Saint Peter’s University Elects Six New Members to the Board of Trustees

Nadine (Davis) Augusta ’93 serves as chief diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) officer at Cushman & Wakefield. She has more than 20 years of experience in financial services, with key positions in management consulting, project management, sales and trading and DEI. Prior to assuming her current position, she was Americas head of diversity and inclusion at Goldman Sachs. Before that, Augusta worked at The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) as the global head of diversity and inclusion and corporate social responsibility, and held various leadership positions at Bank of America. Notably, she was a member of the U.S. Trust and Merrill Lynch merger integration teams.

Rev. Stephen Katsouros, S.J. is president/CEO of the Come To Believe Network, as well as the founding dean and former executive director of Arrupe College at Loyola University Chicago. Arrupe is a two-year college at Loyola’s Water Tower Campus that continues the Jesuit tradition of offering a rigorous liberal arts education to a diverse population, many of whom are the first in their family to pursue higher education. Prior to arriving in Chicago, Fr. Katsouros served as the director of the Institute for Catholic Educational Leadership and associate dean of the School of Education at the University of San Francisco. From 2002 until 2011, Fr. Katsouros was president of Loyola, a co-ed Jesuit high school in New York City. His doctorate, from Columbia University Teachers College, is in organizational leadership; his research interests are leadership; governance; and institutional performance.

Robert Lahita, M.D., Ph.D. ’67 currently serves as a clinical professor of medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, a professor at Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine and as director of the Institute for Autoimmune and Rheumatic Disease St. Joseph’s Healthcare System. He is a fellow of the American College of Physicians, a Master of the American College of Rheumatology and Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. Dr. Lahita is the author of more than 16 books and 150 scientific publications in the field of autoimmunity. His new book  Immunity Strong, for the layman, is currently available.  In addition, Dr. Lahita is an emergency responder and currently serves as the medical director of the Ridgewood Volunteer Ambulance Corps and Police, as the fire surgeon for the Village of Ridgewood, as the medical director for the Borough of Saddle River, N.J. and is a member of the New Jersey State Task Force on Emergency Operations.

Frank McGrail ’79 has had a 30+ year career on Wall Street  following graduation from Saint Peter’s University. He has served the investment community as an investment banker and later, in management as regional director at companies such as UBS, Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management and Alex. Brown. He has run large wealth management businesses with his work focused on managing the relationships between advisory teams and their clients. He is currently focused on coaching the industry’s largest advisory teams on practice management and advisor succession planning as a partner with Team Performance Group LLC.  McGrail previously served on the Saint Peter’s Board of Trustees from 2009 to 2018, which included chairing the Advancement Committee and the second half of the Students at the Center capital campaign, as well as serving as board vice chair.  He has also served on the boards of HomeStart and the Institute for Contemporary Art Boston.

Susan Mitchell-Abbate ’72 retired as the executive vice president of human resources of the CIT Group, where she was responsible for global human resource strategy, compensation, benefits and organization development. Following this role, she was engaged as a human resource consultant. She has been involved in a variety of organizations including The Phoenix Center, a school for students with developmental disabilities, Women United in Philanthropy and INROADS. She served as a member of the Saint Peter’s University Board of Trustees from 2011 to 2020, which included serving as vice chair and chairing the Student Life & Development Committee. She has also chaired Hearts & Mind: The Saint Peter’s University Scholarship Celebration. Mitchell-Abbate holds a B.A. in sociology from Saint Peter’s and an M.B.A. in finance from Fairleigh Dickinson University and is a graduate of the University of Michigan Human Resource Executive Program.

Eufemia “Maria” Solorzano ’84 began her career at Liberty Savings Federal Credit Union (FCU) as a filing clerk, right out of the Cooperative Education Program at Dickinson High School in Jersey City before being promoted to various roles over the years. During her time at Liberty Savings FCU, Solorzano excelled in and lent her expertise to multiple departments including the teller platform, back office functions and accounting. Upon graduation from Saint Peter’s University in 1984, she was appointed as comptroller and later chief financial officer/vice president. During these years, Solorzano was a vital part of the LSFCU administrative team as well as an active member and leader in the Hudson County community and part of the support team to the Liberty Savings FCU Board of Directors. In 2017, she was appointed CEO. Solorzano serves on the board of the Kiwanis Club of Jersey City and on the Liberty Savings’ board as secretary/treasurer. She previously served on the Saint Peter’s Board of Regents.