Veritas Award 2003
Excellence in Christian Historical Research
Linda Sue Galate, Ph.D. ’66
Since her graduation from Caldwell College, Linda followed overlapping career paths in the arts, education and art history. She immediately pursued a master’s degree in graphic arts, while practicing her own craft as an artist in pen and ink, calligraphy and photography. Exhibits of her work, both in the U.S. and Rome, won her favorable attention and her book, “A Beginner’s Guide to Calligraphy,” was published in 1980.
She began her teaching career for the West Orange Board of Education at the junior high and middle school levels, leaving for a year in Italy that included study at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome. Linda also started to teach watercolor and calligraphy in the West Orange Community Adult School, and her calligraphy courses became so popular that she continued them for fifteen years. During ten of these years, she was the Women’s Varsity Tennis Coach for Montclair State University.
Linda had always loved art history and had the opportunity to study with seminal scholars in Rome and at Rutgers University, where she eventually completed a master’s degree in art history. At the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, she worked evenings with the Director of the Epigraphical Museum, Athens, Professor Dina Del Mousou on fifth and fourth century B.C. epigraphical projects, spending time in Athens each summer for hands-on research. Linda pursued this and other independent research while teaching full-time.
At this point in her career, Linda decided to follow her enthusiasm for iconography with a Ph.D. She had been in Rome every year since graduation from Caldwell and always found herself exploring Etruscan, Roman and Early Christian sites. In her own words, “You are eventually confronted with a problem that compels you to solve it.” She realized that she needed to broaden her background in the philosophy and theology of the period, accomplishing this through a master’s in philosophy at Drew University, before completing her doctorate in iconography there.
At Drew, she encountered archaeologist and Director of an Early Bronze age site in Jordan, Dr. Suzanne Richard. Linda worked on many archaeological aspects of the site, and Dr. Richard eventually became one of her dissertation committee members.
Linda’s research in Early Christian iconography has been published and presented at the Society of Biblical Literature/American Academy of Religion conferences in the United States, at a Society of Biblical Literature International Meeting in Rome and at a conference of the Archaeological Institute of America. Recognition of her scholarship came swiftly and in 1997, Linda was appointed a Fellow of the Caspersen School of Graduate Studies at Drew University, a position she currently holds.
In addition to her academic pursuits, Linda has been responsible for many teaching activities and served as co-chair for the West Orange District/NJ State Continuing Education Committee. Among diverse service activities, she has lectured to church groups and Rotary, served as judge for West Orange Downtown and written a guide for the Roman Catacombs of Priscilla. When Caldwell College created a tennis tournament in conjunction with the Golden Eagle Golf Tournament, she planned and ran the tournament for the first two years.
Excellence in Maternal & Child Healthcare
Marie Hogarty ‘68
Marie’s nursing career has focused on mother and infant care. Beginning as a nursery staff nurse in Newark, she quickly moved into staff positions in neonatal intensive care and labor and delivery units. Within five years, she was a shift and then unit supervisor. Within 10 years, Marie held the position of clinical nurse specialist for the Maternal Child Health Division at Memorial Hospital of Burlington County, where she served as consultant to staff nurses and handled staff development of 90 nurses.
In 1987, Marie was Coordinator of the Women’s Healthcare Center at Saint Francis Medical Center in Trenton. There she developed and implemented an educational component of the Healthstart program in the prenatal clinic.
In 1988, Marie became Project Director of the Northwest New Jersey Regional Perinatal Network based at Morristown Memorial Hospital, where she implemented a regional program to improve pregnancy outcomes in northwest New Jersey. This demonstration project was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The project included professional education for providers and outreach services for the women at seven prenatal clinics throughout the region.
