Department of French and Italian

Michael O’Donnell, M.A. ’68 (French) recently celebrated 50 years of teaching at the University of Virginia’s College at Wise. He published his third memoir, An Odyssey: 50 Years of World Travel, in 2018. His main job at UVa-Wise is as professor of French, but he has also held many administrative posts throughout the years, including Director of Admissions and Athletics Director.

Elizabeth A. “Beth” Melix-Stanciu, B.A. ’95 (French), writes that she thought she would be a professor one day, but after a rather unexpected career path—via non-profit administration and accounting in Minnesota and then Cambodia—she landed in Portland, Ore., as the international finance manager for Mercy Corps, an international humanitarian agency working in 40 countries. Since six of those countries are francophone—the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, Niger, Mali, Tunisia, and Haiti—she has had numerous trips to places she never expected to visit and frequent occasions to use the French language. She also makes her way back to Strasbourg, where she studied abroad in 1992–93 under the tutelage of Professor Emeritus Samuel N. Rosenberg, every few years to see friends and walk along the quai beneath the window of “la 254,” her room in La Gallia dormitory.

Lisanne V. Jensen, B.A. ’97 (Journalism, French), serves as the coordinator of faith formation and youth Ministry at the Church of St. Joseph (Stottville/Stuyvesant Falls, N.Y.) and as the coordinator of secondary faith formation and youth ministry at St. James Parish (Chatham, N.Y.). She also writes for Catechist magazine, a national publication serving catechists and catechetical leaders in parish religious education and formation programs and religion teachers in Catholic schools.

New York City-based performer Adrienne S. Howard, B.A. ’07 (Ballet, French), began her career with the Boston Celtics Dancers and is a former member of the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes. More recently, she toured the country in a production of the Tony Award-winning musical, Memphis, and received a 2016 Astaire Award for Outstanding Ensemble in a Broadway Show for Shuffle Along. She appeared in Disney’s Aladdin at the Hollywood (Calif.) Pantages Theatre from Jan.–Mar. 2018, and has been part of the musical’s North American Broadway touring company for the past two years.

A financial reporter with The Washington Post since 2014, Danielle H. Paquette, B.A. ’12 (Journalism, French) has been named West Africa bureau chief, a new role created as part of The Post’s international expansion. She will be based in Dakar, Senegal, a jumping-off place for coverage of Nigeria and more than a dozen other countries across one of the world’s fastest-growing and most volatile regions. Before joining The Post, Paquette was a reporter at the Tampa Bay Times and a freelance writer in Los Angeles.

Paola Marrero-Hernandez, M.A. ’14 (Italian), taught Italian for two years at the University of Puerto Rico and has been on the faculty of Marywood University in Scranton, Penn. since January 2019, teaching Italian and Spanish. At Marywood, she is in charge of El Cafecito, the Spanish conversation hour. This summer she is co-leading a one month academic trip in Siena, Italy for students of the University of Puerto Rico.