Siena College Administration
Fr.Kevin
J.Mullen, O.F.M. - President
The Rev. Kevin
J.Mullen, O.F.M., Siena College Class of 1975,was appointed the 10th President of the College on June 1, 2007.
Fr. Kevin directed the Franciscan Center for Service and Advocacy since 2005, taught a seminar in Franciscan service and Siena’s Foundations course for first-year students and was also a guardian (supervisor) of
the Franciscan friary at the College.
He was previously a member of the Board of Trustees of Siena College from 1987-1996, and from 1999-2005.
Siena has had a profound influence on the greater part of this alumnus’s adult life. He is happy to be able to give back his skills and energy to the academic community that introduced him to the liberal arts and helped to shape his outlook and perspective.
Fr. Kevin was born in Paterson, N.J., “the cradle of Holy Name Province” where the largest group of Franciscan Friars Minor in the country had its program for novices. St. Bonaventure Church, just a few blocks from home, introduced Franciscan themes into the grammar school curriculum. Fr. Kevin’s family also nurtured his Franciscan spirit throughout his early life.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in history at Siena College in 1975. Why history? “It unfolds the story of humanity: how human beings have behaved, and misbehaved. It’s an essential facet of under- standing who we are. Look at World War II, the Civil War, etc.”
Why Siena College? “The Franciscan formation, the people, and the facilities: which were tremendous for the time. We took pride in the Siena campus.”
He remembers several formative Siena people: outstanding professors and lecturers who opened him to the writings of St. Bonaventure and the Franciscan sources. From administrators to advisors to Mrs. V in the dining hall, Siena people became family.
He also extended himself in volunteer service, teaching religious education at St. Pius X parish in Loudonville, and helping people at nursing homes.
A month after graduation, Fr. Kevin was received as a member of the Order of Friars Minor. Four years later, he made his solemn profession of vows in 1979, and was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1980. He received hisMaster’s of Divinity degree fromWashington Theological Union (during those studies he also did supervised ministry in adult education and hospital chaplaincy), and a Ph.D., in theology from The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. (where his interest in medical ethics grew, and where he continued to hone his pastoral heart).
Fr. Kevin’s administrative and leadership experience includes serving as Rector/Guardian of St. Anthony Shrine in Boston, Mass., from 1990-1999. The popular downtown church offers numerous pastoral,
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liturgical, and educational programs. Fr. Kevin also chaired the Board of Directors of St. Francis House, hailed by Boston’s church and business leaders and residents as amodel formultifaceted outreach helping the homeless andmarginalized. In addition, he served on the Board of Directors of Franciscan Children’s Hospital from1997-1999, and was on the steering committee for the Interfaith Clergy Breakfast.
Concurrently, Fr. Kevin served on the Provincial Council of the Franciscans of Holy Name Province, and as director of finance for the Province. From 1990-1993 he was also a member of the Board of Trustees of Christ the King Seminary in East Aurora, N.Y.
In 1999, Fr. Kevin was appointed Pastor/Guardian of St. Leo’s Church in Elmwood Park, N.J., where he served until his Siena College appointments in 2005.
Fr. Kevin taught full-time at Christ the King Seminary from 1987-1990, and concurrently was a member of the Ethics Committee of Sisters’ Hospital in Buffalo, N.Y. He also taught at various times at Pope John XXIII National Seminary in Weston, Mass., Weston School of Theology in Cambridge, Mass., Emmanuel College in Boston, Mass., Felician College in Lodi, N.J., The Franciscan Institute at St. Bonaventure University, Olean, N.Y., and The Washington Theological Union in Silver Spring, Md.
Since his return to the Siena College campus in 2005, he has added part-time chaplaincy at a state correctional facility to his life as a friar.
He describes his Franciscan experience of community not in terms of dramatic events as much as in everyday encounters when you connect and are glad of who you are and feel you have something to offer: “For example, when you’re working with the poor. In terms of education, when you’re opening people up to information and thoughts.When we’re aware of that, we know: ’This is where I belong.’”
During a forum with Siena community members, Fr. Kevin spoke about his ethos, which he outlined as respect for the human person, relationships (“not only one-to-one, but communal”), justice and respect, and being good stewards of God’s creation. And, he added, “finding what education, busi- ness, etc., can bring to that.”
Fr. Kevin looks forward to reflecting together with the Siena community “upon how we may further our communal commitment to the values that support the Franciscan and Catholic traditions of a liberal arts education.” He sees Franciscan Insight courses – wherein Siena faculty and students apply what they learn about St. Francis to service tasks in their chosen profession – as an important way to develop that commitment.
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