Dialogue across the Sea: RLP educators visit Ireland to discuss Catholic school leadership

In late 2012, a team of educators from the Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program (RLP) traveled to Ireland to share experiences and ideas about Catholic school leadership.

The group, headed by Rev. Ronald Nuzzi, senior director of ACE's RLP, met with professors at the Mary Immaculate College of Education in Limerick, visited local classrooms, and continued a cross-Atlantic dialogue in the spirit of support for schools with a Catholic identity.

The visitors also included three faculty members of RLP—Jim Frabutt, Anthony Holter, and Tami Schmitz—and two alumni of the program, who are now serving Catholic schools as principals in Indianapolis, Indiana, and Columbus, Ohio. They are, respectively, Mary McCoy, principal of St. Philip Neri Catholic School, and Joel Wichtman, principal of Saint Andrew Elementary School.

Mary Immaculate College is one of the largest teacher training institutions in Ireland. The dialogue with that college is expected to continue this spring when representatives from Mary Immaculate visit Notre Dame, where ACE is the largest provider of teachers and services to Catholic schools in the U.S. ACE leaders and faculty have been responding to Irish educators' invitations for mutual learning and collaboration since 1996.

Photo: (seated) Tami Schmitz, Joel Wichtman; (standing l to r) Rev. Ronald Nuzzi, Mary McCoy, Jim Frabutt, Anthony Holter.