Education professor Karen Eifler, co-director of the Garaventa Center, has received a 2015 Spirit of Holy Cross Award. The award is given annually to lay collaborators of the Congregation of Holy Cross, United States Province of Priests and Brothers, and recognizes lay collaborators who devotedly work to make Blessed Basil Moreau’s vision and mission to “make God known, loved, and served” a reality at the Congregation’s education, parish and mission apostolates.
Eifler is widely published in her field and has earned several academic awards in recent years, including the first national Collegium Visionary Award in 2014, the Culligan Medal for Faculty Service in 2014, and the Deans’ Award for Faculty Leadership and Outstanding Teaching in 2000. Eifler joins fellow award winners Susan Simmonds, executive assistant, Provincial Office in South Bend, Ind.; Scott Malpass, vice president and chief investment officer, University of Notre Dame; Robert Ell, first director of alumni relations at King’s College; Jim and Louise Kenneally of Stonehill College; and Linda Jones, business manager, Holy Cross Parish, South Bend, Ind.
The Holy Cross community at University of Portland will formally honor Eifler at a Mass and a dinner in January 2016 as part of the celebrations of Blessed Moreau’s life (Father Moreau died on January 20, 1873 in Le Mans, France). Honorees will receive a proclamation of gratitude signed by Provincial Superior Fr. Tom O’Hara on behalf of the entire U.S. Province.