Byrne, Bob Cunningham, John Lively (Chair). Missing from photo: Dan Cronin, Brian Gagnon, Chris Lowney, Martina O'Shea, Dan Nelson, Walter Smith, S.J., and Martin Walsh.
Patricia Byrne
Newton, MA Administrative Dean, Harvard Divinity School Pat Byrne was born and raised in Westbury, Long Island, NY and currently lives in Newton, MA with her husband, Robert Burns, where they raised their two children. After attending Newton College of the Sacred Heart, Pat earned a master’s degree at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She has spent her professional life in the administration of educational organizations, including fourteen years in the senior administration at Wellesley College, where she was vice president for administration and planning. She has also held positions at the University of Massachusetts, Lesley University, the Cambridge Partnership for Public Education, and the Massachusetts Governor’s Office. Pat is a member of St. Ignatius of Loyola parish in Chestnut Hill, MA, where she has served in a variety of ministries. She is a member of the Ethics Committee for the New England Province of Jesuits, the board of directors of the Crittenton Women’s Union in Boston, and the Massachusetts Public Education Nominating Council.
Daniel Cronin
New Rochelle, NY Former VP & General Counsel, Pfizer International A graduate of Fordham College in Biology, Daniel Cronin completed his studies at the Brooklyn Law School, earning his J.D. in 1972. Subsequently he held a series of legal management positions for Pfizer, Inc., including Associate General Counsel for Pfizer, Inc., Vice-President and General Counsel of Pfizer International, Inc., Vice-President and General Counsel of Pfizer Medical Products Group, and General Counsel of Pfizer Global Research and Development, serving also on the Pfizer Corporate Management Council, a senior governance committee. He has global experience in the pharmaceutical industry and has a proven record of managing the legal function for large and small business firms. He has served on the Board of Directors of a number of publicly traded companies, and is a member of the Finance Committee of the New York Province of the Society of Jesus and of the Board of Governors of the Shenorock Shore Club, Rye, N.Y.
Brian Gagnon
Washington, DC. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Washington Federal Advisory Practice. Brian and his wife Allison live in Washington, DC with their two year old son, Alex. Brian, formerly a Maryland Province Jesuit Novice, studied Political Science at John Carroll University and earned a Master of Arts in Urban Affairs at Saint Louis University. Before entering the Society he served as a Presidential Management Intern at the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) in Washington, DC, and continued at SBA working in its finance and outreach programs. Most recently he held several senior management positions at Newtek Business Services, a financial services distributor, before joining PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP this Fall. Allison and Brian attend Holy Trinity Parish in Georgetown.
Richard Smith Kelly, Jr.
Greenwich, CT Senior Managing Director, The Bridgeford Group Richard Smith Kelly, Jr. was born in Chicago, IL and currently lives in Greenwich, CT with his wife, Ginna Boyle Kelly. They are the parents of four children. Richard graduated from Harvard College and obtained an M.B.A. from Stanford Graduate School of Business. He has worked in finance and investment for over 20 years both in the US and the UK, with various corporations including Credit Suisse First Boston and JP Morgan Chase. He is on the Board of Directors of the Jesuit Refugee Services, Washington, DC and the Harvard Club of NYC. He serves as advisor to the executive director of the Center for Christian-Jewish Understanding at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT and is on the President’s Committee of the Asia Society, NY, NY. Richard has served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Niger, West Africa and is a parishioner of St. Mary’s Parish in Greenwich, CT. He is a member of several clubs and organizations including the National Peace Corps Association, The Wild Geese, and Stanford Club of NYC.
John Lively
Washington, D.C.
Financial and Business Consultant
Christopher Lowney
Riverdale, NY President, Pilgrimage for Our Children’s Future Chris Lowney, formerly a Jesuit seminarian in the New York Province, worked at JP Morgan & Co for seventeen years, serving as a Managing Director and management committee member during postings in Tokyo, Singapore, London, and New York. He left JP Morgan in 2001, and has since authored Heroic Leadership and A Vanished World. He is also President of Pilgrimage for Our Children’s Future, which funds education and healthcare projects in the developing world.
Daniel Nelson
Dover,
Paul Macke, S.J.
Washington, D.C. Secretary for Pastoral Ministry and Jesuit Life, Jesuit Conference Rev. Paul Macke, S.J. is a professional pastoral psychotherapist with over thirty years of clinical experience. A Chicago Province Jesuit priest born in Cincinnati, OH, he has worked eighteen years in Alaska and most recently for nine years as Executive Director of Holy Spirit Center in Anchorage. Since August of 2005 he has been Secretary for Pastoral Ministry and Jesuit Life for the Jesuit Conference of the United States in Washington, DC.
Kevin O’Brien, S.J.
Washington, D.C. Executive Director, Campus Ministry, Georgetown University Prior to joining the Jesuits, Rev. Kevin O’Brien, S.J. taught high school for three years and practiced corporate law in south Florida for two years. His degrees include a J.D. from the University of Florida, an MA in Philosophy from Fordham University, and Master of Divinity and STL from Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, MA. He is trained in spiritual direction and gave the 30 day Spiritual Exercises at the Jesuit retreat center in Milford, OH. Kevin assisted in a 19th annotation retreat program for students and faculty at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia where he taught philosophy and ethics for two years. He directed the Jesuit Family Retreat program, an 18th annotation retreat for mostly immigrant and inner city families at Blue Ridge Summit, PA. His recent publications include “Consolation in Action: The Jesuit Refugee Service and the Ministry of Accompaniment” in Studies in the Spirituality of Jesuits, and “The Classroom as Holy Ground” in America magazine. Before assuming his current position, Kevin served as Associate Pastor of Holy Trinity Parish in Washington, D.C., where he directed RCIA and the Spiritual Exercises program for parishioners and teachers at the parish school.
