Karen Cunningham led a successful career in marketing and brand management, primarily in the consumer packaged goods and foodservice industries. She worked for Pet, Inc. and The Pillsbury Company in progressive brand management roles for various grocery and frozen brands, including Häagen-Dazs ice cream and novelties. Most recently, she led product development, marketing and creative strategy, creative development and execution, and menu development and engineering for Steak n Shake Enterprises, Inc. Ms. Cunningham serves on the board of Paws & Think, a dog therapy organization, and she and her dog Archie, work as a therapy team. She earned a B.S. in business administration from the University of Kansas and an M.B.A. in marketing from Indiana University.

Cathy David is a lifelong student of leadership and organizational behavior. A longtime retail executive, she recently retired as the executive vice president of merchandising at Pier 1 Imports. She has also been president of multiple companies. In addition, she led the team that launched target.com, owned a restaurant, co-founded a social and sports league, and raised and raced thoroughbred horses. Ms. David, who was featured in Fort Worth Business CEO Magazine, is the chair of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce International Committee, a member of the Advisory Council for the Undergraduate Experience at Notre Dame, and a regent at the University of Portland. She received her B.B.A. in marketing from the University of Notre Dame and her M.B.A. from Northwestern University. 

Gloria Fleming led a successful career in pediatric physical therapy for 42 years. She held senior positions in several general and children's hospitals in the Philadelphia and South Jersey areas. Ms. Fleming was also an independent contractor for several public and private school districts, in addition to providing pediatric home care for 10 years. She is entering her 10th year as a host committee member for The Cooper Foundation, which sponsors an annual fundraiser for breast and gynecological cancers. She is also actively involved in a minority faith-based cancer support group sponsored by MD Anderson at Cooper. Ms. Fleming earned a B.A. in biology from Immaculata College, a Physical Therapy Certificate from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Master of Science in Administration from the University of Notre Dame.

From her early days on a family farm in Minnesota, Patricia Lefevere always held an interest in the wider world, a passion that has served her well as a globe-trotting journalist who has traveled to some 70 countries and reported stories from six continents, covering everything from the United Nations and the Vatican to the plight of refugees in war-torn regions and the everyday workings of local government offices. Her award-winning work has appeared in multiple publications in the United States, Europe and Asia. Ms. Lefevere has enjoyed opportunities to meet and interview several Nobel Peace Prize laureates and to lecture at a number of universities. She earned her B.A. in journalism and political science from Marquette University and her Masters in Drama from the United Kingdom's University of Essex, Colchester. 

Eileen Lindburg was a co-owner of CBRE-Albany, the largest commercial real estate brokerage firm in the Albany, New York region, and its first female broker. Throughout her career, she assisted small businesses and international corporations in their site selection, lease negotiations, acquisitions, and disposition of the properties used for their businesses. Ms. Lindburg's background prior to real estate included working in commercial lending for Marine Midland Bank, serving as chief financial officer for a family construction business, and working in corporate finance for the Wall Street firm Salomon Brothers. Her community and non-profit service work included stints with Equinox, The Nature Conservancy of Eastern New York, the Albany Academy for Girls, Tech Valley High School, and the regional chamber of commerce. She earned her B.A. in sociology from Saint Mary's College in Notre Dame, IN, and an M.B.A. from the University of Rochester.

Bill Miller worked in financial management in the food industry for Cargill, Incorporated, General Foods Corporation, and Oscar Mayer and Co. He began his career with Arthur Andersen & Co. in Minneapolis and completed it as a CPA in private practice. Mr. Miller's passion for fighting food insecurity led him to serve on the boards of food banks in Wichita, Minneapolis, and St. Paul. In addition, he taught in a Minneapolis church's HopeMakers program and co-founded Pathways, a program that helps people living in economic poverty develop faith-based life skills. Mr. Miller and his wife, Ann, have four children and eleven grandchildren, and he enjoys an active lifestyle that includes teaching spin classes. He earned his B.A. in economics from the University of Notre Dame and an M.B.A. from the University of Michigan.

Juliana Otieno grew up on a Kenyan sugarcane farm, traveling eight miles to attend school as a child. Her passion for education ultimately led her to earn a medical degree from the University of Nairobi before embarking on an accomplished three-decade career in public health, one that challenged her to work as the only pediatrician in an area and to serve as chief executive officer of Western Kenya's largest public teaching and referral hospital. Dr. Otieno worked with colleagues to obtain a grant to enable them to open the first public HIV clinic at the hospital in Kisumu, Kenya and tackle an urgent public health crisis. Despite her busy schedule, Dr. Otieno continued to teach and mentor students throughout her career before retiring in 2018. 

Charly Pine and his wife, Jodie, set out as a young couple to live in China as agents of transformation. More than 20 years later, they returned to the United States realizing how deeply they had been changed by their cross-cultural experiences. Mr. Pine’s commitment to learning and honoring the Chinese language and culture opened doors for him as he pursued a career in higher education, and he was a founding director of the New Century Language and Culture Center. He and his family later moved to China's Gansu Province, where he conducted advanced ethnographic research among Muslim ethnic minorities, an experience that inspired him to serve as an interfaith peacemaker. Mr. Pine earned his B.A. from the University of Missouri and his M.A. in Chinese language and culture from the University of Kansas.

