Meet Our Tutors
James Barton
James 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
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
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
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
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.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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 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.