Martina O'Shea
Washington, D.C., Pastoral Associate for Ignatian Spirituality and Prayer, Holy Trinity Catholic Church In her current position, Martina O’Shea is responsible for creating and directing a sustainable and comprehensive, parish-wide program in Ignatian spirituality that is based on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. She received training to give the Spiritual Exercises, offer spiritual direction and lead contemplative prayer groups at the Jesuit Center for Spirituality, the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation, the Ignatius Jesuit Center of Guelph and the Washington Theological Union. She holds graduate degrees in mental health and neuroscience. Martina finds joy in supporting and facilitating retreats for women who are in transition from homelessness and addictions as part of the Ignatian Spirituality Project in Washington. She lives with her husband, Michael in Alexandria, VA.
Marianna Pierce
Cambridge, MA Director, Labor & Employee Relations, MIT Marianna Pierce grew up in Maine and currently lives in Cambridge. A lawyer by training, she obtained both her undergraduate and law degrees from Harvard. Her career has focused on higher education and other nonprofit organizations, and in particular on employee and student issues, nonprofit governance, and tax issues. She has served as the chief education counsel for Senator Edward M. Kennedy on the U.S. Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources. Before that, she was the General Counsel for the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and prior to that, she was a university attorney in Harvard University’s Office of the General Counsel. She has also worked at the Boston law firms of Palmer & Dodge and Ropes & Gray.
Deborah A. Robbins
Lincoln, MA Executive Service Corps of New England Deborah Robbins was born and raised in Fort Worth, TX and came to Boston upon completion of her undergraduate education. She spent the majority of her career at State Street Corporation in a variety of management and investment professional positions. Most recently she was Vice President and Product Manager of Family Office Services in the Wealth Manager Services Division. After retiring from the corporate sector, Deborah spent almost a year in Honduras as a volunteer kindergarten teacher in a home for abused and abandoned girls. Deborah has been a director and member of several nonprofit boards, including the Boston Center for Adult Education, Associated Grantmakers of Massachusetts, the Community Music Center of Boston and the United Way of Massachusetts Allocations Coordinating Committee. She has been a volunteer consultant with the Executive Service Corps of New England since October 2005, where she provides consultant and facilitator services in board governance and development, fund raising and planned giving strategy and strategic planning for non-profit organizations.
Walter Smith, S.J.
New York, NY President & CEO, The HealthCare Chaplaincy Rev. Walter J. Smith, S.J., a native of Boston and a member of the New England Province of the Society of Jesus, has a rich educational background. Besides studies in French at Boston College and Université Laval, Québec, P.Q., he pursued studies in philosophy and theology as part of his Jesuit formation. He received a M. Ed. in counseling and a Ph.D. in psychology from Boston University. He taught at Boston College, Boston University, Harvard University, Rivier College, the Gregorian University and Fairfield University where he also served as chairperson of the Department of Psychology. In 1988 he became Dean of Weston Jesuit School of Theology and was a professor in the Department of Pastoral Studies. In 1991, he was named Executive Vice-President of The HealthCare Chaplaincy in New York City, becoming its President and CEO in 1993, a post he still holds. In this post he has helped craft a new model for providing well trained and supported chaplains to hospitals in the Greater New York area, creating as well a center for research and publication in chaplaincy. He has used these gifts to great effect for the benefit of The Jesuit Collaborative; he shepherded the initial strategic process launched by the Jesuit Provincials of Maryland, New England, and New York, and provided a guiding hand in envisioning the structure, mission, and identity of this new initiative. He has served as Chair of the Interim.
Rudy Vargas, IV
New York, NY Executive Director, Northeast Hispanic Catholic Center Rudy Vargas, IV has worked extensively in the area of leadership formation. He has been the Executive Director of the Center for Catholic Lay Leadership Formation, Archdiocese of New York, Associate Director of Hispanic Ministry, Diocese of Brooklyn, and Director of Citywide Youth Leadership Program, Aspira of New York. He served as President of the National Catholic Network de Pastoral Juvenil Hispana and National Catholic Association of Diocesan Directors for Hispanic Ministry. He is also a member of the following boards: Center for the Applied Research in the Apostolate, Georgetown University; EPNE, a New York Province Jesuit Hispanic Program; and, National Catholic Association of Diocesan Directors for Hispanic Ministry.
Martin Walsh
Alexandria, VA Society for Human Resource Management Martin Walsh thinks outside the lines and has been known to sometimes see around corners as well. He has a natural talent for marketing and promotion, describing his career as resembling that of a vaudeville performer in all its creativity and variety. He has done special projects for three cabinet level secretaries, created and directed the bicentennial parade (the largest attended parade in the nation’s capital), raised millions of dollars for United Way, and helped make the academy award nominated documentary film on the Holocaust (Courage to Care). He is an expert on Japanese corporations and on philanthropy in America. As an executive, he made the Society for Human Resource Management Foundation into a national leader by creating the annual Thought Leaders Conference and producing a DVD series on innovative HR management strategies (now used in over 300 university in the US and around the world; is translated into Chinese, Japanese and Spanish).