Holy Cross Recognizes Alumni for Outstanding Professional Achievements and Service

Four graduates of the College of the Holy Cross will travel from across the country and around the world to receive a Sanctae Crucis Award, the highest non-degree recognition bestowed by the College on an alumnus or alumna. The 14th annual presentation of the awards will take place on Friday, May 6 at the College.

This year’s recipients are: 

Erin M. Boyd ’99, nutritionist/humanitarian relief worker, Darfur.  With USAID and now UNICEF, Boyd has coordinated emergency response and developed policy during humanitarian crises in Darfur, Ethiopia, Kosovo, Haiti, and other devastated parts of the world.  After her Holy Cross career (which included studying in Australia, rowing crew at Henley, and a double major in psychology and anthropology), she entered the Peace Corps, serving for two years in Nepal before graduate study at Tufts University in nutrition and food policy. Today, through her work in Darfur, she has planned and implemented clinical research on malnutrition prevention in children under five; managed and trained field staff; coordinated with United Nations and government agencies; and advocated for adoption of new nutrition policies and programs.

Kathleen M. Curran ’89, lay missionary, Bolivia.  A Michigan native, Curran left a successful career in real estate law 10 years ago to move to South America where she now lives and works, affiliated with the Salesian Missions as a Catholic lay missionary.  In addition to caring for and supporting the education of children and teenagers in rural areas and orphanages in Santa Cruz, La Paz, and Cochabamba, she co-founded and currently directs a home for young women—Casa Nuevo Horizonte—who are studying at various Bolivian universities and institutes.  Her work in Bolivia, the poorest country in South America, is focused on education and reversing statistics that perpetuate the nation’s poverty:  in rural areas, only 14 percent of Bolivians finish high school and only three percent attend universities.  She chronicles her work and the change her mission has affected on the website, www.keepthefaithinbolivia.org

Patrick C.W. Tam ’81, lay minister for Yup’ik people, Alaska.  Like many Holy Cross students, Tam entered the Jesuit Volunteer Corps upon graduation.  He was posted to serve in Alaska—and decided to stay.  For 30 years (save for the period in 2000-02 when he earned a master’s degree at the Franciscan School of Theology in Berkeley), he has worked as a lay minister to Eskimo youth and adults in remote western Alaska.  Now the director of adult faith formation for the Diocese of Fairbanks, he provides services and resources for the Yup’ik people in the 24 parishes of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Region.  Working in collaboration with lay ministers in villages throughout the region, Tam is responsible for developing support for parish leaders and promoting education, spiritual life and prayer, intercultural dialogue, and social justice.

John A. Zaia, M.D. ’64, pioneering researcher and physician, City of Hope National Medical Center, California Professor and chair of the department of virology at the Beckman Research Institute of the renowned City of Hope in Duarte, California, Zaia is a pioneering researcher and physician who has been at the forefront of improving antiviral therapy for more than 30 years.  Acclaimed in the national and international medical communities and widely published, his contributions to understanding and developing effective treatments for serious viral diseases in immunologically compromised children and adults with HIV/AIDS, cancer, and organ transplants are unparalleled.  In addition to devoting his career to understanding the origins and development of deadly viruses, he has brought new knowledge to treating infections through vaccines, genetic therapies, and other innovative methods of molecular medicine and biology. 

ABOUT THE SANCTAE CRUCIS AWARDS: The Sanctae Crucis Awards were established in 1998 to recognize the distinguished achievements of alumni. “The primary goals of the Sanctae Crucis Awards are to honor outstanding alumni and in so doing recognize and celebrate the distinctive mission of Holy Cross,” says Frank Vellaccio, senior vice president, who presents the awards to recipients. The Holy Cross Mission Statement is the foundation for the awards program, which honors alumni who are leaders in business, professional or civic life, who live by the highest intellectual and ethical standards, and who are committed to the service of faith and promotion of justice.  Past recipients have included: John Higgins ’76, Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist for the Chicago Sun-Times; Paul La Camera ’64, general manager WBUR Radio in Boston;  Peter J. O'Connor ’63, founder and executive director of the Fair Share Housing Development Corporation; and Joyce O'Shaughnessy ’78, a leading breast cancer researcher and practitioner.