Golden Bridges 2024

Barry M. Maloney, Worcester State University’s 11th president, has served in this role since 2011. His straightforward charge—to put students first—means providing them an excellenteducation at an affordable price in a vibrant campus environment, one where students explore their intellectual passions and pursue their professional interests, while gaining transformative leadership experiences.

Under President Maloney, Worcester State University has significantly improved its graduation rate; doubled its fundraising and tripled its endowment; overhauled the physical campus; balanced annual campus budgets; increased grant support; doubled the diversity of its student body; and expanded outside-the-classroom learning opportunities for students. Maloney’s Five Points of Action toward a More Inclusive Campus Climate, initiated in 2016, has resulted in gains in faculty diversity and better systems for addressing bias.  Due to sound fiscal management, the campus has kept tuition and mandatory to fees to just over $10,000 a year for commuting students.

Knowing that academic success correlates with deeper connections to the campus, Maloney ensured that construction of a new residence hall and Wellness Center moved forward. The 150,000-square-foot Sheehan Hall opened in 2014, adding 400 beds and bringing Worcester State undergraduate residential population to about 40%—roughly double what it was in 2000. When the $52.6 million, 101,000-square-foot Wellness Center opened in September 2016, it completed a 10-year, $200 million dollar investment in new and renovated facilities that have transformed the campus.

Under President Maloney’s leadership, The Princeton Review has consistently named Worcester State University a “Best in the Northeast” and U.S. News & World Report has ranked WSU in its regional “top tier.” Worcester State University has also launched new academic programs;was named to the President’s Honor   Roll for Community Service; and was noted as one of the nation  most “environmentally responsible” campuses.

In 2019, Massachusetts Commissioner of Higher Education Carlos Santiago named Maloney to the statewide Equity Advisory Committee and Worcester Mayor Joseph Petty appointed Maloney to chair the Worcester Advisory Committee for Diversifying the Teacher Workforce.

President Maloney serves on governing boards of the Worcester Business Development Corporation, the Worcester Regional Research Bureau, the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce, St. Vincent Hospital, and the American Antiquarian Society and is a corporator for the Greater Worcester Community Foundation.

He has served as chair of both HECCMA, the consortium of 11 Central Massachusetts colleges,and of the State University Council of Presidents. Prior to joining Worcester State University, Maloney served for nearly 20 years at Westfield State University in a variety of positions, including twice as interim president.

A native of Springfield, Massachusetts, Maloney graduated from the University of Maine at Orono with a bachelor’s degree in political science and public management, and a master’s degree in public administration. Maloney is also a 2007 graduate of the Institute for Educational Management at Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Maloney, his wife Laura, and their children have lived across the street from the University since 2011.

Gareth Doherty is an Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture and an Affiliate Faculty member in the Department of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. His work centers on designing landscapes that are equitable for both people and the environment. Doherty addresses issues such as social justice, identity, cultural spaces, and the human impacts of climate change.

Using a method he calls “landscape fieldwork” Doherty explores and documents stories about landscapes that haven’t been formally recorded. He has written several publications on this topic, including Paradoxes of Green: Landscapes of a City-State (University of California Press, 2017) and the forthcoming, Landscape Fieldwork: How Engaging the World Can Change Design (University of Virginia Press, 2025). He is also working on new publications focusing on African landscape architecture.

At Harvard, Doherty has taught in the departments of Urban Planning and Design, Anthropology, and African and African American Studies, and more recently at the Harvard Extension School. He has held leadership positions within the Department of Landscape Architecture, including serving as the MLA Program Director, and he currently leads the Critical Landscapes Design Lab.

Research projects by Doherty are often set in Islamic and postcolonial societies, including regions in Brazil, West Africa, and the Arabian Peninsula. Originally from Carndonagh, with maternal roots in Derry, Doherty was the Principal Investigator on the award-winning “Atlas for a City-Region” project, sponsored by Derry City and Strabane District Council and Donegal County Council. 

He earned his doctorate from Harvard University and holds landscape architectural degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and University College Dublin. Prior to that, he studied at Carndonagh Community School and St. Patrick’s Boys’ National School. He has completed several landscape architectural projects and is affiliated with professional organizations in Nigeria, the US, and the UK.

John Philip Foley (“John”) has been a Massachusetts lawyer for over 30-years.  For the past 25-years, John has been the principal attorney at Foley Law Offices, P.C., a downtown Boston law firm specializing in U.S. immigration law.

In that time, John has helped thousands of individuals enter the U.S. legally and he has been with them as they became Legal Residents or Green card holders first and later U.S. citizens.  

Even with a busy law practice, John has been active with a number of Irish and Irish-American organizations.  John was a member of the Board of Directors and General Counsel at the Irish Cultural Center in Canton, Massachusetts for nine (9) years.  In that time, John assisted with the development of a zip line ropes course on the Canton campus and brought professional rugby, musical groups and other entertainers to the ICC.

At the request of the Irish Consul General, John helped organize the committee that negotiated an agreement with the Massachusetts Resources Water Authority to cite and build the Great Hunger Memorial on Deer Island, where hundreds of Irish men, women and children died and are buried in unmarked mass graves.  John later assisted the Massachusetts Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH) place two memorial tablets on Deer Island in memory of those Irish who survived the Great Hunger and the crossing of an ocean only to die in a quarantine station less than a mile from Boston. 