Born in Cuba and educated in the United States, Orlando Rodriguez enjoyed a 30-year career in international commercial banking that took him across Latin America. He pursued multiple businesses, lived in Panama City and Caracas, and travelled extensively, especially in Brazil. Mr. Rodriguez most recently worked in a corporate finance boutique that provides advisory services to small-to-medium businesses. For the past decade, he has participated in Kairos Prison Ministry International. In addition, he had translated and annotated his father's autobiography, written 24 short stories and a three-act play, is developing a historical fiction novel, and enjoys competitive ballroom dancing. Mr. Rodriguez earned a B.A. in economics from the University of Notre Dame and an M.A. in economics from Stanford University.

William Schenher has enjoyed a distinguished career in banking and corporate treasury. After beginning with residential construction lending at Banc One in the Midwest, he relocated to Silicon Valley, where he worked in various roles in corporate treasury. He rose through the ranks of various companies, including Hewlett-Packard, Brocade, and Fujitsu America, before ultimately building and leading his own treasury departments. Mr. Schenher helped manage the HP-Compaq integration and guide treasuries through the economic turmoil of 2001 and 2008. After 20 years in corporate treasury, he returned to Indiana to focus on family and turn his attentions to his local community center, where he enjoys working to enrich the experiences of the adaptive members of the community. Mr. Schenher received his B.A. in government and economics from the University of Notre Dame and his M.B.A. from Purdue University.

ARA PARSEGHIAN MEDICAL RESEARCH FUND

As throngs of fans pour into Notre Dame Stadium this fall, many will notice a statue honoring legendary football coach Ara Parseghian. At Ara’s request, it portrays him being lifted by three of his players. This statue stands as tribute to a man who lived the Notre Dame mission, and it’s not the only way the University, and the Notre Dame family, continue to honor Ara and lift him up. So many people know about Ara’s battles on the football field, but it’s his and his family’s battle off the field that is still being fought.

Ara’s son Mike met the love of his life Cindy during their days as students at Notre Dame. The two would build a wonderful life together, complete with successful careers and four beautiful children: Ara, Michael, Marcia, and Christa. Cindy, who is now on Notre Dame’s Board of Trustees, will tell you that she thought she was the luckiest woman on the planet. But things began to unravel as they watched Michael grow. He couldn’t look you in the eye. He wasn’t keeping up with the other kids on the playground. He wasn’t thriving physically. After two years of seeking out specialist after specialist, visiting hospital after hospital, and losing night after night of sleep, they finally had a diagnosis, and it was even worse than they could have imagined. Michael had Niemann-Pick Type C (NPC), a disease that slowly debilitates children—physically and mentally—and is always fatal. They tested the other children. In another devastating blow, Marcia and Christa also had NPC disease.

Cindy and Mike were reeling, but they sprang into action. They needed to raise money for research, as very little was known about NPC, and there was no treatment or cure. Together with Mike’s Dad Ara, they created a medical foundation, and they had a dream team for this effort: Mike, a physician, could build a medical board. Cindy, with business acumen, could run the operations, and Ara, a Notre Dame legend, could rally support.

In time, the Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation would launch an annual scientific conference, isolate the gene that causes NPC, and move the dial in research—with Notre Dame professors contributing. But NPC was relentless. Michael died in 1997. Christa died in 2001. And Marcia died in 2005.

The focus shifted. The Parseghian family continued to fight, no longer for the lives of their children and grandchildren, but in honor of them. The University of Notre Dame became even more involved, driven to support this family and mission-driven to support rare disease research.

“Our journey has been one of pain, but there has also been joy,” Cindy says. “We have suffered the agony of losing our children to an insidious, horrible disease, but they remain in our hearts forever. And we—and all NPC families—have had our moments of hopelessness and helplessness, but those times are soothed by the love and support of so many caring people.”

In 2016, to ensure a lasting and vibrant future, the foundation officially merged with the University, establishing the Ara Parseghian Medical Research Fund at Notre Dame. Sean Kassen was named director.

“When parents receive the heartbreaking NPC diagnosis,” he says, “they are doing a lot of internet searches and grasping for hope, and often that leads to them calling us. We are compelled to tell them that we sincerely wish we didn’t know them, but now that we do, they can be assured they have one monster of a support system in the Parseghians and the Notre Dame family. We are honored to tell them about the motivated researchers working around the clock on their behalf, and when we get off the phone, they have that spark of hope. And that’s thanks to the army of APMRF supporters.”

There is still no cure for NPC, but there are treatments in clinical trials that look encouraging, and steps are being taken to screen newborns for the disease—an effort that could spare families years of searching for answers and also give NPC children a chance to be treated earlier.

And each year, some new families admire Ara’s statue—families who come to campus as Notre Dame fans, not because of football, and not because they are alumni, but because they are fighting NPC, and they are so grateful to have Notre Dame in their corner.