STEUBENVILLE, OHIO—Franciscan University of Steubenville honored six alumni at the annual Alumni Awards Banquet held October 1 during the 2021 Homecoming Weekend.

Father Dave Pivonka, TOR, president of Franciscan University, congratulated the honorees and said they each “give witness to the Lord’s goodness, give witness to his faithfulness, and give witness to a world where hope is possible.”

Jim Campbell ’04 received the Alumni Citizenship Award for his outstanding service and missionary work supporting children’s education with Mission Santa Maria in Ecuador. While accepting the award, he spoke about a 2007 volunteer mission to Ecuador that ultimately inspired him to establish the Mission Santa Maria charity to raise funds for Ecuadorian students, as well as to move there himself in 2019.

“For the first time in my life, I saw what it meant to be around people who were poor,” Campbell said. “For the first time in my life, the Gospel came alive.”

Brian McCarthy ’01 accepted the Professor Edward J. Kelly Award for his exemplary success and leadership in business. With 20 years of software industry experience, he is chief revenue officer for Rubrik, Inc., a cloud data management company. He also has generously given his time by serving on the board for Vagabond Missions, mentoring young alumni, and, most recently, serving as a member of Franciscan University’s Board of Trustees. McCarthy said how, when he first started his career, he “thought the only way you could really make a meaningful impact was to go into missionary work.”

“Suddenly, it occurred to me that I could have a mission, too,” he said. “I could use my talents and gifts to build up the Church” by investing personally and financially in others.

The Bishop John King Mussio Award was given to Martha (McMenaman ’92) Reichert for her faithful service to the Catholic Church through promoting human dignity. She was a former president and founding member of Endow, an international apostolate that encourages women to recognize their inherent worth and dignity. She also developed a women’s outreach at Samaritan House, a homeless shelter in Denver run by Catholic Charities, and she currently works with several religious organizations.

Shawn Salamida ’92 received the Father Dan Egan Award for his leadership in the fields of mental health and child welfare. He said what he learned at Franciscan University, “academically, spiritually, and personally, have really propelled” his life’s work. The president of Behavioral Health Services at Lakeview Center in Florida, Salamida has advocated for positive changes in Florida’s innovative child welfare system and, earlier this year, he was appointed to a state commission for mental health and substance abuse.

“If you look around the world today, it’s very clear behavioral health, mental health, and addiction treatment cannot be on the periphery. It has to be part of what we see as our own overall health,” Salamida said.

Dr. Marlo Cavnar Vernon ’01 received the John J. Carrigg Award for her research and innovation in preventive health education, especially for mothers and their children. In 2018, her entry in a Maternal and Child Health Bureau contest to develop a tool to help pregnant and postpartum women remotely monitor their health was one of four national finalists. She is an assistant professor in Cancer Population, Control, and Population Health at the Georgia Cancer Institute and board chairwoman at Hope House, Inc., a nonprofit that enables women to stay with their children while receiving residential substance abuse treatment.

“I knew when I was here at Franciscan that God was calling me to serve women and to work with moms and babies,” Vernon said. “Since then, I’ve been given many opportunities to see and fight for the inherent dignity of every human being.”

Edward Wamala ’17 received the Outstanding Young Alumni Award for his exceptional service bringing the hope and healing found in Jesus Christ to marginalized families in Uganda with his organization, Bugumiro Foundation Uganda. Co-founder and Franciscan alum Brendan Avila ’17 accepted the award on Wamala’s behalf, describing Wamala as “a man of faith.”

Avila recounted his first visit to Wamala’s home in Uganda as the origin for their current mission work, adding, “The number one thing I’m thankful for about Franciscan University is the relationships I built. Eddie is my best friend. Without Franciscan, without that formation, that friendship never would have happened.”

Watch the video of the alumni award presentations here.