Scholarship Benefit and Awards Reception
Meet the Honorees
Monica C. Barrett
Monica C. Barrett is a Partner at Bond, Schoeneck & King PLLC and is ranked in Band 1 of Chambers, Nationwide, for Higher Education Law. In her role, she provides legal advice and counsel to colleges, universities, and independent schools in all aspects of education law, including student affairs, faculty tenure and promotion, governance issues, athletics, and academic affairs. She advises and counsels clients on a variety of education law issues and partners with other attorneys to conduct investigations at all levels of client institutions. She also defends institutions before state and federal agencies and courts.
Monica joined Bond, Schoeneck & King PLLC as a Partner in 2016 after having served as Interim General Counsel at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, as well as other attorney positions at Rutgers for over 19 years. Monica’s responsibilities encompassed the full range of legal and compliance issues facing a state-wide research university with major professional schools and 29 labor unions, 20,000 employees, and a student body of approximately 65,000. As a key member of the Rutgers President’s Cabinet, she was responsible for advising the President and members of the Boards on all legal issues, and supervised a staff of 18 lawyers.
Monica has worked with the University of Mount Saint Vincent for more than a decade, offering her expert legal counsel and representation across all areas of the Mount’s operations. She has been an indispensable partner.
Monica is a frequent presenter at National Association of College and University Attorneys (NACUA) national conferences. Previously, she was employed as Executive Deputy General Counsel at the State University of New York, Associate General Counsel at Cornell University, and Assistant General Counsel at Barnard College. She holds a bachelor’s degree, cum laude, from Wellesley College and graduated from the University of Michigan Law School. She is a member of the New York and New Jersey State Bars.
Russell L. Carson
Russell L. Carson is Chairman of The Carson Family Charitable Trust, a private foundation which he started along with his immediate family members in 1991. The foundation is focused on philanthropy in New York City and supports non-profit organizations in the fields of education, poverty, healthcare, medical science and culture. Russell is currently Chairman Emeritus of Rockefeller University, Chairman of the Partnership for Inner-City Education, Co-Chairman of the New York Genome Center, a Trustee Emeritus of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a Trustee of New York Presbyterian Hospital, a Director of the National 9/11 Memorial and Museum, and a Director of the Coalition for Opportunity in Education. He is also Chairman Emeritus of Columbia Business School and a Trustee Emeritus of Dartmouth College.
Since 1978, Russell has been a Founding Partner of Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe (WCAS), one of the country’s largest private equity firms. Over the past 40 years, WCAS has raised seventeen institutionally funded limited partnerships with total capital of approximately $25 billion and has invested in over 250 companies. He led the firm’s healthcare investment practice for many years and is currently the Lead Director of Select Medical Corporation, a NYSE listed owner of long-term acute care hospitals, physical rehabilitation hospitals, and outpatient rehabilitation clinics, which was founded by WCAS and the company’s management in 1987.
Russell attended public high school in Toledo, OH prior to receiving a bachelor’s in economics at Dartmouth College in 1965 and an MBA from Columbia Business School in 1967. He received an honorary degree from Dartmouth College in 2015. He resides in New York City with his wife, Judy. Russell, Judy, and their two children, Cecily and Edward, are all Trustees of the foundation and are active in its affairs.
Fr. Stephen Katsouros, SJ
A member of the United States East Province of the Society of Jesus, Fr. Stephen Katsouros, SJ is the President and CEO of the Come To Believe Foundation and Network in New York City. Before Come To Believe, Fr. Katsouros spent six years serving as the Founding Dean and Executive Director of Arrupe College at Loyola University Chicago—the pioneering institution and launchpad for the Come To Believe model.
Prior to his assignment at Arrupe College, Fr. Katsouros served as the Director of the Institute for Catholic Educational Leadership (ICEL) and Associate Dean of the School of Education at the University of San Francisco. From 2002-2011, Fr. Katsouros was President of Loyola School, a co-ed Jesuit high school on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
Under his leadership, the Come To Believe model has now been implemented at four schools nationwide, including Seton College at the University of Mount Saint Vincent—only the third school in the nation and the first on the east coast to carry out the mission and model of Come To Believe. Additional host institutions are in formation at colleges and universities across the United States.
Currently, Fr. Katsouros is a trustee at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Chicago, Josephinum Academy of the Sacred Heart in Chicago, Regis High School in New York City, Saint Mary’s College in Indiana, and Saint Peter’s University in New Jersey. Fr. Katsouros has consulted for over 300 boards throughout his career in education. His doctorate, from Columbia University Teachers College, is in organizational leadership. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1998.