In 1992, the Network reorganized and expanded into the Northwest New Jersey Maternal and Child Health Network. This nonprofit health and human service agency, based in Morristown, NJ serves five counties by working to improve access to healthcare for infants, children and pregnant women and by coordinating community and hospital-based services. As Executive Director of the Network, Marie has designed and implemented a variety of outreach programs in partnership with prenatal and pediatric clinics. She implemented Read Me A Story – Leame un Cuento, where volunteers read to children while they are waiting for health services. Children who participate in this story time receive an age and language appropriate gift book to take home. Marie has secured grants and donations to distribute more than 25,000 children’s books over the last four years through Read Me A Story. She established a free breakfast program at the High Risk Prenatal Clinic in Morristown for the pregnant women who need to come to the clinic fasting for lab tests. In 2001, she secured funding to start a free mental health counseling service in Spanish for uninsured women at Overlook Hospital’s OB/GYN clinic in Summit.
Marie also secured a grant to bring Healthy Families, a home visitation parenting education program, to first time parents at risk for child maltreatment. Paraprofessionals make weekly home visits to teach parenting skills and refer families to health and social service agencies. In 2002, the Network’s Healthy Families program in Morris County received its accreditation from Healthy Families America, and the agency was awarded additional grant funds to establish a Healthy Families site in the City of Passaic.
After graduation from Caldwell College, Marie earned a BS in Nursing from Felician College and her MS in Perinatal Nursing from the University of Pennsylvania. She has a record of service to numerous professional and community organizations; including AWHONN (the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric, and Neonatal Nurses) and the March of Dimes. Marie has received several distinguished awards, the most recent being the Real Hero Award from the Deirdre O’Brien Child Advocacy Center in Morristown, NJ for her work on behalf of needy children in Northwest New Jersey.
Excellence in Aerospace Engineering
Constance Killion ‘73
After graduating from Caldwell with a degree in History and Political Science, Connie entered the Navy with dreams of flying and going to sea. Her first assignment as a space surveillance officer involved her in detecting and tracking space launches, cataloging space objects and alerting ships at sea to their vulnerability from the Soviet Union’s reconnaissance satellites. Connie’s assignments made her sometimes the first or only woman in a program office. She boarded two different naval vessels to test space system hardware and use that test hardware to support the fleet in operational exercises afloat. Her dream of working with aircraft came true when she became the program manager for a high sub-sonic reconnaissance unmanned air vehicle program. She and a colleague/friend are currently writing a book, entitled The Last Manned Fighter Squadron, which will discuss the transition of “manned” to “unmanned” fighter aircraft for naval combat.
Connie served two years at NATO in Belgium as the Satellite Communications Team Leader in the Systems Planning and Engineering Division and the NATO IV Program Manager. She worked with the NATO IV super high frequency satellites that provide support to the NATO political leadership and to the NATO forces today. On a later on assignment to NASA in 1990, Connie worked on Moon and Mars exploration architectures. As part of a Presidential Task Force, she was involved in evaluating scientific and public interest reasons for exploration and examined enabling technologies and options for habitat structures. She later returned to NASA as Chief of International Plans and Programs to negotiate international agreements for scientific cooperation with NASA’s partners and to recommend approval or disapproval for U.S. commercial activities involving transfer of technology.
After retiring from the Navy as a Commander in 1999, Connie is now employed as a senior systems engineer in the Engineering and Technology Group of The Aerospace Corporation, a federally funded research and development center for federal agencies that have space programs. Over the past three years, she has provided matrix support on Space-Based Radar and a National Security Space Communications Architecture Study and is currently the lead author for a Concepts of Operations for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service for 2010-2020.
Connie has received the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal and the Navy Commendation Medal. She was commissioned an Ensign after completing Naval Officer Candidates School in 1975, attended the NATO School at Oberammergau, Germany in 1986, graduated from the Defense Systems Management College (now the Department of Defense Acquisition University) in 1989, and. graduated from the Naval War College in 1996. She also holds a master’s degree from Catholic University.
Her community service has extended around the world; including service as a Lay Eucharistic Minister and CCD teacher in Brussels and at Quantico Marine Corps Base. After 9/11, Connie initiated and leads today a network of volunteers in Virginia that have provided 1310 care packages for sailors and marines supporting Operation Enduring Freedom afloat and in
Kandahar. She and husband, Dr. Thomas Killion have a daughter Christine, a son, Brian, and a granddaughter, Valerie.