50 Years of Peace: A Pacem in Terris Retrospective

A Timeline of Events:

• Zoila A. Del-Villar ’03
  

  In her years since graduating from the College, Zoila A. Del-Villar ’03 has established an esteemed career in research related to urban affairs. Currently, she is a research scientist and pre-doctoral research fellow at the McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research at the New York University (NYU) School of Social Work.

  In this position, she gathers qualitative and quantitative data to further the organization’s mission, and facilitates both group and individual counseling with youth participants in its Step-Up program, which fosters youth development and mental health support. She views these efforts as an opportunity to lead the next generation of revolutionary leaders. Previously, Del-Villar spent a decade collaborating with the New York City Department of Education on out-of-class programming. She earned an M.A. in school counseling from Manhattan, and an M.S. in urban affairs from Hunter College. Del-Villar is currently pursuing a doctorate in social justice education at the University of Toronto. Her primary research interests are the intersectionality of race, class, gender and anti-oppressive education.
• Terence Miller ’78

  

  Terence Miller ’78 is a Senior International Officer (SIO) at Marquette University. In this role he oversees recruitment, admission and immigration advising for all undergraduate students; immigration advising for all international graduate students; and English as a Second Language (ESL) programming. He is also directly involved with numerous service learning opportunities. Miller has logged 20 years of international higher education experience working as Director of Overseas Programs and Partnerships at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Center for International Education.

  The year he graduated from Manhattan, Miller earned a bachelor’s in peace studies and government, and was recipient of the annually awarded Pope John XXIII Medal for Peace Studies. He later received a Juris Doctorate from St. John’s University in Queens, and began his legal career as a criminal defense attorney for the Legal Aid Society in Brooklyn.

  Miller was a Maryknoll Lay Missioner for ten years. In that capacity, he was a human rights attorney in Chile from 1988 until 1991, during which time he investigated and documented the disappeared and executed persons under the Pinochet regime for the Commission of Truth and Reconciliation.  Upon his return to the U.S. in 1991, he worked for six years as a policy analyst on issues related to Africa and the Middle East. In 1993, he was named director of Maryknoll’s Justice and Peace office in Washington, D.C.

  Miller currently serves on the boards of several organizations, including: the International Institute of Wisconsin, a refugee resettlement agency; and the Maryknoll Lay Mission Association. . an Advisory Committee for ELS, an intensive English provider and Rufus King International Baccalaureate High School Governance Council. He is an executive committee member of Marquette’s Center for Peacemaking. In 2013, he received the Dorothy von Briesen World Citizen Award from the International Institute of Wisconsin. Primarily, his research focuses on human rights, rule of law, transitional justice, and the development of civil societies.

• James Raymond Vreeland ’94

  

  James Raymond Vreeland ’94 continued the peace studies education he began at Manhattan College in the Politics department of New York University (NYU), from which he earned a Ph.D. in 1999. Following that accomplishment, he taught at Yale for a period before moving on to Georgetown, where he currently serves as a professor of international relations in its prestigious School of Foreign Service.

  Vreeland has authored several articles and books on the subjects of conflict and peace, with a focus on economic issues. He has written three books: The IMF and Economic Development, The International Monetary Fund: Politics of Conditional Lending  and The Political Economy of the United Nations Security Council: Money and Influence. The last, his most recent, investigates the ways in which governments trade money for political favors in international politics. Vreeland is an occasional contributor to the Washington Post blog “The Monkey Cage,” and also routinely attends meetings and seminars in Washington, D.C., where policymakers meet with academics to discuss world affairs. He feels that his greatest professional achievement has been to educate students on different ways of considering international economic cooperation and the prospect of a peaceful world. 

• Elysa Fein-Cunningham ’06

  

  Elysa Fein Cunningham ’06 was a double major of peace studies and sociology during her time at the College, before going on to earn a master’s in social work from Hunter College that focused on community organizing and planning. From there, Cunningham began working as a youth program coordinator for the Pride Center of Staten Island, Staten Island's LGBTQ community center, where she was eventually promoted to a director of programs.

  Cunningham embarked on a new career journey in early 2017 as the Director of Government Grant Writing at Queens Community House. Regardless of the organization she’s working for, the her goal has been centered around empowering marginalized communities. In her spare time, Elysa hosts Grrrl Power Hour, a monthly online radio show that promotes current music made by feminist and LGBTQ artists, and allows her to funnel her love for music and social justice into a singular outlet. Elysa always carries what she learned from the Peace Studies program at Manhattan College with her and is proud to apply it to both her professional and personal lives.