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Success Stories

Michael Buckley '97

After graduating from Salve Regina, Buckley joined the New York field office of the United States Park Police, where his assignments included undercover drug enforcement, the protection of politicians and crowd/riot control. In 2002, he became a special agent with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Buckley has wide-ranging duties with the department. He investigates international narcotics traffickers and money launderers and is tasked with responding to natural disasters or terrorist incidents both at home and abroad.

Shelley Byron '09

After receiving her bachelor's degree in European history, Byron enrolled in the University of Pittsburgh's graduate program in library and information science, with a specialization in archives and preservation. As part of her education, she was employed at the Archives Service Center, the repository for the university's archival holdings. While there, Byron gained experience processing collections on the Red Scare and McCarthyism related to Pennsylvania, environmentalism in Pennsylvania and Pennsylvania political figures. She received her master's degree in August 2010.

Mario DiNitto '02

While at Salve Regina, DiNitto received several academic awards, including the Pell Medal for Excellence in U.S. History. Since 2004, he has worked in Boston for Brown Brothers Harriman, a private banking firm, and is currently an associate within trade management. DiNitto oversees a team that is dedicated to supporting three clients in an operational capacity. In his spare time, he reads as much history as he can, and is presently in the process of reading biographies of the American presidents in sequential order.

Michael Farley '93

A 1998 graduate of the University of Connecticut Law School, Farley operates his own legal practice on Bellevue Avenue in Newport. He also runs the Blackwell Group, which handles fraud investigations for a number of Fortune 500 companies. Farley has been an active supporter of Salve Regina in the years since his graduation. He coached the rugby team for two years and has served as an adjunct instructor for the Business Department. Farley is presently campaigning for a seat on the Newport City Council.

Amanda Goodheart '08

Goodheart received her master's degree in American history with a concentration in public history from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in May 2010. While in the program, she presented a paper titled "'Oh what munths they have ben to me': Testing the Boundaries of the Sphere at Sea, 1840-1860" at a regional maritime humanities conference. A continuation of Goodheart's senior thesis, the paper focused on antebellum New England whaling captains' wives and their experiences at sea. She received a fellowship for doctoral study at UMass Amherst and began the program in September 2010.

Jonathan Turrisi '05

Since graduating from Salve Regina, Turrisi has been teaching eighth grade social studies at Pierce Middle School in Milton, Mass. In addition, he coaches varsity football and freshman basketball at Milton High School. Turrisi received his master's degree in education from Framingham State College in 2008 and is presently working on a master's degree in educational leadership from the same institution. In 2009 he had the opportunity to teach in China for two weeks, offering lessons on global trade to eighth graders. Turrisi plans to do a similar study tour in India next summer.

Katheryn LaPorte Viens '84

Viens received her master's degree in history from Northeastern University, where she was an editorial assistant for The New England Quarterly and earned a certificate in historical agencies administration. She is a former assistant editor of the Massachusetts Historical Society and was the director of the Old Colony Historical Society in Taunton, Mass. After serving as executive director of the New England Museum Association, Viens returned to the Massachusetts Historical Society as research coordinator. She is co-editor, with Conrad Edick Wright, of "Entrepreneurs: The Boston Business Community, 1700-1850" and a forthcoming volume of essays on the transcendentalist Margaret Fuller.