John was the Massachusetts coordinator for Lawyers Alliance for Justice in Ireland for more than ten (10) years.  As a member of the national group of lawyers and judges concerned with the rule of law in Northern Ireland, John assisted with the legal appeals of a number of controversial Diplock Court cases in Northern Ireland, he coordinated visits to prisons to meet republican prisoners unjustly convicted without trial by jury and he was an international observer of the contentious 12th of July parades by the Orange Order.  John worked closely with Civil Rights lawyer Rosemary Nelson until she was killed outside her home in Lurgan by a car bomb in 1999.  John testified to the international tribunal looking into Rosemary’s murder and provided first-hand evidence of the dangers she faced as a lawyer in Northern Ireland.

John is also one of the founders of WWW.GetIrishPassport.com an on-line service that assists Irish-Americans obtain Irish citizenship so they can live and work in Ireland and carry an Irish passport.  The service is set to launch in January of 2025.

John was awarded the Belfast Ambassador Medal for his on-going work over 30-years to bring peace, justice and the rule of law to Northern Ireland.  This past year, John was the recipient of the Charitable Irish Society’s Silver Key Award in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the immigrant community. 

John has a home in Inverin, County Galway, Ireland on the same patch of land his grandmother, Delia O’Toole Curran lived on before emigrating to the United States.

John R. Buckley, Jr. was elected as Plymouth County Register of Deeds in November 2000. He is an attorney, licensed to practice law in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Prior to being elected Register, Mr. Buckley was a partner in the Brockton law firm of McCluskey, Yunits and Buckley. In 1992, Mr. Buckley was elected to the board of Plymouth County Commissioners. He served four years on that board, including two years as Chairman. Mr. Buckley has also served as an Assistant City Solicitor for the City of Brockton, an Administrative Assistant to the Mayor of Brockton and a Legislative Assistant to Congressman Brian Donnelly in Washington, D.C.. Register Buckley is a graduate of Boston College High School, Phillips Exeter Academy, Tufts University and The New England School of Law. Register Buckley is the Past President of the Massachusetts Registers of Deeds Association.

Born and raised in Watertown, State Representative John Lawn graduated from Merrimack College in 1991. He has represented the 10th Middlesex District—which includes parts of Watertown, Waltham, and Newton—since 2011.

Lawn, whose parents came to Boston in the early 1960s — his mother from Sligo, and his father from Donegal — proudly carries on the traditions of his heritage as the Chair of the American Irish State Legislative Caucus. This year, under Rep. Lawn’s leadership, the Massachusetts delegation sent a group of more than 50 participants to Ireland to join legislators from every state to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.

Additionally, Rep. Lawn serves as the House Chair of the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing. He lives in Watertown with his wife Shannon and five children. 

Dr. Sr Mary Turley pbvm, of the Presentation Sisters, a teacher by profession, came to Ardoyne in North Belfast at a time when the troubles were escalating.  She took up a teaching position in St Gabriel’s Secondary School, joined The Flax Trust.  She co-founded Flax Trust / America with Fr Myles and is described as the tireless, relentless and fearless promoter of Flax Trusts Projects (reconciliation through economic and social development) at home and abroad in the USA. 

In 1995 with the help of individuals from both communities (including Fr Myles) Mary set up Bannside Development Centre in Obins Avenue in Portadown which had suffered from all aspects of social and economic deprivation – Bannside was the catalyst for change.

This practical economic regeneration initiative still today not only creates a conducive business climate but also serves to bridge the religious divide and promote mutual understanding.

Company directorships have included, the Royal Group of Hospitals, Belfast; Ian Gow Memorial Trust; Novatech; Greater Craigavon Partnership; Bannside Development Agency Ltd the Nano Nagle Center, Cork; presently Flax Trust – Belfast, Flax Trust/America; Brookfield Business Center; School for Social Enterprises in Ireland; Bannside 2000 Ltd.

Mary has been described by the late Edna O’Brien as ‘elegant efficiency’!

Dr. Fr. Myles Kavanagh C.P., a Dubliner and member of the Passionist Order founded the Flax Trust in 1977.  Passing the derelict Brookfield Mill on the Crumlin Road in his Parish of Holy Cross almost daily he thought that with investment the site could be used to help the people of the local area from both sides of the religious divide. Gathering a group of movers and shakers around him they turned Brookfield Mill (150,000 sq ft) into the largest and strongest community economic development project in the Northern Ireland, providing training, education, arts center, art gallery, theatre, dance studio and a small business incubation project on the site. This led to the building of a local shopping mall, a supermarket, healthcare center, pharmacy, florist shop. Pittsburgh Bar & Restaurant.

In the late 80’s in a joint venture with Bombardier Aerospace re developed the derelict Belfast Co-Operative department store into a 180,000 sq ft ‘neutral’ city center block.  Interpoint has housed the Patton Police Commission; the Northern Ireland Justice Review; the Novatech Initiative which developed new technology-based ventures through a unique process of technology transfer and licensing; Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure (DCAL); initiated Ulster Community Investment Trust, now known as Community Finance Ireland.

In 1982 he and Sr Mary Turley went to the USA and with help from Irish America the Flax Trust / America was born. (a 501 (c) 3).

His vision for a better social and economic future for the local area had Myles founding Flax Trust Housing Association to provide high standard housing in an area which was over crowded and living in pre and post war housing.  As Chairman of FHA he oversaw the building of sheltered accommodation for the elderly 1995 and 1998 accommodation for homeless youth with training and life skills as part of this project (Foyer). 

The School of Social Enterprises in Ireland (2005) Flax Trust/Ulster University alliance continues to be devoted exclusively to leadership, management and business development for the social economy sector.

2013 the Flax Trust Arts project was set up (FISCA) providing opportunities for all schools in North Belfast from both sides of the divide to compete for music bursaries in a Christmas Concert in Belfast City Hall.  Many concerts were performed in Holy Cross Church, North Belfast and several musical shows with the proceeds going to nominated charities.

Under his guidance The Flax Trust continues to change lives in North Belfast.